Pay-Per-Click or Porn-Per-Click?

A six-month investigation into “pay-per-click” programs by Kessler International has revealed shocking results. The pay-per-click method of advertising requires advertisers to pay fees to search engines, online marketing companies and their affiliates to boost website traffic.

One practice Kessler found used by unscrupulous affiliates is that the advertiser’s website are linked and displayed on raunchy pornography pages. In fact, in some instances, Kessler found that clicking on a pornographic picture would take users to the advertiser’s website generating revenue for the pay-per-click company. Kessler even found this happening to family attraction parks, high profile law firms, children’s toy companies, and religious ministries. These practices, which are unknown to most pay-per-click advertisers, are forcing wholesome honest organizations to pay for scandalous and fraudulent advertising that does nothing to promote their business. This fraud is costing companies collectively millions of dollars, and most will never even realize that it is happening or that their reputation is tarnished.

Kessler has also documented that XXX pornography websites with X-rated domain names have placed search engines on their pages that will draw directly from pay-per-click databases. Search for “lawyer” and a list of law firms are produced, within an assortment of obscene images and other highly sordid content. Even worse, most of these sites purvey reprehensible subject matter such as incest, and virtually none contain references to the Federal “2257” record-keeping law, which certifies that all models on the site are 18 or older.

So what can a company do to combat this sort of unsavory scheme and avoid tarnishing of its reputation?

Start by having an Internet monitoring service or staff determine your level of exposure and vulnerability on the web by conducting regular Internet searches of the company’s name, domain name and key words to see if they are linking to undesirable sites. Make sure to retain all documentation applicable to the offending sites before they disappear (some sites are here today, gone tomorrow), and contact a professional to assist with litigation support.

In addition, you should have an expert conduct an audit of the website’s logs. 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 law suit.