Writing a Script That Faciitates Click and Impression Fraud

I'm working on a web development project for some guys online that I think might involve Impression fraud. A script they're having me write will essentially generate fraud impressions. I'd like to know whether impression fraud is legal or not before I continue working on this project. I'm living in the state of Ohio if that matters

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Quoting 1j0e

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I'm working on a web development project for some guys online that I think might involve Impression fraud. A script they're having me write will essentially generate fraud impressions. I'd like to know whether impression fraud is legal or not before I continue working on this project. I'm living in the state of Ohio if that matters

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It might help if you explain what impression fraud is.

Sorry, "Impression fraud is when falsely generated ad impressions affect an advertiser's account"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_fraud

Basically it's generating a page view without a visitor actually seeing the page. If the page has advertisements, they'll detect the page view and count it as an impression

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Quoting 1j0e

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Sorry, "Impression fraud is when falsely generated ad impressions affect an advertiser's account"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_fraud

Basically it's generating a page view without a visitor actually seeing the page. If the page has advertisements, they'll detect the page view and count it as an impression

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So the advertisers would then believe that their ads were getting more traffic than they were actually receiving? I am pretty sure that would be true fraud and therefore illegal.

Ok thanks for your help. I guess my next question is what I do about this employment contract I signed, which basically said that I agree to work for them until the project is finished? If they're asking me to do something illegal I don't have to finish the project right?

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Quoting 1j0e

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I'm working on a web development project for some guys online that I think might involve Impression fraud. A script they're having me write will essentially generate fraud impressions. I'd like to know whether impression fraud is legal or not before I continue working on this project. I'm living in the state of Ohio if that matters

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Is it that you believe that the script might be used to generate fraudulent impressions, or is it that, realistically speaking, the script has no other purpose?

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Quoting llworking

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So the advertisers would then believe that their ads were getting more traffic than they were actually receiving? I am pretty sure that would be true fraud and therefore illegal.

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It certainly is, on the part of the person running the script. The scripts have two primary purposes: Generate clicks and impressions on sites you operate, so as to fraudulently profit from the ads you generate / click, or to drive up costs for a competitor. Such a script could also be used maliciously to make it look like a competing site is abusing its ad networks.

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Quoting 1j0e

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Ok thanks for your help. I guess my next question is what I do about this employment contract I signed, which basically said that I agree to work for them until the project is finished?

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This is in wht U.S. state? This is an actual employment contract, or are we talking about a contract underlying an independent contractor relationship? Nothing in the contract defines the nature or scope of the project?

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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This is in wht U.S. state? This is an actual employment contract, or are we talking about a contract underlying an independent contractor relationship? Nothing in the contract defines the nature or scope of the project?

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I'm in the state of Ohio. It's more of an independent contractor contract, but it's pretty poorly written and doesn't cover many specifics. Here's the contract with potentially sensitive info censored: http://i.imgur.com/18c6GQe.png



I don't want to give away too much info on the project because I also signed a NDA but then again it was just as vague as the work contract. I'm setting up an adserver that will provide publishers with adsense ads to embed on their site. When an ad is clicked it works just like a regular ad, except it also provides a fraud impression for the publisher's site