Four people have been indicted for manipulating online search results to have their clients rank higher on Korea's top Internet portal, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The investigators have busted two local companies that fixed the related keyword searches on Naver to maximize the advertising effect of their clients and received some 3.35 billion won ($2.94 million), according to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.
 

The two company chiefs, both in their 30s, have been arrested and charged with obstruction of business. Their two employees will face trial without detention.

The prosecution claimed they have together fixed some 1.33 million search keywords for restaurants, tutoring firms, plastic surgeons, dentists and shopping malls.

They used software programs to artificially make keywords related to the clients' businesses appear at the top of the search results so as to induce more clicks from Internet users.

They apparently had about 100 desktops and smartphones in their office, and they had set the software programs to run automatically to manipulate the search keywords, the prosecution said.

They also used a separate software to manipulate the IP addresses to avoid being caught by the search engine operator's monitoring devices that detect any keyword manipulation. (Yonhap)