• Dark Reading , Tuesday, July 29, 2008 1 PM

The overall click fraud rate dipped slightly from the previous quarter, according to the latest Click Fraud Index from Click Forensics. Content network click fraud (across both Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network) was also down by 0.2%.

But the third-party click-quality-monitoring service found that botnet-based click fraud was on the rise--with just over a quarter of all fraudulent clicks stemming from an automated mechanism.

"The threat from botnets is the biggest concern as they have grown to cause over one quarter of all click fraud," said Tom Cuthbert, president of Click Forensics. "Online advertisers should be extra vigilant in watching for traffic from botnets in their search marketing campaigns."

Read the whole story at Dark Reading »