Online Ad Fraud

It _could_...But the ad networks get paid for those clicks, so while businesses keep buying ads from a known[1] mostly fraudulent industry, they will not.1: "Uber discovered they’d been defrauded out of 2/3 of their ad spend" -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25623858

This is ad fraud, and while it's not a problem for the end user, it could get the site in trouble.

something similar is happening with ads nowadays. There is tons of fraud in ads and all earnings / payouts are approximate. yet the system works, even approximately. My guess is fraud will be a small percent, certainly tolerable

This would eventually backfire if ad networks look for click fraud.

The same scams Google's ad network facilitates and Google in turn profits from?

Because the ad spends are fraudulent in nature? Just a guess.

It's all a scam. Nobody, but bots click those ads. Without those bots, Google and Facebook would be bankrupt.

The figure is closer to 43%, and no, it doesn't follow that those ads weren't a waste of money. It only means that someone actually saw them. Google doesn't have clean hands on this, because they take a cut regardless of whether their advertisers are being defrauded, and they pay those who are committing the fraud. In the past I think they've largely looked the other way and cashed the checks. This admission is an indication that they realize they have to go legit, which in t

Sounds like they're worried about fake ad clicks.

In my extensive experience, you take irrefutable evidence back to the ad platforms and they provide 'make goods' after the fact for those fraudulent visitors.The entire premise of the article is quite accurate and most companies are spending money on third-parties to do what this guy has done to recoup fraudulent spends; so, none of this is new to the industry. Everyone knows it's happening and it's all part of the gig; it benefits everyone except those spending so little