Digital ad fraud is a Major Economic Crime

October 2018 / Page 0marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
linkedin.com/in/augustinefou
Digital Ad Fraud is
a Major Economic Crime
Augustine Fou, PhD.
acfou [at] mktsci.com

“there is no law against ad fraud,
but a dozen other laws may be
applicable. For example, computer
crimes (hacking, malware) help ad
fraud and, in turn, are funded by it.”

Computer crimesMany of the tech/actions that support ad fraud are computer crimes
“computer crimes such as breaking into computers or computer
networks. Computer crime can be broadly defined as criminal activity
involving information technology infrastructure, including illegal
access (unauthorized access), illegal interception (by technical means
of non-public transmissions of computer data to, from or within a
computer system), data interference (unauthorized damaging,
deletion, deterioration, alteration or suppression of computer data),
systems interference (interfering with the functioning of a computer
system by inputting, transmitting, damaging, deleting, deteriorating,
altering or suppressing computer data), misuse of devices, forgery (or
identity theft) and electronic fraud.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_criminals

Illegal Access / Breaches
Harvesting personal info, ecommerce transactions, other data
BreachesIllegal Access
https://www.csoonline.com/article/2130
877/data-breach/the-biggest-data-
breaches-of-the-21st-century.html

Illegal Interception
Keystroke logging to collect logins, passwords, other personal info
Source: Freedom to Tinker, Nov 2017
https://www.thedailybeast.com/california-passes-landmark-
privacy-bill-to-restrict-data-harvesting

Data interference
Alteration or suppression of computer data
Buzzfeed, March 2018
Source:
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/19/business/la-
fi-mo-cookie-stuffing-ebay-20130419
“Laguna Niguel man pleads
guilty in 'cookie stuffing' scam
against Ebay. The online
auctioneer paid Dunning’s
company about $5.2 million in
2006 and 2007, the U.S. Attorney
said.”

Misuse of Devices
Ransomware and malicious cryptomining using humans’ devices
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2018/02/state-malicious-cryptomining/https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-not-dead-just-getting-a-lot-sneakier/

Forgery, falsified profiles
Unverifiable lookalike audiences contain fake profiles/preferences
Bots pretend to be
oncologists by visiting
oncology related sites.
Bots pretend to be
outdoor enthusiasts by
visiting outdoor related
sites.

Identity theft scenarios
Stolen personal info can be sold, and also later used in hacking
https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/heres-how-much-your-personal-information-is-selling-for-on-the-dark-web/

Criminal impersonation
Bad guys pretend to be politicians, celebrities to trick consumers

Piracy/Mass Infringement
Large numbers of cloned sites containing 100% pirated content
Mass infringement
sites use pirated
content to attract
human visitors
- Show ads
- Attempt to hack
them or track them

Copyright infringement
Entire pages copied to thousands of other sites, to get free traffic
Google search on entire phrase in quotes:
http://bit.ly/16H9Gk5
Source: Buzzfeed, October 2018

Copyright/Trademark Laws
Multiple forms of fraud, violating different laws
Quote from Doc Searls,
1. “All four ads are flat-out frauds, in up to
four ways apiece: All are lies (Tiger isn’t
gone from Golf, Trump isn’t disqualified,
Kaepernick is still with the Niners, Tom
Brady is still playing), violating Truth in
Advertising law.
2. They were surely not placed by ESPN and
CNN. This is fraud.
3. All four of them violate copyright or
trademark laws by using another
company’s name or logo. (One falsely
uses another’s logo. Three falsely use
another company’s Web address.)
4. All four stories are bait-and-switch scams,
which are also illegal. (Both of mine were
actually ads for diet supplements.)”

Counterfeit goods
Just like fake Gucci watches and LVMH handbags, fake digital ads

Money laundering scenario
Dollars are laundered as digital media ad spend on “cash out” sites
1. Buy digital media via ad exchanges on sites
directly or indirectly owned by the same entities
2. Pay “ad tech tax” (cut to middlemen)
3. Collect dollars from “cash out” sites, fully
laundered

Credit card fraud scenario
Tiny transactions automated on millions of stolen card numbers
Amateur Criminals
Buy HDTV at Walmart
with stolen credit card;
get caught, card is
deactivated.
Pro Criminals
Automate millions of 99 cent in-
game purchases of “power-ups,
shields, virtual goods” to
harvest dollars, fully laundered.

Wire fraud scenarios
Knowingly misrepresenting the capabilities of the … technology
“Allegedly engaged in a multi-million dollar
scheme to defraud investors, as well as a
doctors and patients. charged with two counts
of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine
counts of wire fraud.
Holmes and Balwani are charged with two
counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and
nine counts of wire fraud.
Holmes and Balwani were accused of knowingly
misrepresenting the capabilities of Theranos'
proprietary blood testing technology. The two
allegedly knew there were "accuracy and
reliability problems," and that it "could not
compete with existing, more conventional
machines," the US Attorney's office said.”
http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/15/technology/elizabeth-
holmes-indicted-theranos/index.html

Securities fraud scenarios
Deceptive practice of inducing investors with false information
• Revenues derived from illegal activities
• Inflating revenue, profits through ad fraud
• Overstating subscribers, active users, ARPU
• Selling counterfeit services and products
• Misrepresenting the capabilities of services, products

Ad fraud is “cash out”
for criminal activities

The most profitable criminal activity
2,500 - 4,100% returns
11% returns1% interest
digital ad fraud
stock marketbank interest
“where else can I get multi-
thousands percent returns on
my money? Right. Nowhere.”

“Ad fraud is at ALL TIME HIGHS
both in RATE and in DOLLARS…
… and what’s worse is fraud
detection is not catching it, so
people have a false sense of security.”
Source: https://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/state-of-digital-ad-fraud-q2-2018

Two main kinds of ad fraud
“Everything else is a derivative of (e.g.
cost-per-install fraud), or in support of (e.g.
tricking measurement, attribution, covering
tracks) the above 2 forms of ad fraud.”
Impression Fraud
(CPM) Fraud
(includes mobile display, video ads)
Click Fraud
(CPC) Fraud
(includes mobile search ads)

Why? Largest buckets of spend
Leads
(CPL)
Sales
(CPA)
Lead Gen
$2.0B
Other
$5.0B
• classifieds
• sponsorship
• rich media
Impressions
(CPM/CPV)
Clicks
(CPC)
Search 46%
Display 31%
Video 14%
91% digital ad spend Source: IAB FY 2017 Report
Estimated >$100B in 2018
9% spend

DDoS traffic for ad revenueDDoS attacks overwhelm with traffic; now use traffic to make ad revenue
Google Digital Attack Map

75-90% of traffic/clicks are fake
Not much as changed since 2014, except digital ad spend is way up
https://www.dianomi.com/cms/wp-
content/uploads/2018/06/RobotTrafficReport-
US_14June2018_V5-draft.pdf
2018
$100B in ad spend
2015
$60B in ad spend
https://oxford-
biochron.com/downloads/OxfordBioChron_Qua
ntifying-Online-Advertising-Fraud_Report.pdf
2014
$50B in ad spend
http://adage.com/article/datadriven-
marketing/kraft-rejects-75-85-impressions-due-
quality-issues/295635/

#defendthespend
“solving ad fraud will reduce the
flow of dollars to what amounts to
‘major economic crimes.’
Then, and only then, will we get
back to REAL digital marketing.”

About the Author
Augustine Fou, PhD.
acfou [@] mktsci.com

Dr. Augustine Fou – Independent Ad Fraud Researcher
2013
2014
Published slide decks and posts:
http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/presentations
https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/augustinefou
2016
2015
2017

Digital ad fraud is a Major Economic Crime

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