AIT says after it became suspicious the Observer was over-billing the company for advertising, it was able to monitor Web traffic to and from the Observer's Web site. It discovered that up to 50 percent or more of the online impressions and ad clicks were manufactured or inflated and the traffic itself fell far below the statistics the Observer used to attract advertisers in its online policies and agreements.

After AIT complained to the company, FPC sued AIT demanding that its servers hosted by AIT be returned. The Web hosting provider then filed a lawsuit against FPC to protect its rights and the rights of other advertisers and also filed a criminal complaint with the FBI. AIT is currently in the process of appealing a court's recent ruling stating that AIT had not been responsive in discovery even though AIT produced over 60,000 pages of proof and the Observer produced nothing.

"The rate card and other representations made by the Observer claimed they got 17,000 visitors a day to their Web site," says AIT CEO Clarence Briggs. "This is simply not true. We recorded and documented a few genuine visits a day but the majority of visits were manufactured and fake. We wanted to open the Observer's Web servers up in front of everyone and the court to get at the truth and prove the fraud but [FPC] did not want to do so. I find it ironic that the newspaper is full of 'Fayetteville Wrongdoing' but when it comes to reporting themselves, they cover up the truth."

AIT also recently announced it has concluded a partnership, which permits AIT to sell Barracuda Networks products.