Study Identifies “Mobile Device Hijacking”, A New Ad Fraud Tactic That Threatens The Mobile Ad Ecosystem
London, UK – Forensiq, a leading ad fraud detection and prevention company, today, announced the findings of their recent study, uncovering a new type of ad fraud called “mobile device hijacking” which affects more than 12 million devices and 13% of global in-app pre-bid advertising inventory. This fraudulent activity is performed by mobile applications that rapidly load hidden ads and emulate human behavior, drawing many parallels to traditional botnets. Fraudsters collect payments from advertisers for these maliciously hidden ads.
The study includes a video demonstrating the behavior of the malicious apps, which was exposed by a custom packet capture and analysis tools. These tools allowed the Forensiq team to uncover that many apps launch on reboot, without the user loading the application.
Key findings from the study conducted include:
● Mobile device hijacking has been identified as a significant threat
● We project in-app fraud will surpass the $1 billion mark globally in 2015
● Mobile advertisers are losing 13% of their ad spend to mobile device hijacking
● 12 million mobile devices were flagged for fraudulent activity
● Mobile device hijacking can cause a device to waste 2GB of data per day
“With mobile ad spending expected to overtake desktop spending in 2016, tracking fraudulent behavior and raising awareness to new threats such as mobile device hijacking is essential to building a more sustainable and overall safe advertising ecosystem,” said David Sendroff, Founder & CEO of Forensiq. “We hope this study will open a discussion and bring all stakeholders together around the issue.”
About Forensiq
Forensiq provides a leading fraud detection solution for the online advertising industry.
Its specialised team utilises the latest technology to fight online ad fraud and expose malicious bots, with the ultimate goal of creating a wholly transparent and trustworthy digital ecosystem. The company offers effective solutions to combat affiliate, click, conversion and impression fraud, as well as cookie stuffing, and provides an ad viewability tool that enables advertisers to ensure ads are actually seen.
Founded in 2010, Forensiq works with a host of companies throughout the online advertising and ecommerce industries including GroupM, Adap.tv, AOL, Rocket Fuel, Mitsubishi, and Groupon. Forensiq also is a member of the IAB anti-fraud working group, which unites industry peers to educate the digital ad industry about the dangers of ad fraud. Forensiq has offices in London, New York and San Mateo. To find out more, please visit www.forensiq.com.
