But Edelman agrees that cybercriminals are likely spreading their click fraud schemes into the mobile and video realms.

FORBES: Record Click Fraud Boosted By Fake Video, Cell Phone Traffic

Just to be clear here: I do not think she was encouraging click fraud, it was a joke.

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Another click fraud auditing firm, Anchor Intelligence, reports that click fraud has remained mostly flat over the last quarter, by contrast.

FORBES: Record Click Fraud Boosted By Fake Video, Cell Phone Traffic

Users who clicked on the links became vulnerable to programs installed on their computers that were designed to steal bank codes, send spam and engage in click fraud.

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Click fraud and its perpetrators hit national headlines this month after Long Island startup Limited Run decided to discontinue its Facebook ( FB) advertising on suspicions of bot ad clicks.

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He spoke with Forbes.com about why some third-party auditors overestimate malicious clicks, the myth that Google profits from click fraud and just how the company can reassure advertisers without giving away the secrets of its click-fraud detection.

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So, why commit click fraud?

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Along with millions of other out-of-date and unsecured PCs strung together by the Internet--what Corman calls "the leper colony"--those machines represent a combined mass of computing power responsible for most of the Net's spam e-mails, much of its click fraud, and the vicious "denial of service" attacks that can knock sites offline and even destroy online businesses altogether.

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