Russian Gang Netted $3M Daily via Video Ad Fraud
Jeremy Kirk, 22 December 2016
An expansive botnet run by a Russian cybercriminal gang netted more than $3 million a day by generating fake views of online video advertisements. The finding is already reinforcing concerns over the prevalence of fraud in online marketing.
The operation, which had been noticed by others in the industry, came to broad public attention through the release of a detailed report by White Ops, a security company that focuses on detecting fraudulent ad traffic.
White Ops says that the botnet, which it nicknamed Methbot, is “the largest and most profitable ad fraud operation to strike digital advertising to date.” As many as 300 million video ads per day were viewed not by humans but by automated “bots” designed to mimic the behavior of real users online.
