Method for Detecting and Preventing Fraudulent Internet Advertising Activity

1 . A method for detecting and preventing fraud in Internet-based advertising, comprising the steps of:

tracking and analyzing multiple users Internet navigation activity across multiple content providers;

collecting data regarding the activity, including at least identification of visited websites, time identifications and action identifications;

analyzing the data to determine visited locations or actions likely associated with fraudulent activity; and

identifying behavior patterns in the user activity data consistent with fraudulent advertising activity.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing step includes the step of analyzing URL's of visited sites.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying step includes applying results of past analysis to identify current activity patterns.

4 . A method for detecting and preventing fraud in internet-based advertising, comprising the steps of:

providing Internet advertising content to users, including a specific identification for specific instances of advertising content;

tracking and analyzing multiple users Internet navigation activity across multiple content providers;

collecting data regarding the activity, including at least identification of visited websites, time identifications, advertising identifications, machine identifications and action identifications;

analyzing the data to determine visited locations or actions likely associated with fraudulent activity, including associations between machine identifications and advertising identifications; and

identifying behavior patterns in the user activity data consistent with fraudulent advertising activity.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the tracking and analyzing step further includes setting a flag when receiving a click action regarding a specific advertising instance is associated with a specific machine identification and thereafter accepting as valid no further click actions associated with that machine/advertising identification pair, thereby defeating any attempts at fraudulent activity regarding that advertising instance.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the analyzing step includes the step of analyzing URL's of visited sites.

7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the identifying step includes applying results of past analysis to identify current activity patterns.

8 . A method for detecting and preventing fraud in internet-based advertising, comprising the steps of:

providing Internet advertising content to users, including a specific identification for specific instances of advertising content, including;

tracking and analyzing multiple users Internet navigation activity across multiple content providers, including setting a flag when receiving a click action regarding a specific advertising instance is associated with a specific machine identification and thereafter accepting as valid no further click actions associated with that machine/advertising identification pair, thereby defeating any attempts at fraudulent activity regarding that advertising instance.

9 . A method for identifying the occurrence of fraud regarding a set of internet advertisements, comprising the steps of:

establishing a system employing fraud-resistant advertising platforms;

collecting data from the system, in a volume sufficient to provide statistical validity;

analyzing system data to identify patterns of fraudulent activity;

accepting a test data set reflecting internet advertising responses collected by an independent advertising publisher;

comparing test data to community data, to determine whether test data was likely to have suffered click-through inflation fraud; and

whether test data was likely to have suffered competitive click-though attack.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the comparing step includes applying rules and results derived from past analysis to the test data.

11 . A method for monitoring possible fraudulent activity within a computer system:

providing a monitor system;

scanning system to identify elements having known association with fraudulent activity;

monitoring system activity to identify activity patterns associated with fraudulent activity; and

notifying user of possible fraudulent activity.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the scanning and monitoring steps include comparing current system contents and activity to rules received from a central monitoring system.

13 . A method for identifying phishing threats in an individual computer system, comprising the steps of

scanning the headers of incoming emails to identify domains associated with phishing sites;

scanning incoming email messages for hyperlinks;

testing the hyperlinks, including the steps of

determining whether the hyperlink landing site is associated with phishing activities;

classifying undetermined sites to identify the content of the landing page and associated sites.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the determining step includes comparing the site identified in the hyperlink under test with known sites associated with phishing activity.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the classifying step further includes notifying the user of the results of the step.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the classifying step further includes analyzing the content of the landing page and associated sites to determine the legitimacy of the.

17 . A method for preventing fraudulent responses to Internet advertising, comprising the steps of:

presenting an advertisement to an internet user;

collecting response information from users exercising affirmative responses to the advertising, including collecting at least a substantive user response and a user identification code;

accepting the response information only if the collected information is the first response to the advertising presented material from the identified user.