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In the digital age, online business is booming. In 2024, online spending by users exceeded $4.9 trillion. Simply huge numbers, which means that for every $5 spent worldwide in 2024, $1 is spent online.
And where that kind of money is, there are scammers. This is one of the main reasons for the growth of cybercrime. After all, there are so many opportunities to “pump out” easy money from unsuspecting businessmen. It is because of this that fraud is growing rapidly and inevitably along with our dependence on the Internet. Therefore, no matter what industry you are in, it is likely that you have encountered scammers to one degree or another.
Contents
1. Types of digital fraud
1.1 Payment fraud
1.2. Fraud on "affiliate" programs
1.3. Click and Ad Fraud
1.4. Pseudo-users
1.5. Fraud with user accounts
1.6. Fake Director by E-mail
1.7. Fraud with subscribers
2. The rise of digital fraud
3. How fraud protection services work
Cybercriminals use any methods, their main goal is to get illegal income and cause damage. They are almost like Robin Hoods, only without the "good": they take money from the rich, but do not give it to the poor, but take it for themselves. To do this, they look for loopholes and vulnerabilities in security systems, filters, devices.
Fraudsters also use automated processing of large numbers of cards in a single attack to determine which ones can be used. This type of digital fraud is called carding.
Fraudsters can also buy gift cards and coupons using stolen payment data. All this leads to losses for businesses from further refunds to victims, loss of goods or services, and litigation.
The most common type of fraud in Russia is phishing. In this case, fraudsters create a clone site of some real popular online store, marketplace or bank. Even the domain of such a resource will be as similar to the original as possible. A user who is not warned will not see the difference - the site address may differ by one letter, symbol or number.
For example, namedank.com or name-bank.com. To place an order and make an online purchase or log into a personal account, the user enters their personal data on a fake clone page, which ends up in the hands of criminals.
But search engines quickly "clean" such sites from the TOP in search results, so scammers send links to them via spam email. The letters are stylized to look like real notifications from cloned services.
The main method is to inflate the number of subscriptions or deceive with the number of clicks on referral links. This is done using bots, click farms and buxes to earn money.
There are other ways to deceive partners, for example, using paid traffic (Direct or Adwords) to divert traffic from the brand they represent.
Referral fraud can also involve cookie manipulation, such as replacing or deleting cookies. It is designed to incorrectly attribute clicks, registrations, subscriptions, and orders to the target affiliate at the expense of the unsuspecting user.
For example, MediaMarkt and its affiliate program. About half of the orders for which partners requested confirmation turned out to be fraudulent — they used cookie scams. The user visited the website of the webmaster who participates in the affiliate program and left it without doing anything. Meanwhile, the necessary cookies with the webmaster's tag were already built into his browser. Thus, if the user made an order on MediaMarkt, it was automatically attributed to this CPA partner.
Digital advertising fraud refers to a more organized process of deliberately attracting traffic, which actively uses automated systems, botnets, click farms. As a rule, organized groups of attackers (cybercriminals) operate here on a huge scale.
This type of fraud threatens advertisers' budgets and makes it impossible to attract real buyers and clients, that is, it partially or completely collapses sales.
For example, a group of attackers who own a website (sometimes even more than one) with supposedly high traffic places advertiser ads on it. Then, in order to simulate clicks on these ads and receive a reward, they send bots to them, using botnets or click farms for this. If complex automated systems are used for this, then the algorithms for filtering traffic on advertising platforms may not notice such fraud.
What is the damage? In the useless processing of applications, sending letters to all false addresses, loss of money from unsold goods that are actually in stock, in retargeting on advertising.
However, for the business owner, the damage can be more significant, as it can lead to lawsuits, damage to brand reputation, loss of products and profits.
And the other side is services that guarantee you boosted likes, reposts, subscribers, views and comments. All this is done through the same bots and click farms. Marketers spend thousands and millions on promoting products with the help of such “popular” Insta-gurus and bloggers, some of whom are of no value.
Such figures horrify all large businesses that place ads on online platforms. That is why, in order to save the budget and waste it on scammers, it is worth using all possible means of blocking bots and protecting against click fraud.
Along with the rise of digital fraud, other types of cybercrime are also on the rise: malware distribution, phishing, DDoS, extortion. They also pose a threat to online businesses and can have a detrimental effect on revenue.
The following markers may indicate possible fraud:
Individually, they mean practically nothing, but if one such visit collects several templates at once, the service automatically blocks it.
Fraud protection services can be said to be a symbiosis of pre-programmed analysis and machine learning. This is an essential aspect, as cybercriminals are constantly evolving their methods of deceiving advertisers. Bots and malware are improving, which means that algorithms must keep up.
And where that kind of money is, there are scammers. This is one of the main reasons for the growth of cybercrime. After all, there are so many opportunities to “pump out” easy money from unsuspecting businessmen. It is because of this that fraud is growing rapidly and inevitably along with our dependence on the Internet. Therefore, no matter what industry you are in, it is likely that you have encountered scammers to one degree or another.
Contents
1. Types of digital fraud
1.1 Payment fraud
1.2. Fraud on "affiliate" programs
1.3. Click and Ad Fraud
1.4. Pseudo-users
1.5. Fraud with user accounts
1.6. Fake Director by E-mail
1.7. Fraud with subscribers
2. The rise of digital fraud
3. How fraud protection services work
Types of Digital Fraud
So, fraud is a broad term that includes a myriad of methods and applications. But to understand why it has become so widespread and why fighting online fraud matters, we will look at 7 of its varieties that any business can fall victim to.Cybercriminals use any methods, their main goal is to get illegal income and cause damage. They are almost like Robin Hoods, only without the "good": they take money from the rich, but do not give it to the poor, but take it for themselves. To do this, they look for loopholes and vulnerabilities in security systems, filters, devices.
Payment fraud
Any method in which fraudsters try to use fake or stolen payment details can fall under this type of cyberattack. Most often, attackers carry out fraud with bank cards or even without them. In this case, they use stolen personal data (account, phone number, transaction verification codes, telephone fraud) to pay for personal needs on the Internet without the knowledge of the cardholder or by misleading him.Fraudsters also use automated processing of large numbers of cards in a single attack to determine which ones can be used. This type of digital fraud is called carding.
Fraudsters can also buy gift cards and coupons using stolen payment data. All this leads to losses for businesses from further refunds to victims, loss of goods or services, and litigation.
The most common type of fraud in Russia is phishing. In this case, fraudsters create a clone site of some real popular online store, marketplace or bank. Even the domain of such a resource will be as similar to the original as possible. A user who is not warned will not see the difference - the site address may differ by one letter, symbol or number.
For example, namedank.com or name-bank.com. To place an order and make an online purchase or log into a personal account, the user enters their personal data on a fake clone page, which ends up in the hands of criminals.
But search engines quickly "clean" such sites from the TOP in search results, so scammers send links to them via spam email. The letters are stylized to look like real notifications from cloned services.
Fraud on "affiliate" programs
There are many ways to trick marketers into losing their advertising budgets or profits. On the one hand, affiliate marketing is an extremely popular method for bloggers to monetize their content and platforms. On the other hand, it is an open field for abuse and fraud.The main method is to inflate the number of subscriptions or deceive with the number of clicks on referral links. This is done using bots, click farms and buxes to earn money.
There are other ways to deceive partners, for example, using paid traffic (Direct or Adwords) to divert traffic from the brand they represent.
Referral fraud can also involve cookie manipulation, such as replacing or deleting cookies. It is designed to incorrectly attribute clicks, registrations, subscriptions, and orders to the target affiliate at the expense of the unsuspecting user.
For example, MediaMarkt and its affiliate program. About half of the orders for which partners requested confirmation turned out to be fraudulent — they used cookie scams. The user visited the website of the webmaster who participates in the affiliate program and left it without doing anything. Meanwhile, the necessary cookies with the webmaster's tag were already built into his browser. Thus, if the user made an order on MediaMarkt, it was automatically attributed to this CPA partner.
Click and Ad Fraud
Both are closely related, but slightly different. Click fraud refers to any form of invalid traffic: malicious clicks from competitors, revenge buyers, former employees, and random clicks. Although small in volume, these clicks can make up a significant percentage of advertising traffic.Digital advertising fraud refers to a more organized process of deliberately attracting traffic, which actively uses automated systems, botnets, click farms. As a rule, organized groups of attackers (cybercriminals) operate here on a huge scale.
This type of fraud threatens advertisers' budgets and makes it impossible to attract real buyers and clients, that is, it partially or completely collapses sales.
For example, a group of attackers who own a website (sometimes even more than one) with supposedly high traffic places advertiser ads on it. Then, in order to simulate clicks on these ads and receive a reward, they send bots to them, using botnets or click farms for this. If complex automated systems are used for this, then the algorithms for filtering traffic on advertising platforms may not notice such fraud.
Pseudo-users
Fraudsters use fake accounts and can damage businesses on many levels. First of all, in the advertising sphere. Also, all these “fakes” have been noticed in adding products to shopping carts on online stores to create a shortage of certain products, when filling out registration forms, connecting subscriptions, etc.What is the damage? In the useless processing of applications, sending letters to all false addresses, loss of money from unsold goods that are actually in stock, in retargeting on advertising.
User Account Fraud
"I've been hacked." What does this mean? That cybercriminals have gained access to the user's personal data and are now using it for fraudulent purposes: transferring funds, placing orders, etc. The user's data has been compromised and stolen. Moreover, the more data the user has attached to their email account, the wider the scope of fraudulent actions by the attackers.However, for the business owner, the damage can be more significant, as it can lead to lawsuits, damage to brand reputation, loss of products and profits.
Fake Director by Email
Fraudsters can often pose as CEOs of companies, and they do this, as a rule, by email. This is a form of phishing attack. The scheme of this type of fraud includes the use of fake domain names (clones of sites), email addresses that are very similar to real ones, monitoring the company's accounts on social networks to collect more detailed information, using malware to generate data.Subscriber Fraud
Relevant for social networks. We are talking about boosting likes and subscribers to raise the profile rating in social networks and its further monetization. Advertisers place their ads in this profile, pay a certain amount and do not receive any return, since the target audience is dummies, bots.And the other side is services that guarantee you boosted likes, reposts, subscribers, views and comments. All this is done through the same bots and click farms. Marketers spend thousands and millions on promoting products with the help of such “popular” Insta-gurus and bloggers, some of whom are of no value.
The rise of digital fraud
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in all of these forms of fraud. For example, click fraud in advertising causes advertisers $44 billion in losses per year, up from $500 million in 2005. In fact, it has overtaken payment fraud in terms of financial damage.Such figures horrify all large businesses that place ads on online platforms. That is why, in order to save the budget and waste it on scammers, it is worth using all possible means of blocking bots and protecting against click fraud.
Along with the rise of digital fraud, other types of cybercrime are also on the rise: malware distribution, phishing, DDoS, extortion. They also pose a threat to online businesses and can have a detrimental effect on revenue.
How Fraud Protection Services Work
Security services operate in accordance with developed algorithms based on fraudulent behavior patterns. If the system notices suspicious activity, such as automated, unnatural user behavior on the site, it blocks such a visit and adds the visitor's IP address to the stop list.The following markers may indicate possible fraud:
- high bounce rate,
- unnatural click rate (speed of movement around the site),
- a large number of clicks and transactions (for example, moving items to the shopping cart without placing an order),
- unusual browser activity or use of an unknown browser,
- non-standard operating system,
- geographic mismatch (for example, setting up ad targeting for Moscow, but clicks come from the Philippines),
- multiple clicks on ads from the same IP address and hundreds of other parameters.
Individually, they mean practically nothing, but if one such visit collects several templates at once, the service automatically blocks it.
Fraud protection services can be said to be a symbiosis of pre-programmed analysis and machine learning. This is an essential aspect, as cybercriminals are constantly evolving their methods of deceiving advertisers. Bots and malware are improving, which means that algorithms must keep up.
