Using a homegrown tool called Fiddler, researchers at Microsoft have come up with a system to track the money that flows from big-name advertisers to search engine spammers.

The methodology, created by Microsoft Research in partnership with the University of California, Davis, has already uncovered a complex scheme where a small group using false doorway pages are able to profit by redirecting traffic passed from search engines in one direction and then sending advertisements acquired from syndicators in the opposite direction. (More at the New York Times).

According to a research paper released by Microsoft, a "five-layer, double-funnel model" can be used to pick apart the end-to-end redirection spam and analyze the layers to follow the money trail.

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Microsoft, Fiddler, Research, Web, Spam, Money