While total online marketing spend continues to grow, the returns on that investment are increasingly under attack by pay per click scams perpetrated by those who exploit powerful brands for their own profit. Scammers, misguided affiliates and unscrupulous competitors place a company’s branded terms within search ad copy, or use the terms as keywords to divert search users to sites which offer competing products or even to illegitimate sites offering counterfeit, pirated or grey market goods. These pay per click (PPC) scams drive up costs for legitimate advertisers and dilute the effectiveness of online or search advertising
