Facebook Admits Click Fraud Problem, Says Fix Coming Today

An update to our post yesterday talking about a weeks-long issue with click fraud on Facebook: A spokesperson for the company admits there’s a problem and says a fix is coming today. Advertisers will also be credited for any fraudulent clicks.

In a comment to the post, Brandon McCormick says:

This is Brandon on the Facebook communications team. I wanted to chime in to make sure that our voice was part of this discussion and to clarify how we are addressing this issue.

We take click quality very seriously and have a series of measures in place to detect it. We have large volumes of data to analyze click patterns and can identify suspicious activity quickly.

Over the past few days, we have seen an increase in suspicious clicks. We have identified a solution which we have already begun to implement and expect will be completely rolled out by the end of today. In addition, we are identifying impacted accounts and will ensure that advertisers are credited appropriately.

Advertisers on WickedFire, where the original comments about click fraud are posted, are sure to be pleased. Although they may be wondering why it took attention from a blog to get Facebook to deal with the issue, which has been ongoing since at least May.

As an aside, Izea, the controversial (at best) pay per post advertising company, used this story as an opportunity to reach out to advertisers. CEO Ted Murphy left a comment on WickedFire saying “This is my first time here, I found out about this forum through the TechCrunch post. I wanted to offer up an opportunity for anyone of you to try SocialSpark CPC and put our click validation to the test. We will provide a $100 credit to any new advertiser. Drop a line to ashley@izea.com if you would like to take a spin on us.”

That didn’t go over so well with members. One person suggested Murphy review the forum’s rules (linking to a pornographic image) and another said “you are unwelcome here.” Sounds like a normal day at the office for Izea.