A Proposal to Prevent Click-Fraud Using Clickable CAPTCHAs

Abstract

Advertising on the Internet is a key factor for the success of several businesses nowadays. The Internet has evolved to a point where it has become possible to develop a business model completely based on Web advertising, which is important for the consolidation of such a model and the continuity of the Internet itself. However, it is often observed that some content publishers are dishonest and employ automated tools to generate traffic and profit by defrauding advertisers. Similarly, some advertisers use automated tools to click on the ads of their competitors, aiming to exhaust the budget of the competitor's marketing departments. In this paper, differently of recent click fraud detection mechanisms, that take place after the fraud has already occurred, we propose an approach for preventing automated click-fraud, based on the use of click able CAPTCHAs.