geetest_logo

-What Is Ad Fraud?

Ad fraud refers to the technically fabricated and simulated number of clicks and views of real users generally. Simultaneously, it includes the fabrication of the user's actual behavior in mobile ad fraud (such as downloading, logging in, registering, etc.).

Ad fraud has been continuously growing and evolving since the practitioners keep updating, breaking through, and challenging anti-fraud technology with the growth in advertising budgets.


-What Types Of Online Advertising Fraud Exist?


DNS Hijacking

  • What is DNS Hijacking?

DNS (Domain Name System )hijacking is an attack in which user traffic is retargeted from one website to another website designated by the attacker by disrupting the DNS resolution process.

  • How Is DNS Hijacking Working?

DNS is a program that converts the domain name of a website viewed by a real user into an IP address. When a hacker employs Malware to interrupt the DNS resolution process, legitimate traffic is retargeted to the hacker's malicious or bogus website. Therefore, DNS hijacking is an act of "kidnapping" real user traffic.

For users, DNS hijacking could bring not only losses of companies or advertisers but also

worst user experience with Non-stop webpages and pop-ups, Even more, Leak user personal information, endanger account security, and the authority of the website.


Click Hijacking

  • What Is Click Hijacking?

Click injection -Send fraudulent clicks by malware to defraud installation attribution during the installation process.

  • How Is Click Hijacking Working?

Click injection is a type of install hijacking and one of the most common types of attribution fraud on mobile phones.

Fraudsters invade user's devices to monitor their clicks and install behavior by malware that will send fraudulent click reports moments during the installation process to destroy and gain attribution for the natural installation when the user is about to download an application. It's often buried in apps that appear to be fully legitimate, such as in games.


Click Flooding

  • What Is Click Flooding?

Click Flooding, also known as Click Spamming, sends a large number of fraudulent clicks when the application is running without the user's knowledge, which leads to the attraction of organic installation.

  • How Is Click Flooding working?

Firstly Fraudsters use malware to infect and manipulate user applications like game or tool applications that might have one or two visible ads for users and also have more hidden ads.

without the user's knowledge. Malware makes the application automatically click on a large number of advertisements in the background when it is running. There may be hundreds or thousands of clicks,or even video viewing.


SDK Fraud

  • What Is SDK Fraud?

SDK (Software Development Kit) fraud also knew as SDK hacking or SDK Spoofing.

SDK is the fundamental building block of all mobile applications. SDK fraud is the forging of a seemingly valid program installation and a series of in-app event data following installation on a real user's app, even though no actual installation or in-app events occurred.

  • How Is SDK Fraud Working?

As all we know , any application which wants to marketing needs to integrate the SDK of the mobile measurement platform (MMP). Common ones on the market, such as Adjust and Appsflyer, offer authoritative data monitoring, attribution, and analysis.

Fraudsters need to hack the MMP and listen to their "secure communications" then store it in an SDK disguised by apps such as weather, flashlight, alarm clock after copying and imitating the information.After the user downloads the apps that will send fraud data of installation and in-app events from the specific mobile phone to the MMP. it extremely fraudulent Due to the data are sent from the real user's mobile phone even if there is no install occurs.


Pixel Stuffing

  • What Is Pixel Stuffing?

Stuffing with invisible ads of the smaller pixel in a normal-sized(pixel) advertising space to fraud more impressions from adv.

  • How Is Pixel Stuffing working?

Pixel stuffing is that putting a specific video or pic ad slot (like 1200*628px) into a bitty Pixel slot(like 1*1 px) that is too small to see it clearly to makes an ad slot stuffed with multiple ads. However, visitors will be recorded Viewed multiple ads once loading and browsing it, because they can't discern and detect by the naked eye. Fraudsters create a large number of fraud ad impressions by bot generally.

Pixel stuffing is ad impression fraud from the principle of operation and fraud of CPM(Cost Per thousand impressions) settlement mode from the advertiser's point of view.


Ad Stacking

  • What Is Ad Stacking?

Overlay of multiple ads placed in the same ad slot.

  • How Is Ad Stacking Working?

Placing a superposition of multiple ads in the same ad slot, only the top advertisement is visible to users. However, the advertisers mainly pay for the impression of both visible and invisible ads.




The above are the main methods fraudsters use to stifle your marketing. As fraud technology evolves, more mobile ad fraud methods are being refined, like bots simulating real user inapp behavior, registration, login, in-app payment and so forth. These increasingly deadly frauds are eroding advertisers' budgets and business health. Many advertisers rely on ad fraud monitoring platforms to identify fraudulent traffic, while more and more Wisely advertisers are relying on CAPTCHA solutions to stop advertising at the source.


How GeeTest CAPTCHA Solution Solves All Advertisers' Concerns?



  • GeeTest CAPTCHA is Effective at Stopping Ad Fraud.


Advertising on the Internet is a key factor for the success of several businesses nowadays. However, it is often observed that some content publishers are dishonest and employ automated tools to generate traffic and profit by defrauding advertisers. Similarly, some advertisers use automated tools to click on the ads of their competitors, aiming to exhaust the budget of the competitor's marketing departments. GeeTest CAPTCHA product series is an intelligent approach for preventing automated click-fraud,in-app register fraud,account fraud ,etc.

Our gaming and e-commerce cients ,like Xiaomi,Huawei,MiHoyo,etc , have always been the hardest hit by ad fraud, and GeeTest CAPTCHA solution effectively provides sustainable security for their ad promotion and business development.



  • Stopping Ad fraud Without Hurting User Experience.


GeeTest has been committed to optimizing the user experience while offering the most robust protection for customers.In 2013, GeeTest pioneered the Slide-CAPTCHA,which is a combination of puzzles and games that liberates the user experience from traditional CAPTCHAs and is trusted by 320,000 enterprise customers worldwide by 2022. GeeTest launches Adepative CAPTCHA this year,

offering 9 CAPTCHA types with Adaptive CAPTCHA, including No CAPTCHA, Slide CAPTCHA, IconCrush CAPTCHA, Gobang CAPTCHA etc, which suit various security demands without interrupting the user experience. For end users: The product should be able to cover and be compatible with individual users when they use all products of this company from all terminal devices, and meanwhile, ensure the best response speed of user services.




Axie Infinity,the market leader in blockchain gaming, partnered with GeeTest to stop bot attacks and deliver exceptional user experiences.

" GeeTest has resolved this issue while preventing mass bot signups.Our experience with the GeeTest team has been great and our players have been happy with the verification experience." said Axie Infinity security team.



  • No impact on conversion rate of each Ad campaign.

GeeTest offers invisible CAPTCHA for customers who would like zero friction verification.GeeTest invisible CAPTCHA mode is the most robust security and zero user-friction experience, which allows you to verify if an interaction is legitimate without seeing the GeeTest checkbox, even bots, and suspicious challenges. For legitimate users, it is thoroughly unknown where CAPTCHA is deployed. For online businesses, it helps to get a significant increase in conversion rate.Meanwhile,GeeTest supports as a strong security partner by adopting effective security strategies, reporting risks to GeeTest customer dashboards, addressing business risk flexibly according to the enterprise security control system.

Register and Get invisible CAPTCHA here.



In the fight against digital advertising fraud, companies have adopted a variety of strategies to minimize the risks and impacts they face. The CAPTCHA tool is one of the most ubiquitous solutions used in online ad fraud prevention. GeeTest Captcha solution trusted by over 320000 enterprises worldwide for ten years, blocks and identifies all ad fraud at the earliest moment and provides sturdy and robust protection for advertisers' ad business.


Want to Know How GeeTest Helped Global ad Services Company Fight Fraud? Get more Case Study or Request a Free Trial !

Start your free trial
Over 320,000 websites and mobile apps worldwide are protected by GeeTest captcha
author

Sissi Sun

Marketing Manager @GeeTest

ad_img