Cheating on the web is not okay

There are many outfits on the internet who will pay you to view ads. The concept is very simple. You are using your computer anyway, so why not use up an inch or so of screen for a banner? In return, you will be paid a small amount for each hour of advertising that you view.

Each company uses one or more techniques to be sure that you are actually sitting in front of the computer looking at those ads. This way they can assure their advertising buyers that their money is being well spent. After all, it is not desirable to be paying for ads that are displayed to no one.

Usually the requirement is that you be actively browsing and connected to the internet. Thus, the meter measuring the amount of time spent looking at ads is only incremented when the browser is in the foreground and some activity is occurring.

In order to increase their own profits, some people have decided to cheat the system. What they do is download one of many programs which "fake out" the money making programs or emulate them in some way. This allows them to set up a computer which basically makes money.

Everyone who takes part honestly in one of these programs is cheated by these people. Why? Well, advertisers are paying for their ads to be seen, and the cheaters ensure that a certain percentage of them are never seen, yet they are counted as being seen.

This hurts the advertisers as their products are not actually being advertised to anyone. Thus, they are paying for a service which is not totally delivered.

The price of the products being advertised must reflect the cost of sales, and advertising costs are part of the equation. Thus the consumer suffers as the price of these products is artificially boosted by higher, false advertising costs.

Finally, those of us who are honestly trying to make some money from these programs are hurt because the amount paid out is reduced due to cheating. Also, money is paid to people who do not actually follow the rules, which lowers the pay outs to those people who are honest.

Look, if you want to make some money go for it. However, please keep it honest.