Bots
Fraud bots in mobile marketing, known as malicious bots, are programmed to simulate false user activities in mobile apps, skewing data for financial gain. These bots impersonate real users, conducting fraudulent installations, ad interactions, and in-app engagements to distort marketing metrics.
How Bots Operate:
Fraudsters employ emulation software to create bots that mimic user behavior, engaging in install fraud, click fraud, and ad stacking fraud. These bots are designed to evade detection and adapt to new user behavior trends, continually updating their databases to avoid being caught.
Types of Fraud Bots:
- Click Fraud Bots. Generate fake clicks on mobile ads by imitating real user interactions.
- Install Fraud Bots. Simulate app installation processes to falsely claim conversion credits.
- App Engagement Fraud Bots. Fake in-app behaviors, such as ad views or in-app purchases.
- SDK Spoofing Bots. Impersonate an app by hacking its SDK, performing false activities and sending fraudulent in-app activity reports.
These bots aim to deplete marketing budgets, wrongly attribute commissions, and provide inaccurate marketing metrics.
Protection Against Bot Frauds:
- Use Closed Source SDKs. Prevent fraudsters from accessing and exploiting the SDK code.
- Challenge-Based Detection. Employ challenges like CAPTCHAs that are easy for humans but difficult for bots.
- Track Bot Signatures. Blacklist IPs and accounts known for malicious activities.
- Monitor for Suspicious Activities. Constant vigilance for anomalies, such as an unusual number of clicks in a short timeframe, to detect fraud.
Marketers must actively protect their campaigns against evolving bot fraud to preserve the integrity of their marketing data and budget.