Some of you may recall receiving a promotion we ran earlier in 2006 in which we predicted a rise in click fraud for the latter part of 2006.

Seems we were right.

In an article appearing on Bizreport.com, Kristina Knight writes that the latest research indicates that click fraud reached 14.2% in the fourth quarter of 2006. In the promo we sent out, we had predicted that click fraud would rise during the busy Christmas buying season, hand-in-hand with increased Christmas purchases, and searches, online.

Not that the 14.2% figure isn't undisputed. As the article notes, Google engineers believe there are fundamental flaws in reports of increases in click fraud.

Regardless of the actual percentage of clicks that are fraudulent, click fraud at any level should be unacceptable, but it continues to be an issue that Google doesn't want to address head-on.

Unfortunately, there are no real defenses against click fraud. the only real protection is to use click fraud detection software to first-- detect it, second-- document it, and third-- file a claim with whichever search engine the fraud took place on.

And if you are looking for an excellent click fraud detection and reporting system, might I recommend Zunch's own, Click Fraud Detective? It's a proven system that can be used to detect, document and report click fraud. In addition to its reliability, it's also very affordable, especially when you consider it will help you recover ad dollars that have otherwise, gone to waste.