Not Just Google: Expert Says Yahoo May Be Profiting from Click Fraud

According to this article on consumeraffairs.com, a security researcher

found evidence that Yahoo's Overture advertising network was mixed up with notorious spyware companies . . . [who] were allegedly faking 'clicks' on Web sites belonging to advertising partners with Yahoo, in order to push up the 'pay per click' rates for the pages.   Each faked 'click' means the advertiser in question forks over a portion of profit to Yahoo, an Yahoo pays the spyware vendor in turn.

Click fraud is likely to be a problem with all the popular "pay per click" advertising programs.  It's inherent to the model and it may be impossible for the search engines to eliminate the problem entirely.  However, it should not be nearly the problem that it is reported to be.

For more on this story, see this article from CNNMoney.com.