By now, fraudsters are well-aware of the marketing platforms and they are getting more and more creative when it comes to online advertising frauds. Here are the most common ones that you should be aware of.
#1. CPC (Cost Per Click) Frauds
- Automatic redirection – Fraudsters can redirect users to a certain page without them having clicked on the ad. If the user eventually takes action (buying a product, downloading an app, etc), it falsely attributes conversion to the publisher.
- Deceptive ads – When ads that serve as a warning get closed but lead to a totally unrelated page, you are probably dealing with a fraud. Usually, the close button is not functioning but only tricking the user who wants to close the add, to click it.
#2. CPI (Cost Per Impression) Frauds
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- Installation/Activation Fraud – This one is related to fake installs. Sometimes, device information is rigged to send virtual information to the network. Another example of online advertising frauds that is really popular among mobile ads where groups of people are hired to manually install applications, also known as click farms.
- Attribution Fraud (Click Stuffing) – This is where fraudsters capitalize on the “1st click” or “last click” attribution. They try to identify the users who are about to make a purchase and target ads to them or artificially stuff click with the help of another device to make it look like the user completed the click.
- Click Spam and Click Injection – This is an advanced form of click spam where a malicious app listens to ‘install broadcasts’ and detects when an app is about to be installed and triggers a click just before the install.
#3. Post-Install Fraud
- Registration Fraud – When people are hired to register on landing pages using fake accounts.
- Value of Install Frauds – After a fake install, bots simulate user behavior to trick advertisers that they are legitimate users in order to motivate them to run more campaigns.
- Hacking the postback URL & APK – Hackers manipulate installation postback URL and fake bulk installs on a single click or bulk clicks on the ads. Thus, it becomes difficult to ascertain if your campaign has been successful or the users are fake.
Of course, this list is not exhaustive but covers the 3 types of the most common online advertising frauds. No matter what solutions we come up with, fraudsters will keep coming up with other ways of cheating the system. The best thing we can do is bring awareness, and we hope this article was helpful.
