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Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

Report: $3-5M in Ad Fraud Daily from ‘Methbot’

Summary: White Ops researchers say a video ad fraud network they call Methbot is stealing between $3 million and $5 million from online publishers and ad networks each day, running on rented servers tied to more than 570,000 internet addresses. The operation uses a custom Javascript browser, simulated cursor clicks and forged social login data to serve as many as 300 million fake video ad impressions daily, with operators spending upwards of $200,000 a month to maintain it.

Why it matters: The address space alone is valued at roughly $4 million, and the registration records were forged to look like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon - so the infrastructure bill, not stealth, was the barrier to entry. Ad fraud is a $7 billion a year problem, and this operation was built to scale without the infected machines that anti-malware teams routinely clean up.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Fraud & Scams
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