We all know about PPC fraud and that some of the fraud is caused by bots (robots) that click on the ads and drive up your bill and unwanted traffic. But it gets more serious than that. Bot are also used to steal your content, spam your site with comment spam, guestbook spam, dhtml spam and some very bad hacks.
Often, when someone writes a script to have a bot do any of the evil things they may do, they let the bot run wild. Sometimes that may take down your server.
Discovery at Search Engine Watch Forums links to a Wired article named Attack of the Bots.
The latest threat to the Net: autonomous software programs that combine forces to perpetrate mayhem, fraud, and espionage on a global scale. How one company fought the new Internet mafia – and lost.
Bots have gotten to us, they have. They got to WebmasterWorld, DigitialPoint Forums, Search Engine Watch Forums and many many other sites.
Discovery asks, not only in terms of PPC fraud and click fraud;
Have your concerns with bots grown over this past year?
I answer, Yes.
Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.