Following a news report on ad fraud in Android apps, Google has yanked off several apps & blacklisted Websites.
Buzzfeed had, in its investigative report on Oct 23, said that apps on millions of Android devices had tracked user behavior to execute a multimillion-dollar ad fraud.
Reacting to this report, Google said on its official blog:
The BuzzFeed News report covers several fraud tactics (both web and mobile app) that are allegedly utilized by the same group. The web-based traffic is generated by a botnet that Google and others have been tracking, known as “TechSnab.” The TechSnab botnet is a small to medium-sized botnet that has existed for a few years. The number of active infections associated with TechSnab was reduced significantly after the Google Chrome Cleanup tool began prompting users to uninstall the malware.
In similar fashion to other botnets, this operates by creating hidden browser windows that visit web pages to inflate ad revenue. The malware contains common IP based cloaking, data obfuscation, and anti-analysis defenses. This botnet drove traffic to a ring of websites created specifically for this operation, and monetized with Google and many third party ad exchanges. As mentioned above, we began taking action on these websites earlier this year.
Based on analysis of historical ads.txt crawl data, inventory from these websites was widely available throughout the advertising ecosystem, and as many as 150 exchanges, supply-side platforms (SSPs) or networks may have sold this inventory. The botnet operators had hundreds of accounts across 88 different exchanges (based on accounts listed with “DIRECT” status in their ads.txt files).
This fraud primarily impacted mobile apps. We investigated those apps that were monetizing via AdMob and removed those that were engaged in this behavior from our ad network. The traffic from these apps seems to be a blend of organic user traffic and artificially inflated ad traffic, including traffic based on hidden ads. Additionally, we found the presence of several ad networks, indicating that it’s likely many were being used for monetization. We are actively tracking this operation, and continually updating and improving our enforcement tactics.
Google further said by its own reckoning, the dollar value of impacted Google ad spend across such apps & Sites was under US $10 million. “The majority of impacted advertiser spend was from invalid traffic on inventory from non-Google, third-party ad networks,” it said. Google has blacklisted additional apps & Sites that were outside of its ad network, to ensure that advertisers using Display & Video 360 (formerly known as DoubleClick Bid Manager) did not buy any of this traffic.
