Click fraud is an illegal practice that occurs when individuals click on Web site
click through advertisements (either
banner ads or paid text links) to increase the payable number of click throughs to the advertiser. The illegal clicks could either be performed by having a person manually click the advertising
hyperlinks or by using automated
software or
Online bots that are programmed to click these banner ads and pay per click text ad links. Research has indicated that click fraud is perpetrated by individuals who use click fraud to increase their own personal banner ad revenues and also by companies who use click fraud as a way to deplete a competitor's advertising budget.
See "How
Affiliate Marketing Works" in the "Did
You Know..." section of Webopedia.
Also see Refer-It.com, a directory of
referral & affiliate programs for e-commerce, featuring information on over 6,500
affiliate programs.