many content sites created to serve display and search ads.

1. How to Detect
Fraudulent Sites
Dr. Augustine Fou
http://linkd.in/augustinefou
acfou @mktsci .com
November 2013
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Augustine Fou

2. Motivation
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Augustine Fou

3. Ad Waste from Fraud
Display Ad Fraud
Video Ad Fraud
480 billion
20.1 billion
display ad impressions /mo
video ad impressions /mo
29%
40%
Source: Solve Media 2013
Source: Vindico, 2013
confirmed bot traffic
$1 - $3.50
~$10
cost per thousand
cost per thousand
$2-6 billion
$1 billion
wasted ad spend (annualized)
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estimated fake views
wasted ad spend (annualized)
Augustine Fou

4. How to Detect
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Augustine Fou

5. Detecting Fraudulent Sites
• Rapid, large, unexplained changes in traffic
• Increase in traffic without corresponding increase in
search volume (how human users find content sites);
under-indexing traffic % from search
• Large amount of paid search clicks served, with no
visible search ads anywhere on the site
• Large discrepancy between comScore traffic numbers
and Quantcast/Alexa counts (hard to fake actual
installed toolbars); different shapes of traffic curves
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Augustine Fou

6. Traffic Firehose On/Off
Source: Alexa
Legit human traffic does not change rapidly; but bot traffic
(firehose) can be rapidly turned off and directed to other sites.
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Augustine Fou

7. Blend.com
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Augustine Fou

8. goalbuilder.com
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Augustine Fou

9. healthyweb.com
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Augustine Fou

10. inquirehow.com
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Augustine Fou

11. localxpress.com
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Augustine Fou

12. healthandbodyplus.com
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Augustine Fou

13. mindbodycourse.com
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Augustine Fou

14. topicologist.com
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Augustine Fou

15. dotellall.com
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Augustine Fou

16. askmetis.com
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Augustine Fou

17. healthyfamliving.com
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Augustine Fou

18. Related Articles
Bad Guys Happily Rob Display Advertisers
By: Augustine Fou, July 23, 2012
Everything Fake (Display Ad Fraud, Search Click Fraud)
By: Augustine Fou, April 2013
Blacklisting vs Whitelisting
By: Augustine Fou, October 2013
Fake Profiles on Facebook
By: Augustine Fou, July 2013
How Display Ad Fraud Works
By: Augustine Fou, May 2013
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Augustine Fou

19. Dr. Augustine Fou – Digital Consigliere
“I advise clients on optimizing advertising
across all channels. Using insights and fastfeedback loops from digital, we can not only
target brand ads better, but we can shift
towards more detailed measurement and
ROI; along with detection and mitigation of
fraud and waste.”
FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, HCG (OMNICOM)
MCKINSEY CONSULTANT
CLIENT SIDE / AGENCY SIDE EXPERIENCE
PROFESSOR AND COLUMNIST
ENTREPRENEUR / SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
PHD MATERIALS SCIENCE (MIT '95) AT AGE 23
ClickZ Articles: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-clickz
Slideshares: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-slideshares
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/augustinefou
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@acfou
Augustine Fou