Click fraud is back as one of the hottest issues in the PPC advertising realm. It's under the carpet...again.

In a press release, early results of a study employing Fair Isaac's Proven Fraud Detection Technology indicate that 10-15% of advertisers' billed traffic from Ad Networks may be fraudulent.

Fair Isaac Corporation, the leading provider of analytics and decision management technology, announced preliminary results of its research study into click fraud in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. The study applied Fair Isaac's market-proven artificial intelligence and fraud-fighting technologies to assess the scope of the problem and test effective ways to expose fraudulent clicks.

"These early results represent a significant step toward addressing the problem of click fraud in online advertising," said Dr. Joseph Milana, chief scientist in Fair Isaac's Research and Development group. "Based on these preliminary results, we believe Fair Isaac's expertise and proven fraud detection technologies can be effectively brought to bear in helping to detect fraud in the pay-per-click marketing space."

Dr. Milana also indicated that more research into the problem is necessary. "These are early results based upon a limited view of the market," said Milana. "We're looking for more advertisers to contribute to the study to help us arrive at a solid picture of the problem's size and scope across the broader marketplace and different vertical markets."

"Marketers have embraced pay-per-click advertising, but ways to defraud the system also have become more sophisticated," said SEMPO Chair Gord Hotchkiss. "Based on these early results, we believe the opportunity exists for our members to participate in an expanded study that can help further determine the extent of the problem and point the way to industry-wide measures for dealing with them."

Google, on the other hand, claims a pathetic 0.02%. No one believes that for sure.