Category Archives: Methbot

FBI investigators describe Methbot investigation as ‘beautiful concert of things shutting down’

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Maybe the only thing more complicated than the Methbot advertising fraud scheme was the plan that ultimately shut it all down. Last year, the FBI led a takedown operation that, with help from the bot detection firm White Ops and more than a dozen other companies, resulted in the arrest of three accused fraudsters in three different countries, as well as the seizure of more than 50 web servers and numerous bank accounts. The law operation, detailed Wednesday by FBI officials at the International Conference on Cyber Security, targeted the Methbot/3ve fraud scheme. The ad-fraud ring defrauded digital advertisers and web publishers out of more than $30 million by charging marketers for access to internet users who didn’t actually exist, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Advertising fraud, already a billion-dollar problem, is set to cost the ad industry $44 billion by 2022. The investigation, which lasted more than […]

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Alleged Methbot scammer Zhukov asks judge for new attorney in ad fraud case

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Aleksandr Zhukov is not happy. The accused leader of an advertising fraud scheme that U.S. officials say defrauded international companies out of millions of dollars wrote a letter last week to Judge Edward Korman of the Eastern District of New York asking for assistance in finding new legal representation. Zhukov, in the note submitted Friday, asked the judge to appoint Simone Bertollini, a New York-based attorney, as his public defender. He hopes to hire Bertollini because of the attorney’s representation of Fabio Gasperini, an Italian man convicted in 2017 of operating a botnet of 100,000 hacked computers for malicious purposes. Bertollini would replace Igor Litvak, another New York-based attorney who withdrew from the case in March because of Zhukov’s inability to pay his legal fees. Litvak also appeared to be negotiating with prosecutors seeking a plea deal, though it’s clear now Zhukov intends to go to trial. In his letter to Korman, […]

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Third suspect in Methbot, 3ve case to plead not guilty after extradition from Malaysia

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A Kazakh national accused of helping coordinate an advertising fraud scheme that fleeced companies out of tens of millions of dollars will plead not guilty when he arrives in the U.S. to stand trial, his lawyer told CyberScoop. Sergey Ovsyannikov is scheduled to be extradited to the U.S. in the coming weeks, a Kazakh consulate official told CyberScoop last week. When Ovsyannikov arrives in court, he will plead not guilty to charges that he led the 3ve botnet-based scheme to falsify billions of advertisements, costing businesses $29 million between December 2015 and October 2018, according to defense attorney Arkady Bukh. “At the arraignment, the plea will be entered as not guilty,” Bukh said. “Then we’ll go over the [evidence] and…we’ll see if the government is in a position to prove any guilt.” His presence in court will mark the third time an accused member of the 3ve/Methbot group was extradited […]

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Complex court battle for Methbot, 3ve cybercrime suspects only is getting started

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Alleged perpetrators of the Methbot and 3ve cybercrime rings have started to arrive in the U.S. to face accusations that they orchestrated a broad conspiracy to defraud advertisers for millions of dollars. Yevgeniy Timchenko, a 30-year-old citizen of Kazakhstan, appeared Wednesday in federal district court in Brooklyn alongside Aleksandr Zhukov, a Russian national, in a short status hearing. Both men had bald heads with facial hair and stood before the judge in beige jumpsuits. Lawyers asked for more time to review discovery materials in a case where the evidence is “extremely voluminous” and comes in multiple languages, including Russian and Bulgarian. The Department of Justice has linked Timchenko to 3ve and Zhukov to Methbot, two distinct ad-fraud operations outlined in the same indictment unsealed in November. Both groups used botnet-based schemes to boost web traffic numbers in plots to collect money from legitimate advertising companies lured into investing in seemingly trustworthy businesses. Members of Methbot and 3ve (pronounced “eve”), while working in different […]

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From DDoS attacks to ad fraud: Smarter bots are copying human behavior

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Major websites and internet services have been caught up in an epidemic of fake traffic, an expensive problem for digital operators that also threatens to undermine trust in legitimate areas of the web. Innovative scammers located throughout the world are constantly developing new ways to falsify web traffic, directing unwitting users’ internet connections to ads that may or may not actually exist. In these ad fraud campaigns, thieves traditionally would use automated bots to artificially inflate website traffic in schemes that allowed website operators to profit from higher advertising revenue. Security teams could once easily detect bot traffic by identifying visitors engaged in anomalous behavior, such as opening and closing windows millions of times. Now, ad-fraud scammers are using more advanced technology that more closely resembles actual human activity, making it far more difficult for digital crime-fighters to stop it. Gone are the days when scammers simply would only use […]

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‘MethBot’ Ad Fraud Operators Making $5 Million Revenue Every Day

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The biggest advertising fraud ever!

A group of hackers is making between $3 Million to $5 Million per day from United States brands and media companies in the biggest digital ad fraud ever discovered.

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Report: $3-5M in Ad Fraud Daily from ‘Methbot’

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New research suggests that an elaborate cybercrime ring is responsible for stealing between $3 million and $5 million worth of revenue from online publishers and video advertising networks each day. Experts say the scam relies on a vast network of cloaked Internet addresses, rented data centers, phony Web sites and fake users made to look like real people watching short ad segments online. Continue reading Report: $3-5M in Ad Fraud Daily from ‘Methbot’→