Fraud prevention and detection for online advertising

• US 20060265493A1
• Filed: 12/06/2005
• Published: 11/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vibrant Media Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Vibrant Media Incorporated
• Inventors: Brindley, Richard, Doig, Toby
• Granted Patent: US 8,719,396 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0248 Avoiding fraud

Abstract

A system and a method are disclosed for detecting and preventing fraud in online advertising environments. In one embodiment, the system and process include a publisher with a web page with which an advertisement set and a unique request identifier are sent to a user browser when the user requests the web page. The unique request identifier is unique, publisher specific, advertisement specific, for a single instance. A database keeps track of the unique request identifier so that when a user “clicks” on a link to access an advertiser'"'"'s web site, the unique request identifier associated with the advertisement can be checked against the unique request identifier in the database to determine whether the “click” was one that may be non-fraudulent or valid.

Claims

1. A method of tracking activity associated with a web site, the method comprising:

receiving from a requester a request for information to supplement content on the web site, the request including a unique request identifier and a publisher identifier;

retrieving a unique information identifier, the unique information identifier including information unique to the request for one instance;

generating a unique request identifier, the unique request identifier including the unique information identifier;

transmitting the unique request identifier to the requester; and

logging the unique request identifier and the publisher identifier in a database.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting to a publisher a tag for association with content for publication on the web site of the publisher identifiable by a referrer uniform resource locator (URL), the tag comprising executable code and the publisher identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating reply code executable by the requester, the reply code including the unique request identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique information identifier comprises an advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, in response to selection of the information on the web site, the unique resource identifier and the unique information identifier.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising validating the unique information identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising one of:

logging an invalid unique information identifier and publisher identifier in response to an invalid unique information identifier; and

logging a valid unique information identifier and publisher identifier in response to a valid unique identifier.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising redirecting the requester to a second URL in response to logging a valid unique information identifier.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of validating comprises comparing the received the unique resource identifier and the unique information identifier with the logged unique resource identifier and the unique information identifier.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of validating further comprises determining whether the comparison of the received unique resource identifier and the unique information identifier and the logged the unique resource identifier and the unique information identifier has been paired.

11. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving from the web browser the unique request identifier and the unique advertisement identifier in response to a user “

click”

of the advertisement.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the unique request identifier and the unique advertisement identifier are compared with unique request identifiers and unique advertisement identifiers in a database to determine a match.

13. A system for tracking activity associated with a web site, the system comprising:

a receiver module configured to receive from a requester a request for information to supplement content on the web site, the request including a unique request identifier and a publisher identifier;

a retrieval module configured to retrieve a unique information identifier, the unique information identifier including information unique to the request for one instance;

a generator module configured to generat a unique request identifier, the unique request identifier including the unique information identifier;

a transmission module configured to transmit the unique request identifier to the requester; and

a log module configured to log the unique request identifier and the publisher identifier in a database.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the transmission module is further configured to transmit to a publisher a tag for association with content for publication on the web site of the publisher identifiable by a referrer uniform resource locator (URL), the tag comprising executable code and the publisher identifier.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the generator module is further configured to generate reply code executable by the requester, the reply code including the unique request identifier.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the unique information identifier comprises an advertisement.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the receiver module is further configured to receive the unique resource identifier and the unique information identifier in response to selection of the information on the web site.

18. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions, the instructions when executed by a processor perform a method of:

receiving from a requester a request for information to supplement content on the web site, the request including a unique request identifier and a publisher identifier;

retrieving a unique information identifier, the unique information identifier including information unique to the request for one instance;

generating a unique request identifier, the unique request identifier including the unique information identifier;

transmitting the unique request identifier to the requester; and

logging the unique request identifier and the publisher identifier in a database.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the stored instructions further comprise instructions when executed by the processor to perform further a method of transmitting to a publisher a tag for association with content for publication on the web site of the publisher identifiable by a referrer uniform resource locator (URL), the tag comprising executable code and the publisher identifier.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the stored instructions further comprise instructions when executed by the processor to perform further a method of generating reply code executable by the requester, the reply code including the unique request identifier.