Click fraud lawsuit targets IAC's Citysearch

A Los Angeles-based law firm with a history of targeting online media companies for click fraud filed suit Tuesday against Citysearch, the directory site owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, as well as Ticketmaster, the ticketing site that IAC is attempting to spin out into a separate publicly traded company.

"Citysearch.com is defrauding its advertising customers of millions of dollars by not only turning a blind eye to click fraud, but in fact encouraging it as well," a statement from the firm Kabateck Brown Kellner read. The class action suit encompasses anyone in the U.S. who paid for pay-per-click advertising space on Citysearch, but the named plaintiff is Tom Lambotte, who purchased ad space on Citysearch and then claimed that the number of clicks on his ads rose suspiciously.

Representatives from IAC and Citysearch were not immediately available for comment.

According to the complaint, filed in a California court, Lambotte first purchased Citysearch ads in late 2007, didn't see a gain in traffic to his site, and attempted to cancel his ad account. The cancellation process dragged out, he said, and in the meantime his ad clicks started to escalate suspiciously. He speculated that click fraud--in which clicks to ads are meant only to drive up the rate the advertiser pays and not to purchase the product--was at play.

Claims in click fraud lawsuits are sometimes questionable, and Kabateck Brown Kellner has extensive experience in the field that could raise a red flag: the plaintiff-only firm has won against both Yahoo and Google, and attorney Brian Kabateck recently went after Google's AdWords advertising program, claiming that it deceived customers.

Consequently, a suit against yet another (smaller) player in the search market could come across as an attempt to just filch more cash from big dot-coms. Or, as the suit goes forward, Lambotte's claims, as represented by Kabateck, could show a legitimate foundation.

Search companies, meanwhile, announced a coalition against click fraud nearly two years ago in conjunction with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council.

[Wookiee-1138]

Thank St. Isidore for Firefox's Adblock Plus and not having to worry about that BS.

[jonrumm]

I have the same problem with citysearch,
I'm advertising with them for 2 years now. Every month the bill is higher and higher. I always ask my customers how did you heard about my company. None mention citysearch. I contacted them to lower the clicks or the budget and they reply: "Unfortunately, we are unable to lower your budget or cost per click because they are the lowest you can have with your product."

[jonrumm]

How can I join the lawsuit????

[steelsmith80]

I have the same problem. I did one month with Citysearch and paid $$ with no sourced customers and 5 clicks. I canceled and they kept advertising for 1 month. The clicks more than doubled in that time period and they charged me. Still, no sourced clients at 5 clicks to my website in 2 months of "advertising". If that isn't fraud I don't know what is.

[beautyu]

I also have this problem with City Search. As soon as they charge my credit card I have 38 hits in 5 days. That is just not possible. I have been in business for one year and I know all my clients not ONE has come from City Search. I am unable to remove my credit card info or decrease the amount I want to spend per month. I sent a letter to my customer service person Peggy Harris and if she does not assist me I will stop payment on the credit card. This is so unfair.

[ocfondue]

I canceled my three accounts with citysearch in March of this year when my account exec at the time was trying to salvage the relationship. I asked why I was zipping through an $800 budget that is supposed to last for ONE MONTH in 12 days, he had no answer for me. He then brought me print outs of their click policies and asked me to keep it confidential that I read this information. The paperwork is called their "cheat sheet" basically showing you how they cheat advertisers out of their money!

Some of their bogus policies are:
-Per unique IP address they will charge you THREE times (at .40cents per click) per session. If that person gets off that web browser and jumps one a new one, it charges you again.
-Google maps- someone clicks on your map on google that is attached to citysearch, they charge your account
-Reviews, addresses, phone numbers, click over to YOUR OWN website.

It's unbelievable. Also two of my locations were not authorized for SEM campaigns. When I signed up my third store, they placed this info on all three of my accounts. I started going through $800-1000 in 10-12days instead of a month-long campaign.

The regional manager for my acct. exec finally called me AFTER I canceled when I had requested to speak with him several times before I finally said goodbye to citysearch. I mentioned the clicks and the information I knew... my old acct. rep did last another three days apparently because of the convo I had with the boss. Fired for being honest to me about how the clicks work. LOVE IT.

I ended up doing a charge back on all three locations because they would not return my phone calls or email in regards to confirmation of the accts being canceled.

Citysearch is the biggest rip off, I hope someone takes them down. If I can jump on the Citysearch Lawsuit bandwagon sign us up. They owe me at least a couple grand in SEM clicks.

[ocfondue]

btw- I bought a tracking site for $49 per month from reachlocal to see where my clicks on citysearch were going because my funds were flying out the window all of the sudden and found that NONE of them were going directly to my site or they would click to my location and jump to another location in another county. That is how I decided to cancel and I found out how they work things. I put a traceable phone number as well and not a single phone call or reservation confirmation on my website in four months. Scam scam scam.

[Sharrokay]

Hi,
I'm dealing with citysearch right now, I own a restaurant. The rep. said that to do a free video we would need a 6 month contract so we said ok. After being in the contract for over 3 months and no one is coming from citysearch, I decided to do a coupon to see the response. In 3 weeks we only got 3 coupons. I contacted the rep and told her I want to cancel it's not working for us and we haven't done the video yet. She kept giving us excuses and then she said we do have a 6 month contract because the first 3 months we were getting 20 cents a click. I was still paying almost $500 a month with the 20 cent a click. so, I'm still dealing with her and she said she send it to her manager and I told her that I put a stop payment on the account. Will say what happens but I'm not paying them anymore. I wish I knew before that this is a rip off.

[Viziatohsm]

I am a business owner that has had several bad comments(reviews) posted on the citysearch web site. We know that the majority of negative comments are from former employees that feel like they want to harm us in any way they can. When I posted a rebutal to the crap that was being posted, it never showed up on the site. When I contacted citysearch to ask why my comments had not posted, they said that as a business owner, if I wanted post a rebutal I would have to subscribe and pay a fee to them. I am wondering if this is even legal? Sounds like Blackmail to me. I contacted them back and told them to remove my business name from their search site since I didn't authorize them to use it in connection with their site. Does anyone know if I have a gripe here. Basically they allow anyone to post all kinds of lies for free if they want and as an owner being harmed by those negative comments, we can't do a thing about it unless we pay their service. Seems like to me we should be able to file a class action law suit against them for using our business names without permission to do so.

[jbeswick]

Citysearch offered us #1 placement for our business but failed to change our listing at all. $200 a month for zero clicks, and both their sales rep and customer service refuse to return my emails or calls. I've changed my credit card number so I can no longer be charged by these scam artists. I also had our case featured on the Bad Company blog - http://badcompany.wordpress.com. It's really frustrating dealing with these guys so I suspect I'll never get my money back.