The latest Click Fraud Index is released this week and shows that pay per click advertisers have not been subjected to higher levels of click fraud in the second quarter of the year. Read More

Compiled by traffic analysis firm, Click Forensics Inc, the quarterly report on pay per click fraud levels brings together data from more than 4000 online sources. The figures for the period April-June 2008 record a drop of 0.1% compared with the rate of fraudulent clicks recorded in the first quarter of the year. In comparison with click fraud monitored in the same period last year, fraudulent clicks were found to have grown by 0.4%.

One of the biggest surprises of the report is the growth spurt showed by fraud originating from botnets. The botnets accounted for a quarter of all click fraud on pay per click adverts in Q2, the highest levels yet recorded for the automated fraudsters.

The main points to take away from this latest round of figures is the need to be vigilant against botnet fraud. Although click fraud overall hasn’t grown, the sophistication levels of perpetrating the cyber crime have. Interestingly, China was traced as the originator of 4.3% of click fraud for the quarter, followed by Russia and France.