Apparatus, method and article to facilitate automatic detection and removal of fraudulent advertising accounts in a network environment

Abstract

A fraudulent advertiser account detection system may be used by a Website operator to identify active advertiser accounts as at least one of either a known valid advertiser account or a known fraudulent advertiser account. Each advertiser account has a logically associated account profile. Each account profile includes a number of advertiser attributes, each attribute having one or more logically associated attribute values characterizing the respective advertiser. Using a plurality of known valid advertiser accounts and plurality of known fraudulent advertiser accounts, the system determines a number of initial probabilities and likelihoods that one or more attribute values and/or attribute value combinations present in an advertiser account profile indicate at least one of a known valid or a known fraudulent advertiser account. Using these probabilities and likelihoods, the system determines for each advertiser account a conditional probability value indicative of whether the respective account is a fraudulent advertiser account.