7 Common Types of Mobile Ad Fraud and How to Identify Them

Businesses pay a lot of money to access users through apps because of mobile advertising. Unfortunately, many companies waste their advertising budgets on mobile advertising, and not all of that budget is justified. Mobile Ad Fraud is one of the greatest threats in mobile advertising. As an example, when an entity gets advertisers to pay for a fake action (fake installs, fake clicks) instead of a real user engagement, in this case, that’s considered Mobile Ad Fraud. 

Therefore, if you’d like to avoid mobile ad fraud, chances are you’ll need to educate yourself on the best types of mobile ad fraud and how they may be detectable. This blog will provide the 7 most common types of Mobile Ad Fraud in simple words. We will describe how tools such as real-time fraud detection and mobile fraud prevention can work to protect your ad budget.

What is Mobile Ad Fraud?

Mobile Ad Fraud is defined as the act of cheating advertisers in mobile advertising (faking clicks or installs, among other user actions). On the surface, the goal is to get real users engaging with a developer’s app; however, in cases of mobile ad fraud, bots or fraudsters create the illusion that the app is being utilised. In the end, the advertiser spends money on fake traffic, ultimately wasting the advertiser’s time and money.

Currently, it’s estimated that upwards of 20%x of mobile ad budgets are lost to Mobile Ad Fraud. This is why it is imperative to understand how Mobile Ad Fraud works and how to prevent it from happening. To help with this, Apptrove, as a trusted MMP, offers advanced fraud protection technology that helps advertisers detect and block fraudulent activity in real-time.

1. Click Spamming

What it is:

Click spamming is the act of attempting to generate fake clicks to an ad network in hopes one of the fake clicks will be attributed to a real user, much like guessing the one user who will install an app and crediting yourself for that install.

How to spot it:

• You see many clicks that have long delays before an installation takes place.
• You identify unusual click-to-install ratios.

Click spamming is a form of Mobile Ad Fraud that can go unnoticed unless you keep track of your clicks, but you can use real-time fraud detection and management tools to strategically detect click spam.

2. Click injection

What it is:

Click injection is another form of Mobile Ad Fraud, though a more advanced and malicious version. Click injection occurs on Android devices only, in which the user installs a malicious app that then clicks the install right before they installed an app, stealing the install credit from the Timely user.

How to spot it:

• There is too little time between the click and the install.
• The installs are only coming from certain devices or apps.
• Mobile fraud prevention tactics can block clicks from hitting your servers by identifying suspicious behaviour. 

3. SDK Spoofing

What it is: 

Software Development Kit (SDK) Spoofing involves fraudsters who use software to impersonate app installs and other legitimate user activity, even though no legitimate user engaged with the application.

How to Spot it: 

Traffic from devices that don’t match typical models or operating systems. Frequent app activity that occurs with no actual downloads completed.

This type of Mobile Ad Fraud is hard to detect and is only possible if the fraud protection tools are smart enough. It’s imperative to have real-time fraud detection in place to ensure accurate traffic.

4. Device Farms

What it is: 

Device farms are physical locations that have hundreds of mobile phones that are used specifically to simulate installs, clicks, and in-app actions to deceive advertisers into thinking they are of value. 

How to Spot It: 

Unusual concentration of installs originating from one location or specific IP address. Identical user behaviour and actions across numerous devices.

This type of Mobile Ad Fraud can be extremely expensive for advertisers, where geo-persistent IP tracking and behavioural tracing may allow them to spot this activity.

5. Fake Installs

What it is:

Fraudsters create fake installs using bots or scripts, which makes it appear as if real users are downloading the app.

How to spot it:

• High rates of installs with very low user engagement after that.
• Users who never actually open the app after installing.
• This type of Mobile Ad Fraud fills up your numbers without providing you any value. Keeping an eye on your retention and engagement rates can help you catch this.

6. Fake In-App Events

What it is:

Sometimes fraud doesn’t stop with fake installs. Fraudsters also simulate fake in-app purchases or signups to get additional payouts from campaigns that pay out based on certain actions.

How to spot it:

• In-app events coming from suspicious sources.
• Revenue that does not match user activity or app analytics.

This type of Mobile Ad Fraud can mislead performance reports and negatively impact your growth strategy.

7. Attribution Fraud

What it is:

Attribution fraud is when a fraudster attempts to take credit for an install or event in your app that they did not cause. It’s usually done with click spamming and click injection.

How to spot it:

• Conflicting data between attribution platforms.
• One network is taking credit for an unreasonable number of installs.
• Attribution is crucial to mobile marketing, making this type of Mobile Ad fraud a significant threat to app campaign tracking.

Why Mobile Ad Fraud is a Big Problem:

Mobile Ad Fraud is not only wasting money, but it also makes it challenging to understand which of your marketing efforts are working. If fraud is impacting your campaign data, you could be investing in the wrong channels.

Some reports indicate that businesses lose billions of dollars each year to Mobile Ad Fraud. This is why it’s important to remain vigilant and utilise tools that can safeguard your app campaigns.

Final Thoughts

Mobile Ad Fraud is a problem that affects many app marketers today. By recognising these 7 common types of fraud —including click spamming and fake in-app events — you’ll be equipped to see and stop it.

Understanding real-time fraud detection and solid mobile fraud prevention practices is a great way of protecting your app’s success, and naturally, the more you learn about Mobile Ad Fraud, the smarter decisions you make, as well as the value you get from using your ad budget.