Ad fraud can come in many shapes and sizes, however, its end goal is always the same: to steal your ad spend by driving fraudulent traffic or conversions to your campaign. Various methods of ad fraud have morphed and advanced since the early 2000s, making today\u2019s fraudsters smarter and trickier than ever before. In order to avoid ad fraud, it\u2019s important to first understand what fraud looks like and the steps you can take to proactively secure your campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A partner brokering offers to another network leading to payout deflation and a loss of control over where the campaign is being run. Rebrokering is often a source of terms violation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
A class of mobile fraud wherein partners send large numbers of clicks from real devices in an attempt to obtain the last-click before an install occurs, taking credit for organic users as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Individuals attempting to gain CPA conversions through fraudulent means will change their IP addresses and other identifying information that would appear in a User Agent String in an effort to disguise that these are not legitimate conversions. The bad actors will then fill out the call to action with false consumer information, hoping the Marketer does not notice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
A form of fraud in which a fraudster executes clicks in the background of real user engagement within an app, which is often invisible to the user. This can occur when an app is enabled to run continuously in the background or simultaneously while a user is engaging within the app.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Consumers regularly fill out offer forms without submitting the form. Fraudsters will take the user’s information from the abandoned form and use it to “stuff” additional forms to simulate the user’s interest in an array of offers. In doing so, the fraudster will get credit for those signups, while the consumer receives communications from marketers without knowingly completing offer forms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Unique to Android devices, click injection is an advanced form of click fraud wherein the fraudster utilizes malware to steal installs. This malware is hidden inside when an app is downloaded from the app store. From there, the malware will send a click to steal the credit for that install.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Bots are among the most common types of fraud and are spreading at an alarming rate. A bot is a code that is programmed to mimic human behavior including installs and post-install engagements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Since fraudsters are not able to predict which devices or IPs their fraudulent clicks will convert on, these partners will often revert to randomly generating engagement over the course of several hours, which is abnormal for partners who are running real, quality traffic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
SDK spoofing is a form of bot-based fraud that often takes the form of malware hidden within an app. The fraudster will generate a click, install, or engagement to steal the attribution from the app where the malware is hidden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Interested in finding out what types of fraud may be impacting
your marketing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n