If you have a business, you have probably considered at some point using programs like Google Adsense or Adwords, where you post your company’s ads for advertising and only pay for it when somebody clicks on your link. The scam happens in two different ways:

1. Your competitor uses an online robot to click on your ad non-stop. This way, you’ll be happy you get hits, not knowing that the competitor is causing your money to drain away, while you are not making any sales.

2. There are other programs that are offered with the same concept and the PPC (pay per click) you are charged is promised to be lower. In this case, scammers are the programs themselves, using automated robots to hit your link several times a day – so you can pay them well.

How to avoid: in either case, the best way to avoid this scam is to get stats in the first place. This way, you will see where the hits come from. If you notice that most of them come from the same city, you’ll know you are being taken for a ride.