May 24
Fraud on the secondary market of domain names (part 2 - parking)
As promised, here is the second part of my topo Fraud of all kinds affecting the secondary market for domain names. After a first post on those related to the purchase and sale, the parking pass. Again, there's plenty to do and most importantly - we shall see - the stakes go well beyond the secondary market.
Roughly speaking, the techniques of fraud listed in the segment of the car are key indicators of the model: traffic, clicks, and revenue per click. The 3 remaining indicators - namely, the click rate, RPM and income - are nothing more than "consequences" of the first 3 mentioned levers. Let them be reviewed one by one and see the techniques of fraud most common.
- Traffic
Traffic is probably the preferred lever criminals. And because it is at the top of the chain can be monetized and from the fact that the more it will be important, more opportunities to make a profit will be large. From this, two possibilities: either not cheat on the traffic and let nature do the rest, is cheating on downstream clicks or revenue per click for greater effect. Fortunately, those who stick to the first possibility to rely on fate. For sending more traffic to a domain name does not necessarily mean that the conversion will follow. But when is a model that pays per click and not the quota of traffic, conversion is essential for the establishment of a functional system of fraud.
This is the first technique that comes to mind and therefore the most used: forwarding / aggregation of traffic. The principle is simple: to use as "traffic pump" any domain name that may do the trick. But then, you ask, why not park directly in these areas traffic instead of breaking the head with a pump system? The reasons are varied and often specific to the psychology of the fraudster in itself: primarily to hide. Thus we see some cases where people of typosquatting redirect to the generic assumption that the method, besides providing them with traffic, covers legal trouble. Big mistake. For whilst this technique does not protect anything on this last point, and secondly, some providers such as Google advertising links are becoming more intransigent on the sentencing of these methods, and do not hesitate to block simply advertising the flow on the target domain, and blacklist it in their index. Good luck to those who want to develop a site behind ...
Some scammers are also sources of less direct traffic to generate traffic. The method boils down to register its domain name parked on a variety of high traffic sites such as directories and forums. The unscrupulous will to engage in the technique of sending spam to thousands of e-mails unsolicited containing a link to their parking page.
Here are methods for "direct". But controlled by malicious humans, robots are also very good job. And know within limits. Some use scripts, therefore driving traffic to feed their parked domains.
Two extreme techniques to finish. First, to advertise its domain name parking ... willing to pay if the game worth the candle. Applied to the Google Adwords or Yahoo! Search Marketing, it is called arbitrage, and it is a prohibited method. And second, playing the old school and ask his friends to go on the page ... and click to do so, which brings me to the second part of my anaylse.
- Clicks
Click more to earn more, one of the golden rules of "fakers." With three alternatives: click oneself to someone and then click to click something.
The case of self-click "remain fairly isolated, primarily because it is a method somewhat discreet and many suspect that their IP address is traced. Moreover, this method is rather used by amateurs who do not inflate the upstream traffic. Current schema: domain of poor quality at the base, regardless of views, (too) many clicks. In short, glaring. But not innocent either.
The method of "incentive click (click to one or more persons) has two branches: the unsolicited invitation to click and click-organized networks. The first returns, as I explained above, to believe a visitor to a given link contains content when he is actually a parking page. Some will be more prosaically gifted than others to increase the chances that the visitor clicked. Others in the great art and do not hesitate to openly ask visitors to click on the links that appear on the page they are about to see. Most are eccentric even dangled a fee.
The click-organized networks are the most dangerous and most difficult to detect because they are often based on real criminal organizations. Also called "factories" click "in the jargon of parking providers, they are particularly prevalent in countries developing at a very low cost of labor. The method, very malicious, is to employ an army of clickers and provide a list of sites to visit. The mass and the technique of rotation do the rest. Two features of this system: fraudsters are often organized into "rings faker" and found strength to dig astonishing similarities between a group of fields in dubious behavior ... but under different accounts. Pushing the ruse until the end, these criminals take care to study with greater precision the modes of automated and human monitoring of providers of parking, and play with the lower limits to avoid attracting attention. Classic pattern: 50 different accounts clearly administered by the same entity and limited to X per month (X located just below the threshold of human verification established internally by the provider). And to make matters worse, these small groups are also very good at cheating on income per click. Explanations in the third and final point.
- The revenue per click
Cheating on the revenue per click (EPC) technology is the most difficult. Why? Primarily because the PPC market is a market ultra-dynamic that what is true today is often not the most - or at least as much - the next day. Who can predict earnings on a click associated with the keyword "automobile insurance" in moments of T, T +1 and T + x? Nobody, not even the experts. But there are certain constants, ie higher paying jobs than others. And no need to have made Saint-Cyr to guess which.
The second reason for the difficulty of this method is directly linked to the market for domain names itself. The system of "smart pricing" of Google, for example, do not calculate only the rate of pay for a click on the characteristics of the click itself (geographical origin, time etc.) but also on the characteristics named associated domain. What characteristics? A priori, those are the quality of a field. But most areas of quality already being taken, the challenge for fakers is that to find areas free (you can not afford any excessive spending) and therefore poor quality on which to operate as either a little magic of "smart pricing". Most fortunately it break your teeth and are content to pile the bad areas. The most blatant example: an account containing 20 domains, all declined on the model-realestateproperties nombre.com (realestateproperties-123.com, 456.com-realestateproperties, realestateproperties-789.com). I will stop here for details on the fraud on keywords / EPC, and recall in conclusion that the mere fact of associating a keyword is not relevant to a domain name is the cheating (eg set the keyword "online bank" for its domain acrobaties.be)
The challenges of click fraud
As much fraud on the platforms of purchase and sale remains relatively limited impact because not exceeding or rarely part of the market for domain names, as fraud on the car has consequences far more devastating than it seems in that it affects the entire value chain of the market for online advertising.
For the first advertiser is a scourge that pay cash. If budgets are absorbed by the fraud, which is the point system? You sign a contract demands TV ad to tens of thousands of euros if you knew that at your spot, all viewers are masked? For what advertisers want, what are the conversion rates. Fraudsters visit, click or do click on the links ... but buy nothing. But where the costs of click fraud advertised becoming increasingly worrying, suspicion of announcers rises. Consequences: a reluctance to advertise and pressure on intermediaries for the advance of the fraud is stopped. To spice the thing, advertisers often extend to emphasize that the boards themselves benefit system, or even encourage.
For suppliers of advertising links as Google, Yahoo or just MIVA, click fraud is a major threat in that it negatively affects the confidence of advertisers in their respective departments and well beyond, the entire system. These actors are therefore three major paintings to front: repression, prevention and communication. An example of repression: the banishment of progressive and radical followers of the MFA. Examples of prevention lies in improving internal processes. But it is mainly the communication that greater effort is made, with measures more or less "powder eye" to mount it seeks to improve the (famous) market transparency.
For parking providers, click fraud is a double problem: structural first with adverse effects on parking revenues and costs of monitoring. And then the underlying deterioration with a long term relationship with the partner provider advertising links up, and customers down (role sandwich). Besides the confusion that is made at the general public and advertisers between parking, cybersquatting and click fraud in itself is not born of parking.
For visitors, the problem of click fraud that come to the ear only strengthen a bit more the idea that advertising on the internet in general is an empty shell is summarized in pages and pages pollution of the Net.
The domainers 'clean', lastly, to find long-term penalized by the fraudulent because of their similar fraud is directly related sealing the parking provider / supplier of advertising links and thus wage rates. Besides the impact on the image of the activity of Domaining, who finds himself tainted by these black sheep.
The conclusion is therefore in a sense identical to that of my first article on the phenomena of fraud affecting the market places of purchase and sale of areas: it is necessary for intermediaries to focus on the three accountability / prevention / enforcement. The stakes are so large that they are far from being limited to niche-market what the domain name. It is about the sustainability of the whole model of online advertising. From there, all the actors of the value chain must take responsibility and see further than their noses. Do not think that "a click of anything will hurt anyone". For small streams make big rivers.
