Ask.com Being Sued For Failing to Prevent Click Fraud!
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For Those Unfamiliar with Click Fraud
Click fraud is a malicious action on the part of a 3rd party or competitor, where they themselves, or people they pay, click a given ad to run up the cost, and use up their advertising budget. It’s not nice.
The Story
I saw this in my junk e-mail box, and just about crapped myself. Ask.com is apparently being sued in a class action law suit for failing to stop click fraud!?
Subject: Click Charge Settlement
Legal Notice:
If you purchased online advertising from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. (collectively “Ask”) between August 1, 2005 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. Ask Jeeves, Inc. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice advises you of your legal rights.
You should review the detailed Settlement Notice as soon as possible, as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with a proposed settlement of the class action lawsuit. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice.
The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court’s certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.
The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of “click fraud” or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. on or after August 1, 2005.
The proposed settlement will resolve claims that IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop “click fraud” or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.
If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.
For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at www.AskSettlement.com.
To file a claim for your award of advertising credits under the settlement, click on the following link: AskSettlement.com/claim. Each advertiser will be allowed one claim per account.
Ok. So this is news in 2 ways. First of all, Ask.com had enough advertisers to FORM a class action law suit.
Secondly, really? Are we allowed to SUE for click fraud that was not perpetrated by the company itself? They apparently think so, take a look at this part of the settlement notice PDF:
The settlement will resolve claims that IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc.
breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by allegedly failing to
adequately detect and stop “click fraud” or other invalid or improper clicks on online
advertisements.
I’ve said before that Ask.com was not paying enough attention to their advertising program, and it seems that I was right. Of course, no details are given so that we can tell exactly what measures they do/do not have in place for stopping click fraud.
Seriously guys? How much could you possibly have been paying for your ask.com clicks? I personally will not be participating in bringing down a company that recently made incredible improvements, and shows promise as being a real option to destroy the current semi-monopoly Google seems to have.
Ugh. Thoughts are welcome.
-XMCP
PS: Reminder, 2 days left for the 30 free days of wordze deal! It ends Monday.
January 12th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
It’s sort of like someone who lost money betting on a horserace, and sues the owner of the horse because his jockey didn’t use the whip enough. If you willing to risk your money to make more money…you better be ready to lose it by however money can get lost in that situation.
I have a side question…as this is my first comment and I think you might be able to answer it.
Do you know any auto bookmarking apps or scripts for the pligg social cms? I like the trackback feature when posting and would like to work more pligg sites into my bookmarking mix.
I enjoyed the post on akismet…which sort of gave me the idea. Also, are there any alternatives similar to akismet that aren’t as harsh on the trackbacks?
Thanks for the good advice.
January 12th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
That’s a good analogy.
Beyond that though, nah. I haven’t done much studying into pligg. I’m sure there’s a central database out there somewhere.
As for akismet, not sure yet. I’m going to be trying a few different pieces of software out over the next week or two, and I’ll be sure to report how it goes
January 12th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I only hope that the “powers that be” understand that there’s more money in it for them if we monopolize the traffic…rather than the ones’ they’re hoping to sell advertising to.
10 to 15 years ago…when they were going hat in hand to the corporations asking…”please give us money”, they were getting shat on and were told you’ll get what we give you. Essentially the main reason for the whole “dot bomb” enigma.
Then there was Overture…and Googs ran with it. Only then did they understand the reality…he who owns the traffic…makes the rules…and has the gold.
Wait. There was a reason to this rant. Oh yeah. Read everything on this blog…and if you understand what he’s talking about…grab both of em and dive in…if not…then continue reading the rest. It’ll teach you what you need to know to survive and thrive…as a white hat.
January 13th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Just classic… now off to click my competitors ads….
January 13th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
talk about click fraud…take a look at Miva, Kanoodle…I cant say this for sure but I’ve seen weird activity for being 2nd tier engines when I put some client campaigns in there.
January 14th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Why do I feel like a competitor is probably behind this. One with no morals and the intent to grab more market share….I’m thinking Microsoft. This is something they would do.
January 14th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Nah, Microsoft won’t be behind it - it’ll just be one of “Lane’s Gifts” competitors. No idea how it’s escalated so highly, just others jumping on the bandwagon I suppose. I don’t think you can realistically hold Ask to blame to such a high extent, but I disagree with James on this a bit. A better analogy is playing poker with PartyPoker or someone, and discovering that people have found a way to cheat on it due to a fault in the software. Does that make sense?
Your blog is absolutely awesome by the way.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
[…] fraud’ or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.”
January 15th, 2008 at 3:35 am
[…] fraud’ or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.” According to SlightlyShadySEO, a notification went out via e-mail informing advertisers of the lawsuit and a website has been set […]
January 17th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I’m with you…. I won’t participate in this class-action lawsuit against Ask.com. Yes, click fraud is a problem, few will dispute that (except maybe the Search Engine who benefit from it), but suing this company isn’t necessarily going to solve the problem either. I received the class action info via snail-mail and I have opted-out, thank you very much.
On another note, I had subscribed to your RSS feed a while back and have only scanned your articles for the past few months. But today I decided to spend more time catching up on my SEO-based RSS feeds… and most of my time has been spent right here on your site. Great work! I appreciate your efforts very much and have now decided to become an avid reader of your posts from here on out.
Thanx!
June 14th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
“It’s sort of like someone who lost money betting on a horse race, and sues the owner of the horse because his jockey didn’t use the whip enough.”
Sorry but I can’t accept that analogy. Why? Ask.com shares in the revenue generated by the alleged click fraud. The have an incentive to turn a blind eye so it is likely more than pure negligence. That said, I hope ask.com turns the corner as I too desire an alternative to google.