AdSense Clickbots On The Rage?

Panda Software reported that it has discovered a clickbot network used to create fake-clicks targetted at pay-per-click advertisements. The computes infected by Clickbot.A are connected to a number of webservers. Owner of the botnet can then monitor and control the botnet from there, including the page URL, number of clicks, etc.

?PandaLabs has detected a network of computers infected with the bot Clickbot.A, which is being used to defraud ?pay per click? systems, registering clicks automatically and providing lucrative returns for the creators. According to the data collected so far, the scam is exploiting a global network comprising more than 34,000 zombie computers (those infected by the bot).?

Commenting on the story, Publishing2 did an interesting (albeit exaggerated) calculation to predict the extent of the damage.

10 clicks/day X $1/click X 34,000 computers X 365 days = $124M annual fraud
100 clicks/day X $1/click X 34,000 computers X 365 days = $1.2B annual fraud
100 clicks/day X $5/click X 34,000 computers X 365 days = $6.2B annual fraud

Now, someone smart enough to create a botnet of 34000 computers will not run all at the same day. Probably only about 1% or 340 of the clickbot is running at any one day. 10 clicks a day? Probably. But 100 clicks/day is a tad too much. Coupled with an almost non-existant conversion rate, 100 clicks a day will raise too much red flags.

With Google’s smart pricing, the cost per click will drop to a low figure, probably less than 10 cents/click.

So, what we get here?

10 clicks/day X 10 cents/click X 340 computers X 365 days = $125 K annual fraud; just peanuts compared with Google’s multi billion dollar revenue.