A click network refers to an arrangement whereby cybercriminals arrange to have networks of computers click through online ads in order to increase their revenue from advertisers. A click network may be made up of people running a network of computers programmed to click certain sites at set intervals. However, infected computers that are part of a botnet have also been used to perpetrate this type of click fraud.
Hackers with large numbers of computers unwittingly tied into a botnet can rent them out to criminal organizations to carry out click fraud. The cybercriminal will set up a skeleton site, usually with nothing but ads, and then have the botnet PCs click away. Although a certain percentage of the revenue generated is likely to be written off as click fraud rather than paid clicks, the fraudsters can keep the scam going on longer by rotating the botnet clicks through different sets of skeleton websites.
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