Tracking user sessions as a weapon against Click Fraud
Microsoft has released a study that details how tracking an entire user session helps to explain the intent of searchers by looking at what they do before and after they search - and this will also reveal when a search engine click through is fraudulent.
I reviewed the PDF study created by Microsoft Research and found this chart (below) very meaningful.
Much of the ability to know if behavior is click fraud is achieved by comparing the behavior through a session with average behavior.
Here’s the PDF link, in case anyone is interested in reading the entire Microsoft Research Paper on Click Fraud. I found this information via MarketingShift.
When a person, an automated script or a software application imitates a real user of a browser clicking on an ad in order to generate a false click. A man from California claimed that he had a computer program that could defraud Google out of millions of dollars by fraudulent clicks. While he tried to blackmail Google he was arrested. This type of fraud is a delinquency mentioned in Penal code 502 in California and in the Computer Misuse act 1990 in UK.