BusinessWeek runs a story about click fraud, highlighting different schemes and problems related to the pay-per-click advertising industry.

While certainly the issues around clickfraud are more complex than what could be written on a single article, nevertheless it still gives an interesting perspective on how easy it actually is to get fraud the system.

A 23-year-old son of computer technician owns about 20 paid-to-read sites, as well as 200 parked sites stuffed with Google and Yahoo advertisements. He claims to take in $70,000 in ad revenue a month, of which 10% of that comes from PTRs.

The problem with PTR groups is that they urge members to click agressively on ads. People don’t click because they are interested in the subject. They are clicking on ads to get paid.

A typical web user could just purchase a cheap domain, get a lousy web page with lots of ads and join the group to earn revenue. Too easy.

It is no longer about the validity of the click alone. Advertisers should now start to really control where their ads should appear. Not only for branding purpose but also quality of clicks.

The article says that an Atlanta company notice puzzling clicks coming from places such as Botswana, Mongolia and Syria. Claiming to spend a total of $2 million in advertising fees with Google and Yahoo, I am sure he knows about geographical targeting.

[BusinessWeek Online]