Google Facing Class Action Lawsuit on Click Fraud

By Angsuman Chakraborty, Gaea News Network
Sunday, December 11, 2005

Google, Inc. has been sued by AIT, a “two-time” INC 500 Company, who has advertised with Google for years, as the representative plaintiff in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

The suit is based on fraudulent clicks and Google’s refusal to take steps against it even though the company is well aware of the practice and allegedly capable of preventing it. The suit is seeking for class action status.

“Google is able to block spamming efforts from its own Google Gmail service and should do the same to protect its pay-per-click advertising clients. However, Google chooses to do nothing because substantive action would both invalidate the current paid search model and because a lot of people are making a lot of money from this,” said Clarence Briggs, AIT’s Chief Executive Officer.

Source: AIT Files Lawsuit Against Google for Breach of Contract and Unfair Business Practices; Seeks Class Action Status

This is the most ridiculous statement I have heard in a long time. Blocking email spam is totally unrelated (w.r.t. technology and problem domain) to blocking click-fraud. Blocking email spam is thousand times more easier than blocking click-fraud.

The primary problem lies in the way Google AdSense now admits anyone in its program. However even being choosy is not a guarantee that click-fraud will not happen. Publishers can always bait-and-switch. It will however significantly reduce the number of fly-by-night operators.

There are several things Google can do to reduce the click-fraud. However I don’t think it can fully eliminate the problem with the current state of technology.

Discussion
May 27, 2010: 4:29 pm

I had got a dream to start my own business, however I did not have got enough of money to do that. Thank God my friend proposed to take the credit loans. Therefore I received the auto loan and made real my desire.

June 5, 2006: 12:58 pm

This is interesting because I’m using Yahoo! mail service and they do not delete scams from anyone’s mailbox.

There is no reason not to do that, and yet they just let it be. I suppose they think that could be in invasion of privacy.

I think that the large ISPs could be taken to court for leaving fraudulent emails in people’s mailboxes. After all, many users could lose their money using their free services.

And I know what it takes to remove scam emails from a mail box: no much at all.

I’m not worried for myself since I’m very cautious, but many people do get caught! And we could save the western world a few bucks… we already did donate a lot to Africa if my memory is good… (in reference to the Nigeria 419 Scam — but look closely, the whole Earth is doing it now!)

January 17, 2006: 8:51 am

AIT should not be throwing rocks at Google as they themselves live in a glass house. Just take a look at all the unhappy AIT customers here: https://www.aitsucks.com. Also, their CEO Clarence Briggs is being sued for posting someone’s SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER on a web site that AIT owns!!! Talk about unscrupulous!

December 12, 2005: 2:19 am

[...] Angsuman learns that a lawsuit has been filed against Google for click-fraud. [...]

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