[diplocorp]

Do you mind shedding light on how such click fraud is detected?

[rvnx]

The most usual technique is to setup click baits/traps, once you click on a trap link you (= IP or UID via cookie) are added to an ignore list, where all your actions are not invoiced to advertisers. Simple and works,

[AlexandrB]

This actually sounds ideal for me too. Please ignore me and stop tracking me.

[varelaz]

Off course traps is not the only technique. What's also checked: do you use datacenter IP or not, which country/location, does your browser footprint looks like what you send by headers and user agent, some may even validate if you move mouse like a human (check how recaptca works). And also take into account that adtech companies have a lot of statistics to analyze, so single click will not be detected, but thousands likely will be.

[hawski]

What would happen if there would be a popular extension that would share UID cookies between all its users?

[ttty]

How do you put an ad trap? A selenium bot only clicks on what a user can see... I doubt you could notice the difference

[ilikehurdles]

Except that publishers will compare their own GA or MOAT data against what you’re reporting and wonder why the hell you’re reporting significantly fewer impressions than other networks and their own tools.

[elorant]

But how do you discern real users from fake ones? Do you search for specific plugins? And what about bots which are using headless sessions?

[mg794613]

Mission accomplished!

or xkcd #810

[nazka]

To add to what has been said in the other comments, even just a simple algorithme and stats can detect that. You don't even need a Machine Learning model. It's rare than someone clicks on ads, even more several times on the same one, and even more if it's several times every day. The behavior of the user will just look like an aberration on the chart with hundreds times more clicks than the next maximum.

[mg794613]

Maybe I misinterpret, but this argumentation by you and some others that "this is easily detectable" is _exactly_ the good part. * They want to ignore me? Mission accomplished * They want to discard my clicks and subtract it from the payout? Mission accomplished etc. in any case they are playing the game for me.

"Good day sir, you lose, I said good day!"