A click farm is a form of click fraud, where a large group of low-paid workers are hired to click on paid advertising links for the click fraudster (click farm master or click farmer). The workers click the links, surf the target website for a period of time, and possibly sign up for newsletters prior to clicking another link. It is usually based in developing countries, where wages are extremely low by western standards. For many of these workers, clicking on enough ads per day may increase their revenue substantially. It is extremely difficult for an automated filter to detect this simulated traffic as fake because the visitor behavior appears exactly the same as that of an actual legitimate visitor.
A recent sting operation conducted by Thai police busted a “Click Farm” business operated by Chinese nationals is sparkling the pay per like business. Exposing the dark side of social media marketing, the police confiscated nearly 400000 Lacs Thai sim cards supposedly used for boosting “likes” for Chinese businesses. Just like that mall in Russia and the Czech Republic have reportedly installed vending machines seeing “likes” on Instagram which could make you an instant online celebrity. Users pay as little as $1.20 for 100 fake Instagram likes on the post of $2.40 for 100 fake followers.
Click-farms are one of the many online scams plaguing our digital society and has become one of the biggest headaches for social media giants. Rampant in developing nations with low wages but high tech penetration rates, click-farms can be found in countries like India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Indonesia, where workers are hired to click and inflate online traffic for websites or boost followers of social media profiles.
Click farms allow individuals and businesses to purchase thousands of likes for just a few dollars. With more likes often meaning more attention and consideration, many organizations and users are investing in these fake likes in the hopes of generating more sales and increasing their exposure. As the demand for these likes and other social media interactions are rising, few people have chosen to capitalize on this “likable” opportunity. Since it’s a serious and easiest money making business, many underground entrepreneurs have created their own organized facilities and making huge monies by selling fake likes and followers to others.
This basically means that somewhere in the world working secretly and engaged in fraudulently promoting other people’s business or services for a certain amount of fee. Since the definition is fairly broad, fraudulent activity can take place on almost any platform although the most popular ones are Facebook and Instagram. It doesn’t matter if the group is selling Facebook likes of Twitter followers, they all are classified as click farms.
Let’s understand it a little deeper. How much do you like coconut oil? As indicated by one Facebook page devoted to them, millions of people discover them great enough to click the “Like” button – even with many different pages about coconut oil to choose from. However there is just one issue – the liking was fake, done by a team of low paid workers in Islamabad, Pakistan whose boss charged just $13 per thousand “likes” at his click farm. Workers at these click farms punch the keys might be on a three-shift system and be paid as little as $ 105 a year. The similar pattern exists in other developing countries like India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia etc.
Why click farming?
The simplicity with which a normal hair oil could win approval raises concerns about the premise on which many modern companies measure success online – through facebook likes, youtube views, and Twitter followers. Following are a few fundamental reasons for the growth of click farming:
A. Exposure – Click farming are generally used for increasing exposure of any product or services. Particularly by a business that has just started and don’t have big social media accounts or followers. They choose click farming to create artificial boost and increase in their exposure.
B. It’s cheap - and doesn’t require heavy investments. Many businesses run social media marketing campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Vk etc. in the hopes of increasing their follower base at a very cheaper cost.
C. Faster Results – Many businesses and individuals who buy false likes often wants fast results. Clicks farms are capable of delivering a huge amount of likes to any buyer who is willing to pay for it. If a brand wants a post to go viral then buying as many likes as possible is that fastest way to do it.
Legality and Other Aspect of This Industry
Click Farming is not exactly a legitimate business model and requires a lot of unethical tricks to make them profitable. Since these fake likes and followers ruin many legitimate platforms which users rely on for honest advice, many organizations are keen to stop this fraudulent behavior from happening. With various raids around the world on these click farms, for the first time ever, we’re able to see inside these organizations and how they operate
Although click farming is a quick concept of making huge monies, such companies don’t pay well to their employees who mostly work on a temporary basis. Further, even working conditions are worst as employees work in pitch dark for long hours with little breaks. Think of click farms as modern child labor camps, they might not be making clothes for pennies, but they are liking facebook statuses and leaving reviews instead.
We also feel that brands, individual or companies are equally responsible for the growth of this black industry as there is a real desire amongst many companies to boost their profile on social media platforms, and find other customers as well as a result. The research suggests that 31% of consumers check rating and reviews including likes and twitter followers before buying something which means that brands are the real culprits pushing click farms to mislead the consumers.
Indian Scenario
As far as Indian scenario is concerned, click farming is booming industry here. Not just celebrity singers, movies stars, startups, struggling publications and even political parties are buying and generating bogus likes on Facebook, Instagram, youtube and product reviews from click farms. Additionally, these companies are also capable of creating fake profiles on social media platforms which go about clicking and sharing post numerous times. The classic example is - one of Delhi based online educational startup which creates video tutorials on high-tech courses like big data analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence etc. uses its employees to like, share and comment through fake accounts so that their videos would come as top search results suggestions. On any given day, such companies generate around 17000 new users click on the links posted through fake profiles. They basically create fake profiles with impressive biographies like engineering from IIT or MBA from IIM. When an alumnus from IIT endorses a video on data analytics in a study group, it earns lots of credibilities. Currently, this organization is making around INR 17 lacs net profit though fake promotions.
The acceleration of click farms in India, to a certain extent, is the result of unethical practices followed by e-commerce companies and new age startups. With growing penetration of internet and smart devices, followed by tremendous pressure from VC and other private investors, these entities are ready to go to any extent to capture the mindshare though clicks.
Special thanks to:
Wikipedia.com
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