Click Fraud Blog
Gaming EntreCard, Is It Click Fraud?
January 28th, 2008
I have been using a new blogging service called EntreCard recently and was disturbed to notice a nefarious use of the service in my web logs.
EntreCard for those who have not used the service is the equivalent of a blogging business card service. Users who visit your site and see the entrecard logo can drop their own card to notify you of their presence, people can also advertise on your site. It is a bit difficult to explain, but there is an excellent introductory video is available on the EntreCard home page.
As people drop card they build up credit point to spend on advertising on other sites, here is where the problem occurs, if someone can play the system and rack up a huge number of clicks, which can then be tranfered advertising, the credits can also be transfered to other users for cash. If there is money involved for clicking on links, people are going to invent ways to speed up the system. The service I noticed comes from the URL http://ec.createlf.com/
Using this system, a user can sequentiually browse through enrecards and drop their own. It is a very easy way to speed through a large number of sites. Add a clickbot and someone has a bag load of credits for very little effort.
At the top of the article I ask is this click fraud, the answer is probably no, the users are dropping their cards as the system allows, but in my opinion, they are working very close to the edge of the rules.
I have contacted EntreCard and asked about details of their invalid click filters, I will post details here when they get back to me.
As you can see EntreCard is not on my sidebar, another fine idea kicked into touch by the get rich quick squad.
UPDATE
EntreCard were very quick to answer my queries and said:
Greetings,
The application in question, which eases the use of Entrecard browsing is currently allowed, because it still requires actual people to visit the sites to drop their card. This allows the blogger to catch the attention of the visitor, and turn them into a regular reader. The use of any program or application which drops your card for you, however, is not allowed. Invalid clicks are defined by our network as any card drop that does not not come from visiting a members actual blog and dropping through that member’s widget by personally clicking the “drop yours” text.
We have gear in place to detect scripted dropping and drop bots, though we do not go into detail as to how it works. When a user is caught automating the dropping procedure in some way, they are penalized by being fined more credits than they earned. Repeat offenders are deleted out of the network.
In addition, in order to earn credits from dropping cards, you need to have an active widget on a quality blog. If you don’t have an active widget, you do not earn credits from dropping. If you do have an active widget, but your blog is spammy or of poor quality, it is deleted from the network and thus you cannot earn credits.
In addition, members can only earn 300 credits per day through drops. This limit is in place to prevent any attempt at a large-scale system abuse. It is currently less than the amount to advertise on the most expensive blogs for a single day.
Finally, our own internal accounting system allows us to track down the origin and destination of any credits being sent through the system. If we were to uncover any sort of credit ring or operation geared towards farming credits illegally to sell them, we would shut it down, track down all their credits, and remove them from the system. So, if you are attempting to buy credits from someone, make sure you know who they are, and where the credits came from, because if the credits are “dirty”, they will be deleted.
So using a program such as the one found at ec.createlf.com is allowed. However, if you attempt to automate the system by scripting the dropping process, we will catch you (as we have caught others), penalize you, and track down and delete any credits that you may have sent to any other accounts.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
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Tags: Click Fraud
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February 14th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Who are we kidding here? EntreCard is useful for us small blogs but, the quality of the traffic has always been suspect.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Not John Chow,
Thanks for your comment, I agree, the click quality is very poor, all I see is people coming from the EnterCard system looking for a card drop then moving on.
If there is a way to game the system, and possibly make money by selling credits people will try.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I actually found this post via the Createlf browser app. Personally I find this a good widget not because I can rack up a ton of credits (perk, yes I’ll admit) but it’s interesting for me as a blogger to go around the blogosphere to sites I would never have otherwise seen and get ideas about design and join conversations all over the place as my fancy is stricken. It’s the same idea behind StumbleUpon for me.
I agree that if someone automated it then it wouldn’t be fair. But I had the same curiosity that you did when first finding this engine if it was against the rules. So I totally understand where you’re coming from.
Alas, with the good you have to take the bad, and my site stats have told me that Entrecard is worth the efforts so far so I’ll be keeping it.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:58 am
TrishaLyn,
Thanks for taking the time out to leave a comment, I think the post I made was based upon an initial feeling about Createlf, the reply from EntreCard which I added later made me feel a little better about their programme, but I still feel that something that can be exchanged for cash for a click will be translated into a fraudulent activity.
The scenario which comes to mind is a click farm, change the click farm’s focus from clicking on adsense ads to clicking on EntreCard drops, multiply the 300 clicks by 50 people per day for a week and a large number of credits can be racked up fairly easily (105,000).
I think this is one to watch, if a company like Google can suffer click fraud attack with all their technology and resources, then a startup like EntreCard is sure to have holes in their system, I will keep and eye on developments and make updates on my blog as necessary.
May 14th, 2010 at 8:09 am
i admire John Chow because of his innovative ways to gain traffic both from whitehat and greyhat methods.,,~
July 24th, 2010 at 7:25 am
anyone who makes money on the internet would love to know the secret of John Chow’s success.-”*
September 10th, 2010 at 12:10 am
John Chow is my idol when it comes to online moneymaking“”