Fake-Ad Operation Used to Steal From Publishers Is Uncovered

                         

The advertisement technology firm Adform had uncovered a complex and sophisticated advertising-fraud operation, in which fake websites and infected desktops were mainly used to scam advertisers and publishers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. The ad-fraud scheme “hyphbot”, where fraudsters created more than 34,000 different domain names and more than a million different URLs to mainly fool advertisers and marketers, similar to the practice of domain spoofing. This tricked advertisers and marketers by making it appear as if they are buying into ad inventory from giant publishers, such as The Economist, the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and CNN. The perpetrators then created nonhuman traffic that loaded the fraudulent sites and made money through video ads, which are considered quite attractive since they have higher rates compared to online ads. Fake traffic is a serious cyber threat for advertisers and marketers, since it is a financial waste due to the fact that they are buying ads that were served to computer programs, rather than real people purchasing their products. Thus, we have real publishers being cheated for highly potential advertising revenue. The ad tech firm Adform mentioned that such a major implication out of this fraudulent scheme could’ve been prevented if publishers, marketers, and tech-ad firms had implemented a newly standardized security initiative called Ads.txt, which is mainly designed to clear off domain spoofing. Another possible standard initiative or solution for the “hyphot” scheme would be for ad-tech vendors to review their data warehouses to pinpoint suspicious displays or patterns, and then clearing off associated networks. 

Adform says “Hyphot” scheme created fake websites and nonhuman traffic to trick advertisers of more than $500,000. It is mentioned that the people behind the “hyphot” scheme used a network of data centers and consumers’ desktops infected by malware, to access half a million IP addresses to emulate real browsing behavior on the network of fake websites. The fake URLs were presented in ad auctions through different ad platforms at a rate of 1.5 billion requests to ad buyers a day. Adform had informed the FBI in the U.S and the Metropolitan Police in the UK regarding the “hyphot” scheme and its accompanying means of domain spoofing and suspicious URLs found in ad exchanges. A top executive at the Financial Times urged all tech ad firms, content providers, and vendors within the supply chain to urgently implement the crucial ads.txt standard, that is an already industry latest best practice to at least deter and clear off such scamps and domain hoaxing. According to a report by ad-fraud detection from White Ops, an estimated $6.5 billion in advertisement spending is expected to be wasted this year due to fraudulent schemes. Ads.txt initiative is a mechanism that allows publishers to display to ad buyers all the authentic sellers of their ad inventory through a text file on their sites. Buyers and their ad-tech vendors can sneak such files so they can only buy into the listed sellers. For the Ads.txt initiative to prove fruitful, it would require everyone in the supply chain – from ad buyers to demand-side platforms, along with ad exchanges to update their files regularly.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fake-ad-operation-used-to-steal-from-publishers-is-uncovered-1511290981