Fraud prevention and detection for online advertising

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.

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 - 20 . (canceled)