Patent ID: 8423640

Claim:
A method performed by one or more server devices, the method comprising: tracking, by at least one of the one or more server devices, activities of devices that access a web site, identifying, based on the tracked activities and by at least one of the one or more server devices, a particular set of devices from among the devices accessing the web site; determining, by at least one of the one or more server devices, whether a link, associated with the web site, has been spammed, where the determining includes: comparing an actual click rate of the link to an expected click rate of the link by the particular set of devices, where the expected click rate is based on historical data associated with the link, and determining, based on the comparing, that the link has been spammed when the actual click rate is greater than the expected click rate; and taking, by at least one of the one or more devices, a remedial measure upon determining that the link has been spammed.