In this paper, I undertake the study of click fraud by Cases Analysis and Law Analysis. Click fraud is a type of fraud that occurs on the Internet search advertising in pay-per-click (PPC) when a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad. PPC advertising is an arrangement in which operators of websites display links from advertisers in exchange for a charge per click. Competitors of advertisers may wish to harm a competitor who advertises in the same market by clicking on their ads. Click-fraud perpetrators essentially pile up and burn their competitors’ marketing budgets in the one place they can attack them. The perpetrators do not profit directly but force the advertiser to pay for irrelevant clicks, thus weakening or eliminating a source of competition.
Using a computer to commit click fraud is a felony. According to the Act on promotion of information and communications network utilization and information protection, etc in Korea, No one shall cause a trouble to an information and communications network purposely to interfere with stable operation of the information and communications network by sending a large amount of signals or data, letting the network process an illegitimate order, etc. Also according to the criminal act, Any person who interferes with another person’s business by damaging or destroying any data processor, such as computer, or special media records, such as electromagnetic records, or inputting false information or improper order into the data processor, or making any impediment in processing any data by other way, shall also be subject to the same punishment as referred to in paragraph. In this paper, I have described the concept; ‘letting the network process an illegitimate order’ and inputting false information or improper order.

• 최호진(단국대학교 법학과 교수, 법학박사) | Choi, Hojin