Pay-per-click is a method of advertising that requires advertisers to pay fees to search engines, online marketing companies and its affiliates to boost website traffic.
In some instances, Kessler International reported it found that clicking on a pornographic picture would take users to the advertiser's website, thereby generating revenue for the pay-per-click company. Kessler also found this happened to sites featuring family attraction parks, high-profile law firms, children's toy companies and religious ministries. Such practices are often unknown to most pay-per-click advertisers and forces organizations to unknowingly pay for scandalous and fraudulent advertising that does little or nothing to promote the business.
Kessler President and CEO Michael Kessler said companies can protect themselves from fraudulent advertisers by maintaining an Internet monitoring service or staff to determine the level of exposure and vulnerability of a business on the web.
“[This] can be done by conducting regular Internet searches of the company's name, domain name and key words to see if they are linking to undesirable sites,” Kessler said. “Make sure to retain all documentation applicable to the offending sites before they disappear and contact a professional to assist with litigation support.”
Kessler also documented that adult sites with X-rated domain names have placed search engines on their pages that draw directly from pay-per-click databases. Kessler’s report noted that a search for "lawyer" in some such search engines results in a list of law firms are produced with an assortment of explicit images and other highly sordid content.
Kessler reported that most of these sites contain little if no reference to the federal 2257 record-keeping law, which certifies that all models on the site are 18 or older.
“In addition, you should have an expert conduct an audit of the website's logs,” Kessler added. “This audit will document the magnitude of the fraud and prepare you for negotiation with the pay-per-click operator in order to get a refund or prepare for a civil lawsuit.”
