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?"

1 of 57 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:Umm.. by Score+Whore · 2006-12-04 04:55 · Score: 0, Troll

yeah, they already scared the guy, and didn't have to pay him $150,000

Yeah, that's great corporate citizenship on Google's part. In order to avoid paying $150,000 they call law enforcement and let them spend tens of thousands of tax dollars and, likely, one- to two-hundred hours of agent, prosecutor, and judicial time to work on a case that Google has no intention of going forward with. Way to burn communual resources to advance their own bottom line.

Way to not be evil.