There are mainly two types of click fraud: search engine click fraud and publisher click fraud. Search engine click fraud includes by raising a competitor’s marketing cost artificially to remove them from the listings. Second one is the publisher click fraud which includes raising a publisher’s income artificially from Adsense. According to business week (2006), 10% to 15% estimated ad clicks are not real which represents about $1 billion in annual billings.

Businesses are concerned about growing number of click fraud however, they have no complain towards Google or yahoo web pages on which their ads appear. The concern is when to boost profits these internet giants use recycling ads to millions of other sites from dummy web addresses. If someone clicks on these ads marketers like xyz company get billed even it comes from the audience which is not the business target audience.

Hence, the internet giants share the revenue from the website hosts and operators. It is noticed that Google and Yahoo gain profit through this passive click fraud.

Furthermore, these internet giants are taking the market share from traditional print and broadcast outlets by showcasing that clicks are reliable and easy to measure which traditional media can’t offer. There are now strict laws being imposed on such situations of click fraud on internet. In USA, a cybercrime unit assigned two analysts to check whether federal laws are being violated.

Internet giants like Google and Yahoo mentioned that there is no reason for not investing in search advertising since they use sophisticated algorithms and intelligence from advertisers to combat fake clicks. However, they would not disclose their methods for doing so since it could make it vulnerable and exploiters can get easy access of it.

PTR is known as paid to read in the search advertising world. These sites are for members who agree to read websites and emails according to their area of concern, in reality. However, the click fraud rings starts from there. About hundred of participants paid to click ads in reality. Google and Yahoo offers filter for these PTR activities. According to Google’s Ghosemajumder, it is not an issue across their network but it is an area of significant concern across the internet advertising. On the other hand Yahoo offers scanning of network of PTR activity to overcome these issues but do not want to disclose its methods.