Start up firms to target click fraud

From CMO Magazine:

As advertisers sue search engines for charging them for fraudulently generated click-throughs, a rash of new companies promise to help advertisers distinguish real clicks from fakes. The Wall Street Journal reports that entrepreneurs with names such as Click Defense, ClickDetective and WhosClickingWho have built up a cottage industry to capitalize on search-advertiser discontent.  The story reports that Yahoo and Google each has its own complex system to spot click fraud before an advertiser is charged, but, citing privacy issues and a desire not to alert fraudsters to the surveillance techniques, the search engines generally won’t provide advertisers with details about how they handle specific suspect clicks. Read more.