The Vanishing Click-Fraud Case

Posted by Hemos on Monday December 4, 2006 @02:39AM from the where-have-we-gone dept.

PreacherTom writes "In March of 2004, a computer programmer arrived at Google's offices with one goal in mind: blackmail. He had invented a program called "Google Clique", which could generate millions of fake clicks to Google's ads. The price to avoid disaster: $150,000. At the time, it didn't end well for the programmer; Google had the police in the next room. However, a few days ago the U.S. Attorney quietly dropped the case. The reason: apparently Google was unwilling to cooperate with prosecutors. Why the odd behavior?"

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Trade Secrets by KermodeBear · 2006-12-04 02:46 · Score: 1, Redundant

Google was unwilling to cooperate with prosecutors. Why the odd behavior?
This is pure speculation, but perhaps the courts wanted Google to reveal some, or all, of the methods it used to detect click fraud; they would not want that information revealed. A trade secret like that would be far more valuable than a guy in prison.

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Love sees no species.