I am working on a project in java and I was hoping to be able to collect statistics from the client and a possible problem that I fear will occur is the manipulation of the variables used for collection which will lead to illegitimate statistics. Is it in any way possible to prevent the manipulation of variables or is it always possible?

For example: I want to log the actions made per hour from the client. The variable acting as a counter for the amount of actions performed is manipulated and a much larger amount is added to the counter. This data is then uploaded to the server (Of course using a multi-tier architecture to prevent even more possible problems) and considered 'legit.'

Is there any way to prevent this?