Ways help business to contend with fraudulent traffic: Recent trends

Advertising fraud is taking on more and more global forms. However, it is more difficult to deal with typical threats. It is critical to understand that special departments cannot always repel hack attacks. Therefore, it can be assumed that the decision to destroy malicious traffic lies entirely with organizations that should ensure the security of internal systems.

Unfortunately, it should be recognized that corporations’ money will have to be protected by their owners. Therefore, they should invest in hiring qualified specialists and apply fresh methods to combat advertising fraud.

Hidden enemy

Recently, scammers who want to destroy the reputation of their competitors in the market are increasingly paying attention to the so-called programmatic ads, which are integrated into applications and websites. Their peculiarity is that they can run in the background, so they pose a great danger to users. It operates as follows. Bot programs are introduced into applications that disguise themselves as familiar apps. However, they are fraudulent systems. At the same time, publishers suffer, as their campaigns are also discredited.

Pay attention. The most important threat is long-term attacks. So, scammers manage to earn more money. Such attacks are carried out in several steps, typically, so they can’t always be detected immediately.

As a result, several commercials that have won the auction can be launched at the same time. Such processes can affect the performance of a smartphone and shorten its service life.

Application attack using fake verification

According to the fraudulent scheme, malicious code was embedded in applications on various platforms, and then verification partners received limited signals. The ads were launched mainly for the target audience and were intended for devices based on one of the popular platforms. They allowed malicious software to be embedded and run on smartphones.

Such tactics had variations. For example, all the suspicious traffic that was intended for one mobile platform subsequently appeared on another.

To solve this problem, experts made research and noticed an unusually large number of requests from different IP addresses. Subsequently, the mother server was discovered, from which the multiple commercials was generated. 

Cost-per-lead fraud: protection mechanisms

Cost-per-lead fraud is a type of dubious advertising when attackers buy customer information and use contact details for lead generation. In this case, questionnaires are filled out on behalf of the user, and the user seems to visit pages with advertising offers. After that, people receive intrusive spam mailings.

Pay attention. The danger of such mailings is that in addition to advertising, user data can be used in fraudulent schemes. These can be financial transactions (for example, crediting) and an attempts to make transactions with bank cards.

To prevent murky activity, companies are improving the security system and principles of personal data storage. At the same time, new customer authentication options are being introduced using biometric data and AI-based systems that include dual authentication. Customers themselves should also be more careful and try to allocate separate email addresses and bank cards for online purchases and mailings. Although these strategies do not always help either.

Application Fraud

The basic goal of hackers with such a system of attacks is to install malicious applications on the devices of real users. To do this, attackers are embedded in the data transfer channels between the SDK (software development kit) and the server. After that, the scammers make fictitious software installations. As a result of SDK spoofing, all actions performed inside the application become visible to data thieves, so they become aware of the principle of operation of any program. This creates an imitation of interaction with real users.

Tip. Companies can fight such attacks by improving data transmission systems and developing encryption methods for data transmission. One of the most effective solutions is dynamic encryption for transporting data packets.

Another option for install fraud is clickjacking and click injections. Hackers and competing brands sometimes use the latter method of attacks, allowing rivals to disrupt the work of the entire advertising campaign. The app is already installed on the device. When trying to install a new program, information about user actions is transmitted to fraudsters. For them, this is a signal to fake an advertising click. As a result, they receive money for the ad, – not advertisers. So, competitors are trying to ruin other market participants in a particular area.

Possible solutions. The responsibility for security in this case lies mainly with the user. It is necessary to try to avoid malicious clicks, and in case of downloading, it must be interrupted immediately. However, it is impossible to exclude the possibility of auto-uploads when reinstalling the ID on a new smartphone. Therefore, technology companies are developing anti-fraud mechanisms based on user behavior and fixing the time interval between downloading applications and clicking.

The main danger of install fraud is the incorrect display of the results of advertising interaction. False information doesn’t allow competing brands to correctly evaluate the results of their campaigns. So, huge and irrational financial expenses wait for administration.

Thus, the main trend in the fight against fraudulent traffic is the ability to anticipate threats and respond to web attacks swiftly. Machine learning technologies and the development of up-to-date AI algorithms can help in this. Cooperation with IT specialists around the world can also be handy. Thanks to niche experts, it is possible to replenish the databases of fraudulent schemes faster and identify intruders more effectively.