Category Archives: White Ops

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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How scammers made ad fraud a billion-dollar criminal industry

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Whoever came up with “thieves rob banks because that’s where all the money is” needs to add “digital advertising” to the updated version of the adage. Criminals simply don’t need to go through all the trouble of stealing money from well-fortified financial institutions when they can just trick advertisers into directly lining their pockets. With internet ad revenue totaling more than $100 billion in 2018, scammers are following that line of money: ad fraud is set to cost the industry as much as $44 billion annually by 2022. But the problem has ramifications for more than just the digital advertising market. Digital ad revenue provides much of the financial underpinning of e-commerce and online-based businesses. Media agencies suffer when their analytics tools report a substantial amount of web traffic, but the amount of revenue doesn’t support the number of visitors tracked by their systems. Online ad fraud has become so profitable that […]

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No longer clicking: Online ad fraud has fallen in the past year

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Online advertising fraud will cost digital marketers $5.8 billion this year, down from $6.5 billion the year before, according to new research. The forecast arrived in a report published Wednesday by White Ops and the Association of National Advertisers, providing a sliver of hope for ad companies who have lost money by paying for access to humans who don’t actually exist. This year’s decline can be attributed to the adoption of the ads.txt anti-spoofing protocol and incremental advances in more secure video advertising technology. But it’s also clear that ad-fraud rings also are updating their strategies, and looking for new ways to make a buck. “Less fraud means less revenue lost to cybercriminals,” the report states. “And increased implementation of cybersecurity defenses, raising the cost and risk of the crime, has helped to dissuade some would-be fraudsters from pursuing this line of cybercrime altogether.” Ad fraud works in a variety of […]

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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’→