In ad networks, everything looks great on the surface: clicks flow, CR grows, reports stay green. But then the advertiser writes “traffic is garbage,” and the account gets banned. The market isn’t broken — fraud is.
Fraud is bots, auto-clickers, source spoofing, fake signups, and stolen attribution. The network buys “activity” that never turns into customers. As a result:
- Advertisers lose budget and trust,
- The network drowns in chargebacks and manual checks,
- Honest partners look worse than the fraudsters.
How Fraud Shows Up in Networks
Impressions: pixel stuffing, ad stacking — CTR ≈ 0 while reports “glow.”
Clicks: auto-clickers, click farms — sudden spikes, landing time < 2 sec.
Conversions: fake signups, fake deposits — money wasted, LTV = 0.
Attribution: cookie stuffing, source spoofing — leads stolen by fraudsters.
What Actually Saves a Network
Not “digging through logs,” but a basic toolkit:
- Ping validation: filter duplicates, suspicious IPs/devices before approval.
- Transparent statuses: hold → approve/reject + clear reason.
- Alerts: abnormal CR, duplicate waves, ASN spikes.
- Sandbox: new sources tested with caps before scaling.
Example: after enabling ping validation, only 413 of 1000 “approved” leads were real. The rest were duplicates, VPN traffic, spoofing. Advertisers were happy, and the team stopped firefighting.
Anti-Fraud ≠ Cloaking: What’s the Difference?
People often confuse them: both “filter” traffic, but for very different reasons.
Kaminari Click (Anti-Fraud)
- Focus: traffic quality.
- Checks every click/lead: IP/ASN, device, behavior, lifecycle.
- Goal: remove bots and fraudsters, preserve advertiser trust.
- Example: showing that 30% of clicks came from DC/VPN and never reached interaction.
AdsApproved (Cloaking)
- Focus: moderation and ban risk.
- Safe Pages + AI Cloak block “moderator bots” and show networks a “clean” version.
- Goal: extend campaign lifetime and reduce account bans.
- Example: traffic flows through an aged domain; the ad account sees a “white page,” while the user lands on the offer.
The Advantages
Kaminari Click
- Protects advertiser budgets.
- Makes the network transparent and competitive.
- Provides honest metrics (CR, ARPU, retention that match reality).
AdsApproved
- Simplifies launches — fewer bans at the start.
- Lets affiliates “survive” testing and recover spend.
- Saves time searching for domains and configuring cloaking.
Bottom Line
Fraud won’t disappear as long as actions are paid for. But the difference in approach is clear:
- Anti-fraud (Kaminari) makes sure businesses see real users and build long-term trust.
- Cloaking (AdsApproved) reduces ban risks and helps campaigns pass moderation.
These tools complement each other, but don’t replace one another: cloaking extends campaign lifetime, while anti-fraud ensures the budget doesn’t burn in that lifetime.