I always knew that click fraud was way more prevalent than what Google says it is (and they admit it’s above 30%!). But now we have evidence that Google themselves is defrauding their own advertisers by teaming with adware companies to redirect directly typed addresses into searches.
That’s a mouthful, what’s that mean?

That means Google, in certain cases, is taking a directly typed domain name and turning it into a search and then a click on and advertisement so they can charge the advertiser for something they wouldn’t normally have to pay for. This is called click fraud, even by Google’s own definition which states:

Invalid clicks are clicks generated by prohibited methods. Examples of invalid clicks may include repeated manual clicking or the use of robots, automated clicking tools, or other deceptive software. Invalid clicks are sometimes intended to artificially and/or maliciously drive up an advertiser’s clicks and or a publisher’s earnings. Sources of invalid clicks may include:

* Manual clicks intended to increase your advertising costs or to increase profits for website owners hosting your ads.
* Clicks by automated tools, robots, or other deceptive software.

The evidence is long and tangled, but here’s another article that explains this better (LINK). Techy version
Here’s a link to the evidence and original report (LINK). Very techy version