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Apple removes 18 iOS apps for fraudulent advertising activity

developer-tech | November 04, 2019

Apple has removed 18 iOS apps after determining they were being used to earn money for cybercriminals by conducting ad fraud. The apps were found to be secretly clicking adverts to earn the attacker cash. While such conduct is not intrusive and may not even be noticeable by the user, it can slow down the device, use more data, and/or drain the battery faster. Security researchers at Wandera discovered 17 of the infected apps which spanned a wide range of categories including productivity, utilities, and navigation. Apple spotted a further app using the same technique. Wandera first noticed dodgy activity originating from a speedometer app on a client’s smartphone. When they investigated it further, it was contacting a command and control server that had been previously identified as being involved with issuing ad fraud orders on Android.

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Ad Tech 101: Ad Network vs. Ad Exchange

Ad exchanges and ad networks co-exist as fundamental parts of today’s advertising industry. Ad networks connect advertisers to publishers, while ad exchanges facilitate buying and selling of ad inventory through real-time bidding. They can work together by ad networks connecting to ad exchanges to bid on inventory and deliver ads on a publisher's website. Ad networks offer a wider reach, while ad exchanges provide more targeted and efficient ad buying.

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Spotlight

Ad Tech 101: Ad Network vs. Ad Exchange

Ad exchanges and ad networks co-exist as fundamental parts of today’s advertising industry. Ad networks connect advertisers to publishers, while ad exchanges facilitate buying and selling of ad inventory through real-time bidding. They can work together by ad networks connecting to ad exchanges to bid on inventory and deliver ads on a publisher's website. Ad networks offer a wider reach, while ad exchanges provide more targeted and efficient ad buying.

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DISPLAY ADVERTISING, RETARGETING, AD NETWORKS

MobileFuse Unveils New Ad Tools to Help Boost Revenue

MobileFuse | January 02, 2023

MobileFuse, a leading digital advertising platform, has released a new mobile software development kit (SDK), mediation adapters, and a proprietary video player. These tools are designed to reduce friction and allow mobile app publishers and mediation platforms to access MobileFuse's premium inventory and increase revenue. This will help mobile app publishers and mediation platforms because it will give them access to MobileFuse's premium inventory and cut down on the costs of making their own tools. The MobileFuse SDK has reportedly allowed publishing partners to double fill rates and increase eCPMs by 20% or more. The SDK has duoBid, which lets advertisers run video ads in larger static banner inventory. It also has a proprietary video player with full VAST capabilities, support for rich media, lightweight technology, and support for the latest mobile technologies. With the help of these tools, publishers and mediation platforms have been able to make a lot more money and make more money from what they make. MobileFuse's SDK, integrated through an AppLovin MAX Custom Adapter, has yielded immediate success for our app. The SDK is generating higher fill rates, eCPM, CTR, and five times more revenue on a similar amount of bid requests than our oRTB connection. The implementation process was easy, and their team was responsive and always willing to help along the way." Amy Nicole Hernandez, CFO and VP of Business Operations at TextMe The SDK is the only way to get the proprietary video player, and the mediation adapters make it easier to connect to leading mediation platforms. With the SDK, publishers can also take advantage of the duoBid video ad-serving platform. About MobileFuse MobileFuse is a leading in-app advertising and CTV platform. In a variety of verticals, the company serves leading brands, agencies, bidders, and app developers. MobileFuse empowers its clients by reaching highly curated and receptive audiences through innovative solutions that combine location-based in-app and CTV exchanges, moments-based targeting, patented location verification, custom creative, and data-driven insights. MobileFuse, which was founded in 2009, is headquartered in New York City and has offices throughout the United States. The company will be carbon-negative by 2022.

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DISPLAY ADVERTISING, MOBILE ADVERTISING, RETARGETING

PropellerAds Announces the Next Step in Technological and Brand Development

PropellerAds: | December 13, 2022

This December, PropellerAds revealed the company's latest progress in technology and business growth. PropellerAds now publicly announces their platform as multisource, as they have already been providing access to multiple exclusive traffic sources via a single advertiser's account during the last years. Now the main platform's focus is user acquisition and online marketing campaign scaling by means of adding new, unique, and well-tested supply partners to advertisers' toolkits. Main focus: user acquisition and high performance across any supply sources PropellerAds claims to focus on scaling for numerous ad supply sources, including exclusive ones available on this platform only. To keep the ad performance at the high level, the platform uses advanced ad rotation algorithms to find relevant audiences for a particular ad campaign, regarding the offer type and flow. With a special focus on traffic purity, brand safety and a high level of ad performance, PropellerAds uses the latest in-house anti-fraud software. New traffic types and bidding models, announced to become available soon, will expand PropellerAds customers' media buying opportunities and help them boost lead generation to reach their business goals easier. "We've been working on improvements and high-tech solutions from the first day of PropellerAds existence. We started as a small Popunder network and look where we are now! Today is a moment when we realized how far we reached during these 11 years. "Now we are a multisource platform with expanded advertising opportunities especially when it comes to lead generation and communication with your audience. Our technologies allow advertisers to work with various supply sources, process numerous users, and find the most relevant audience. And we have more exciting innovations to present soon!" - Matt Schmidt, Head of Advertisers Department at PropellerAds. About PropellerAds PropellerAds is a multisource advertising platform providing access to 1B+ audience online and AI-based ad-serving/optimization tools for media buyers, agencies, brand owners, and affiliate marketers. The company is a member of IAB Europe with a ISO/IEC 27001 Safety Certification.

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AD NETWORKS

DoubleVerify Detects First Ad Impression Fraud Scheme in Audio

DoubleVerify | February 07, 2023

DoubleVerify (DV), one of the prominent software platforms for digital media solutions, has recently detected a large-scale ad impression fraud scheme targeted to audio traffic inventory called "BeatSting". After DV’s Fraud Lab recognized the fraud family in 2019, it has stolen about 20 million dollars from advertisers, and the BeatSting platform has about one million dollars per month share in it. BeatString has been a part of server-side ad insertion (SSAI) fraud schemes, targeting connected TV (CTV) inventory since 2019. The fraudsters first spoof residential IP addresses and audio applications and set up a fake SSAI server, making false audio ad requests to attract advertisers. Then, if an advertiser from the legitimate audio channels bids on this accretive inventory and makes a profit, the money goes to them instead of the audio tracks. Although the DV Fraud Lab had already reported fraudulent attacks in 2021, the activity continued into the following year, generating fake audio traffic on audio platforms on a much larger scale. With dedicated data scientists, analysts, and mathematicians, DV's Fraud Lab detects and analyses digital ad frauds and their latest fraud schemes. It isolates the fraud applications, websites, and devices and secures DV clients in real time through continuous analysis, research, and scenario management. Chief Executive Officer at DoubleVerify, Mark Zagorski, said, "Fraud always follows the money, and increasingly, that money is flowing to digital audio, a rapidly emerging channel where digital advertising standards are still evolving." He added, "CTV continues to experience this phenomenon, and, increasingly, audio is quietly becoming a new channel of interest and attack." (Source – Business Wire) About DoubleVerify DoubleVerify (DV), an advertising service, provides digital media analytics and measurement solutions to make digital advertising systems, brands and agencies, marketplaces, and publishers more secure and preserve fair value exchange between digital media sellers and buyers. Many Fortune 500 advertisers rely on DV for unbiased data analysis, high-quality campaigns, and global advertising return on investment (ROI). It specializes in ad prominence, viewability, impression quality solutions for brand marketers, impression delivery, brand safety and fraud protection, and accountability and transparency for digital media.

Read More

DISPLAY ADVERTISING, RETARGETING, AD NETWORKS

MobileFuse Unveils New Ad Tools to Help Boost Revenue

MobileFuse | January 02, 2023

MobileFuse, a leading digital advertising platform, has released a new mobile software development kit (SDK), mediation adapters, and a proprietary video player. These tools are designed to reduce friction and allow mobile app publishers and mediation platforms to access MobileFuse's premium inventory and increase revenue. This will help mobile app publishers and mediation platforms because it will give them access to MobileFuse's premium inventory and cut down on the costs of making their own tools. The MobileFuse SDK has reportedly allowed publishing partners to double fill rates and increase eCPMs by 20% or more. The SDK has duoBid, which lets advertisers run video ads in larger static banner inventory. It also has a proprietary video player with full VAST capabilities, support for rich media, lightweight technology, and support for the latest mobile technologies. With the help of these tools, publishers and mediation platforms have been able to make a lot more money and make more money from what they make. MobileFuse's SDK, integrated through an AppLovin MAX Custom Adapter, has yielded immediate success for our app. The SDK is generating higher fill rates, eCPM, CTR, and five times more revenue on a similar amount of bid requests than our oRTB connection. The implementation process was easy, and their team was responsive and always willing to help along the way." Amy Nicole Hernandez, CFO and VP of Business Operations at TextMe The SDK is the only way to get the proprietary video player, and the mediation adapters make it easier to connect to leading mediation platforms. With the SDK, publishers can also take advantage of the duoBid video ad-serving platform. About MobileFuse MobileFuse is a leading in-app advertising and CTV platform. In a variety of verticals, the company serves leading brands, agencies, bidders, and app developers. MobileFuse empowers its clients by reaching highly curated and receptive audiences through innovative solutions that combine location-based in-app and CTV exchanges, moments-based targeting, patented location verification, custom creative, and data-driven insights. MobileFuse, which was founded in 2009, is headquartered in New York City and has offices throughout the United States. The company will be carbon-negative by 2022.

Read More

DISPLAY ADVERTISING, MOBILE ADVERTISING, RETARGETING

PropellerAds Announces the Next Step in Technological and Brand Development

PropellerAds: | December 13, 2022

This December, PropellerAds revealed the company's latest progress in technology and business growth. PropellerAds now publicly announces their platform as multisource, as they have already been providing access to multiple exclusive traffic sources via a single advertiser's account during the last years. Now the main platform's focus is user acquisition and online marketing campaign scaling by means of adding new, unique, and well-tested supply partners to advertisers' toolkits. Main focus: user acquisition and high performance across any supply sources PropellerAds claims to focus on scaling for numerous ad supply sources, including exclusive ones available on this platform only. To keep the ad performance at the high level, the platform uses advanced ad rotation algorithms to find relevant audiences for a particular ad campaign, regarding the offer type and flow. With a special focus on traffic purity, brand safety and a high level of ad performance, PropellerAds uses the latest in-house anti-fraud software. New traffic types and bidding models, announced to become available soon, will expand PropellerAds customers' media buying opportunities and help them boost lead generation to reach their business goals easier. "We've been working on improvements and high-tech solutions from the first day of PropellerAds existence. We started as a small Popunder network and look where we are now! Today is a moment when we realized how far we reached during these 11 years. "Now we are a multisource platform with expanded advertising opportunities especially when it comes to lead generation and communication with your audience. Our technologies allow advertisers to work with various supply sources, process numerous users, and find the most relevant audience. And we have more exciting innovations to present soon!" - Matt Schmidt, Head of Advertisers Department at PropellerAds. About PropellerAds PropellerAds is a multisource advertising platform providing access to 1B+ audience online and AI-based ad-serving/optimization tools for media buyers, agencies, brand owners, and affiliate marketers. The company is a member of IAB Europe with a ISO/IEC 27001 Safety Certification.

Read More

AD NETWORKS

DoubleVerify Detects First Ad Impression Fraud Scheme in Audio

DoubleVerify | February 07, 2023

DoubleVerify (DV), one of the prominent software platforms for digital media solutions, has recently detected a large-scale ad impression fraud scheme targeted to audio traffic inventory called "BeatSting". After DV’s Fraud Lab recognized the fraud family in 2019, it has stolen about 20 million dollars from advertisers, and the BeatSting platform has about one million dollars per month share in it. BeatString has been a part of server-side ad insertion (SSAI) fraud schemes, targeting connected TV (CTV) inventory since 2019. The fraudsters first spoof residential IP addresses and audio applications and set up a fake SSAI server, making false audio ad requests to attract advertisers. Then, if an advertiser from the legitimate audio channels bids on this accretive inventory and makes a profit, the money goes to them instead of the audio tracks. Although the DV Fraud Lab had already reported fraudulent attacks in 2021, the activity continued into the following year, generating fake audio traffic on audio platforms on a much larger scale. With dedicated data scientists, analysts, and mathematicians, DV's Fraud Lab detects and analyses digital ad frauds and their latest fraud schemes. It isolates the fraud applications, websites, and devices and secures DV clients in real time through continuous analysis, research, and scenario management. Chief Executive Officer at DoubleVerify, Mark Zagorski, said, "Fraud always follows the money, and increasingly, that money is flowing to digital audio, a rapidly emerging channel where digital advertising standards are still evolving." He added, "CTV continues to experience this phenomenon, and, increasingly, audio is quietly becoming a new channel of interest and attack." (Source – Business Wire) About DoubleVerify DoubleVerify (DV), an advertising service, provides digital media analytics and measurement solutions to make digital advertising systems, brands and agencies, marketplaces, and publishers more secure and preserve fair value exchange between digital media sellers and buyers. Many Fortune 500 advertisers rely on DV for unbiased data analysis, high-quality campaigns, and global advertising return on investment (ROI). It specializes in ad prominence, viewability, impression quality solutions for brand marketers, impression delivery, brand safety and fraud protection, and accountability and transparency for digital media.

Read More

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