Business Week has a very telling article on click fraud: the dark side of online advertising.

The article reveals how a parasitic underground has developed around internet advertising.

See also the click fraud slideshow and botnet slideshow.

ClickMonkey: a click fraud example

A chilling example is ClickMonkey, a company specializing in just clicking on ads. They claim they have 20,000 "monkeys" clicking on ads from an offshore ship. Each monkey has three computers, and the connection cycles through various ISPs.

Someone from India was searching Google on australian lotto lottery inc head office. Google made him land on this email scam winning a fake lottery page on my site. He then sent me the following query:

From: vivek <...@yahoo.co.in> To: meDate: Sep 23, 2006 1:43 AMSubject: BE: for my fuducial agent Rev. johnson james.i am unable to contact to Mr. johnson james.i has alredy send you to mailform ...@rediffmail.com .as soon as possible please send me anacknowledgement that you has been recived my mail or not. thanks

Kimveer Gill, a 25 year old Montreal man marched into Dawson College carrying three pieces of weapons, including a semi automatic carbine. He fired tens of shots. One student was killed. Two are still in critical condition, and many others wounded. Gill shot himself in the head after the police shot him in his arm.

Gill was wearning combat boots and a black trenchcoat. His online profile was on a Goth web site (vamiprefreaks.com).

Several interesting observations on the aftermath:

• Some blame the Goth culture,
• Some blamed the internet site he frequented.

Guilt by association, and seeking simplistic answers for complex issues.

• Some praised his actions online.
• Some blamed the police for killing him (ignoring that it was Gill who barged in and started shooting at people).
• Some say he died a good deed.
• Others belittle the "deed" for the low count of the victims, as well as not going out the way it should.

The interesting part is that there was no cause, and no motivation. Still some glorify the atrocity.

Interesting parallels with terrorism, and its aftermath ...

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Catholic Church ecumenical representative had an interview with Spiegel magazine in Germany on the relation with Islam, and the Pope's recent speech where he quoted a medieval text that is offensive to Muslims.

There are several points in the article that are disturbingly inaccurate. Just today, I heard a person of authority making the comment : "Islam is different" like the cardinal did.

Here are the parts that are inaccurate and responses to them:

Distinguished author and ex-nun Karen Armstrong has written a good article in the Guardian titled: "We cannot afford to maintain these ancient prejudices on Islam" in response to Pope Benedict XVI's speech where he quoted a medieval text disparaging Islam and prophet Muhammad.Here are some selected quotes:

The public inquiry into Maher Arar's case is finally out.

Maher Arar is a Canadian Syrian engineer. After spending a vacation in Tunisia (where his wife is from), he was travelling from Tunisia to Zurich to New York to Canada on Sept 26, 2002. On his stop in New York he was detained by US authorities and taken to Syria, via Jordan. There he was interrogated and tortured for more than a year, and then freed with no charges.

An inquiry was held to investigate the role of Canadian authorities, in his being detained by the Americans and being sent to Syria.

Salma is distinct in the family for her curly hair.If I was to take on a kunya it may well be أبو الشعثاء Abu Al-Sha3tha2 ("Father of the girl with the curly hair"). Here is a picture of her: 

Here is another variant of the lottery winning scam. This time they say it is in South Africa, and call it Euro Afro American lottery.

Euro Afro American Lottery promotionSouth AfricanFrom the desk of: Mrs Sandra Nzamawebsite:www.euro-afro.blogspot.comDear Sir\MadamCONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR WINNING:We happily announce to you the draw of South African 2010 World cup Bid lottery Award International programs held in Zurich, Switzerland. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: B9665 75604546 199 with ! Serial number 97560 drew the winning:60/84/27/17/36, which subsequently won you the lottery award in the 2nd category. Your name have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$2,000.000.00(Two million United States Dollars) in cash credited to file KPC/9030108308/03 .This is from a total cash prize of US $ 8,000,000.00 (Eight million United States dollars) shared among the first 4 lucky winners in this category world-wide. website:www.euro-afro.blogspot.comPlease note that your lucky winning number falls within our lottery booklet representative office in South Africa as indicate in the play coupon. In view of this, your US $2,000.000 ( Two Million United States Dollars ) would be released to through the assistance of our agent in South Africa immediately he commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contacted him.All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000,00 companies and individual emails address.The lottery programe took place to promote South Africa's 2010 world cup award. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims are processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements.Please you are advised to file for your claim immediately through our agent MR JAMES ZUMA immediately you received this message because you stand a risk of loosing the prize if you fail to claim within a month from the day you received this notification.His e-mail address is : jameszuma22@hotmail.co.ukTel:+27-76-249-2792Fax:27-86-513-3875Yours sincerely,Mrs Sandra Nzama(Zonal cordinator)pls use this E-mail:jameszuma22@hotmail.co.ukwebsite:http://www.euro-afro.blogspot.com

Their web site is on blogspot.com, which means it is just a blog.

This is yet another scam attempt:Note the spelling mistakes, boiler plate text (nothing specific about the item). I also included the inserted scam advisory by craigslist. 

From: austin ford <shopay1@dbzmail.com> To: meDate: Sep 16, 2006 7:03 PMSubject: [title of item]** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.htmlDear Seller

Ubuntu is a very popular Linux distribution. There are many variants, including Kubuntu (Ubuntu with a KDE desktop), Edubuntu (education oriented Ubuntu), ...etc.Now there is a new edition: Christian Ubuntu. No, it is not a joke. It is real. It includes the Bible, as well as web parental control software. Here is the announcement on the Ubuntu Forums.Of course, something like that would always invoke jokes, such as this blog called Ubuntu Christian Edition Facts. It clearly says that it is a joke.