Microsoft Sues Over Alleged 'Click Fraud'

Microsoft has sued a Canadian family the U.S. software giant says was involved in "click fraud" to boost their online sites.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Seattle is believed to be the first ever targeting the practice of making fraudulent visits to Internet Web sites to manipulate advertising on a search engine, The Seattle Times reports. The alleged fraud occurred on the Microsoft search engine, Live Search, since renamed Bing.

In court documents, Microsoft says Eric and Gordon Lam and their mother, Melanie Suen, all of Vancouver, British Columbia, operate two Web sites. One involves auto insurance and the other sells virtual gold for use in the World of Warcraft online game.

Experts say click fraud is sometimes done to exhaust a rival's advertising budget, since companies have to pay the search engine for every click on a sponsored link.

"Part of our responsibility as an industry leader is to bring enforcement in this area," said Cranton, associate general counsel for Microsoft. "What we've seen in this particular area of online advertising is there is a significant amount of fraud."