Google discovers a $10 million ad fraud scheme on its network

California based search engine giant, Google, has been working on a clean up drive since last week, removing various apps involved in an ad-fraud scheme from its network. A botnet known as “TechSnab” was being used as a fraud tactic to generate web-based traffic by creating hidden browser windows in web pages to inflate ad revenue. This botnet drove traffic to a ring of websites created specifically for this operation, and monetised with Google and many third party ad exchanges. The malware used common IP based cloaking, data obfuscation, and anti-analysis defences.

Google has thus identified, analysed and blocked invalid traffic associated with this operation, by removing and blacklisting such websites and apps. Plus, they have also blacklisted additional apps and websites that are outside of its ad network, so that advertisers using Display & Video 360 don’t spend anymore for such traffic. “While our analysis of the operation is ongoing, we estimate that the dollar value of impacted Google advertiser spend across the apps and websites involved in the operation is under $10 million,” said Google via a blog post.

Based on analysis of historical ads.txt crawl data done by Google, inventory from these websites was widely available throughout the advertising ecosystem, and as many as 150 exchanges, supply-side platforms (SSPs) or networks might 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 has primarily impacted smartphone apps and while Google engineers are doing their best to tackle it, the company has shared relevant technical information with trusted partners across the ad ecosystem, to minimise its effect across the industry.

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