What's The Bigger Scam? Clickfraud Or Clickfraud Class Action Settlement?

from the ah,-the-class-action-swindle dept

Mon, Aug 21st 2006 11:07am — Mike Masnick

While the advertisers suing Google over clickfraud got just a bit of pocket change out of the company (something they were upset about), they're probably a lot happier with that result than what came out of a similar lawsuit against Yahoo. zanek writes "Disgruntled Yahoo! advertisers who were hoping for just compensation from the Pay-Per-Click fraud settlement may as well get over it. Here's the short version: Yahoo! names an insider to watch ad traffic, invites 3 advertisers a year to chat, promises to make an effort to come up with industry-wide standards, extends its fraud claim period, and gives you an advertising credit... if you can prove you were harmed. I almost forgot the best part. Your class action attorneys walk away with nearly five million bucks. D'oh!" Of course, this is pretty standard for class action lawsuits these days. Also, in Yahoo's defense, so far the evidence that has been shown suggests that those who are suing are making a much bigger deal out of clickfraud than is justified. So, perhaps they don't really deserve much compensation anyway. Of course, that doesn't explain why the lawyers get so much money, but that's what lawyers do.

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NSMike, 21 Aug 2006 @ 11:18am

Is it just me...
...Or are all new businesses lately forgetting that business is a risk, and that losses from dishonesty are expected and should be prepared for?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2006 @ 11:33am

Re: Is it just me...
Why prepare for losses when you can sue instead? The chances of ending in the black are way better.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2006 @ 11:59am

Doublespeak
Clickfraud. Thoughtcrime. Double + ungood.
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lar3ry, 21 Aug 2006 @ 12:19pm

Re: Re: Is it just me...
Of course! That's why the lawyers get the big bucks.

It's like the card game the kid plays with Ron Shnieder in "Big Daddy," called "I Win!" No matter what cards are played, the lawyers always win.

"I won a million dollar lawsuit against Yahoo/Google/Whomever!"

"Really! They gave you a million dollars?"

"Well, no... the lawyers took that. I get to say that I win, though."

"Good for you. Have another cookie."
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justme, 21 Aug 2006 @ 12:41pm

They should change the rules when there is a class action or any kind of lawsuit. Lawyer gets no more than 42%. That will keep these fly by night lawyers off the air ways.... maybe. There is something wrong when the person whom sues walks away with nothing but a "you won". Some one is forgetting that the ones doing the suits sometimes are the working class not out to get rich quick. They spend many hours away from home, and work too.
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Average Joe, 21 Aug 2006 @ 1:11pm

Lawyers need a reality check
Lets give 5 mil to a developer to come up with a solution to clickfraud. No... corp America would rather farm out the job to a 3rd world country where the code is written by some snot nose kid for 3k a year. Does not say too much about corp. America although I would take one engineer to fifty lawyers any day.
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Patrick, 22 Aug 2006 @ 8:10am

Re:
Lawyers usually don't get more than 42%; Has anyone seen the bills from the attorneys - you would be surprised that half if not most of that 5 million will go to pay expenses. I am not a lawyer but I do work for a team of class action attorneys in MN. I worked on a case and our expenses (not including salaries)were over 5 million dollars
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2006 @ 5:53pm

look yourself.
www.checkmatesettlement.com is the supposed plaintiff (and a .pdf of the settlement notification can be found there about halfway down the main page), but go to www.godaddy.com and see who owns that website, then look them up online. they list yahoo as a client....
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