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The rapid growth of fraudulent traffic over the past few years has shocked the entire digital community. Every year, businesses lose billions of dollars due to fraud and bot attacks.
To hide malicious activity, attackers resort to automated programs, use artificial intelligence, neural networks and machine learning. To generate fake traffic, they use various tricks, deception, and find vulnerabilities in systems.
Bot attacks vary in type and scale. They can include unauthorized account access, ad click fraud, DDoS, online payment fraud, phishing, etc.
In this article, we will look at the different types of bot scams that cybercriminals are using in 2024 and list the steps you can take to combat them.
Contents
1. Evolution of fraud and bots
2. Malicious Bots and Chaos: About Fraud in 2024
2.1. Click fraud
2.2. Bot attacks on user accounts
2.3. Spamming
2.4. Impersonalization
2.5. Emptying catalogs in online stores
2.6. Web scraping
2.7. Fake reviews and ratings
2.8. Fraud with bank cards and payments
3. Automated Bot Attack Technologies
4. We are looking for ways to protect against fraud and bots
Modern scripts have learned to easily bypass standard security filters. This forces companies to come up with and scale complex preventive measures to combat fraud. And the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning has only exacerbated this problem.
Bots now learn from user behavior and adapt their tactics, making them harder to detect. As a result, bot fraud has become a lucrative business for cybercriminals.
Fraudsters use bots that can imitate human behavior to interact with digital systems, often with malicious intent. These scripts can speed up routine tasks of any scale, making them ideal for fraud.
Bot fraud can take many forms. Here are seven types of bot fraud:
The development of digital channels for business promotion in 2024 has also led to the flourishing of fraud. This threat is causing a wave of concern among advertisers.
According to cybersecurity company statistics, most clicks are fake. Any platform is subject to bot attacks and malicious actions: from Yandex.Direct and Google Ads to VK and TikTok. This leads to financial losses and distorts the performance indicators of advertising campaigns.
Bots can click from 10% to 30% of a company's advertising budget! Every fifth click on an ad is done by automated scripts.
Among the methods of click fraud and other types of advertising fraud that are relevant in 2024, experts highlight the following:
— Competitor click-through. Competitors click on someone else's ads for malicious purposes to waste the competitor's advertising budget and reduce its visibility to the target audience. The bonus may be the competitor's position at a lower cost after the daily budget limit is exhausted.
— Mobile app click fraud. In this type of fraud, attackers create apps that generate fake clicks on ads within them. This tactic is aimed at simulating user engagement, which leads to inflated metrics and wasted advertising budgets.
— Motivated traffic. This type of fraud involves paying performers for a certain number of clicks or ad views. Those who will perform such tasks are hired on special online platforms (buxes) that offer rewards or other incentives for their completion.
Incentive traffic is similar to click farms: those who click or otherwise interact with the content are indifferent to it. Such clicks and views will not lead to conversion.
— Manual click fraud. The most primitive type of click fraud. Ordinary users, competitors, and fraudsters manually click ads in order to drain the advertiser's budget. This method can take a lot of time and is most often used for strategic targeted attacks.
Malicious bots use methods such as credential stuffing, brute-force attacks, and phishing to access user accounts.
— Credential stuffing. Stuffing, that is, stuffing or substitution of credentials, is a popular method of hacking accounts. Bots try to log into an account using data obtained during their leakage on other sites. In essence, they repeatedly enter password options until the attempt is successful.
— Brute force attacks. Unlike stuffing, in this case automated scripts try to gain access to an account by trying the most popular password combinations. For example, admin, qwerty, 12345, etc.
— Phishing attacks. Attackers trick users into telling them or entering their login credentials. To do this, they create clones of popular sites, such as Sberbank or Gosuslugi, and also resort to social engineering.
Bots send spam via messengers and comments on social networks, forums, email services, often advertising illegal goods or services. In addition, they distribute malware, leave comments, publish low-quality content, manipulate site backlinks, etc.
Resource owners who care about the safety of their users use various anti-bot protection measures to prevent unwanted bot activity and spam.
In addition, there is a more global problem when fraudsters call people and pretend to be “FSB majors,” “Sberbank security service,” and other well-known organizations and services. Here, the attackers create an effect of urgency, pressuring the victims into a sense of fear or confusion. They often use tactics to create a false sense of impending danger or emphasize fictitious consequences of non-compliance, forcing the victim to transfer funds under pressure.
Malicious bots attack online stores by starting but not completing the checkout process. For example, they add items to the cart but intentionally do not complete the purchase.
— False scarcity. Bots create a false scarcity of goods, so potential buyers are left without a choice. Because of this, the latter may go to competitors, which reduces their loyalty to the brand as a whole.
— Another option is a complete buyout of goods. In this case, bots try to buy up as many goods as possible, which will then be sold by the attacker at an inflated price. Most often, tickets to events, limited collections of sneakers or toys are subject to attacks.
Sites differ in functionality, interfaces, and content, so attackers also provide web scrapers with different capabilities.
How the attack occurs:
Such automated scripts can be homemade or ready-made, cloud-based or local, act as a browser extension or separate software, and have a user interface.
Headless browsers
To carry out stealthy bot attacks, cybercriminals use headless browsers. These are browser-like applications that lack a user interface but can automatically perform certain web tasks, such as account hijacking or click fraud, that are undetectable by traditional security measures.
API Abuse
API abuse is another way to carry out bot attacks. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) allow different software systems to interact with each other. Attackers can manipulate APIs to gain unauthorized access to user accounts or steal sensitive information.
Click farms
Click farms are usually located in Asian countries. These are “offices” equipped with stands for smartphones, united into a single network. Each such farm, consisting of a dozen smartphones, is managed by one person. His task is to click on advertisements, boost likes on social networks, watch videos, etc.
Click farms create the illusion of genuine user engagement, but in reality, users are not interested in the content they are interacting with. It is a quick way to generate the desired engagement.
Botnets and bot farms
Automated scripts organized into a botnet or bot farm imitate human behavior on the Internet and its interaction with sites and applications. In a relatively short period of time, they are able to generate large volumes of fake clicks, views, applications and orders. Because of this, it becomes more difficult for resource owners to separate real traffic from fake.
The automated nature of such attacks allows complex tasks to be performed quickly and efficiently using advanced algorithms that mimic human behavior, solve captchas, and exploit system vulnerabilities.
There is a simple (general) rule of thumb that distinguishes useful bots from malicious ones: the former tend to follow established rules and patterns, while the latter exhibit erratic or suspicious behavior.
A combination of prevention techniques such as behavioral analysis, machine learning, artificial intelligence, advanced authentication methods, and network monitoring can help identify unwanted bot activity and slow down or even stop their attacks. These techniques can help identify abnormal behavior patterns that indicate malicious activity.
However, attackers are not giving up and are changing their tactics and technologies to avoid detection.
To hide malicious activity, attackers resort to automated programs, use artificial intelligence, neural networks and machine learning. To generate fake traffic, they use various tricks, deception, and find vulnerabilities in systems.
Bot attacks vary in type and scale. They can include unauthorized account access, ad click fraud, DDoS, online payment fraud, phishing, etc.
In this article, we will look at the different types of bot scams that cybercriminals are using in 2024 and list the steps you can take to combat them.
Contents
1. Evolution of fraud and bots
2. Malicious Bots and Chaos: About Fraud in 2024
2.1. Click fraud
2.2. Bot attacks on user accounts
2.3. Spamming
2.4. Impersonalization
2.5. Emptying catalogs in online stores
2.6. Web scraping
2.7. Fake reviews and ratings
2.8. Fraud with bank cards and payments
3. Automated Bot Attack Technologies
4. We are looking for ways to protect against fraud and bots
Evolution of fraud and bots
Bots used to be simple scripts used by cybercriminals to perform simple, repetitive tasks, such as web scraping or auto-filling online forms. Over time, attackers began to use technological advances and improve scripts. Bots now have sophisticated functionality that can perform advanced fraudulent attacks.Modern scripts have learned to easily bypass standard security filters. This forces companies to come up with and scale complex preventive measures to combat fraud. And the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning has only exacerbated this problem.
Bots now learn from user behavior and adapt their tactics, making them harder to detect. As a result, bot fraud has become a lucrative business for cybercriminals.
Malicious Bots and Chaos: Fraud in 2024
Bots have become an integral tool of cybercriminals, used for advertising fraud, stealing personal and confidential user data, launching DDoS attacks, distributing malware, etc. Companies, advertisers, marketers, cybersecurity specialists are fighting fraud, learning lessons from the past, but, nevertheless, attackers are developing new methods and attack variants.Fraudsters use bots that can imitate human behavior to interact with digital systems, often with malicious intent. These scripts can speed up routine tasks of any scale, making them ideal for fraud.
Bot fraud can take many forms. Here are seven types of bot fraud:
Clickbaiting
Click fraud is a type of fraud in which bots click on advertisements, artificially inflating the number of clicks and wasting the advertiser's budget.The development of digital channels for business promotion in 2024 has also led to the flourishing of fraud. This threat is causing a wave of concern among advertisers.
According to cybersecurity company statistics, most clicks are fake. Any platform is subject to bot attacks and malicious actions: from Yandex.Direct and Google Ads to VK and TikTok. This leads to financial losses and distorts the performance indicators of advertising campaigns.
Bots can click from 10% to 30% of a company's advertising budget! Every fifth click on an ad is done by automated scripts.
Among the methods of click fraud and other types of advertising fraud that are relevant in 2024, experts highlight the following:
— Competitor click-through. Competitors click on someone else's ads for malicious purposes to waste the competitor's advertising budget and reduce its visibility to the target audience. The bonus may be the competitor's position at a lower cost after the daily budget limit is exhausted.
— Mobile app click fraud. In this type of fraud, attackers create apps that generate fake clicks on ads within them. This tactic is aimed at simulating user engagement, which leads to inflated metrics and wasted advertising budgets.
— Motivated traffic. This type of fraud involves paying performers for a certain number of clicks or ad views. Those who will perform such tasks are hired on special online platforms (buxes) that offer rewards or other incentives for their completion.
Incentive traffic is similar to click farms: those who click or otherwise interact with the content are indifferent to it. Such clicks and views will not lead to conversion.
— Manual click fraud. The most primitive type of click fraud. Ordinary users, competitors, and fraudsters manually click ads in order to drain the advertiser's budget. This method can take a lot of time and is most often used for strategic targeted attacks.
Bot attacks on user accounts
Bots attempt to hack user accounts by brute-forcing passwords or by stealing login data. The most frequently targeted user accounts are in the banking sector. They account for a significant portion of online fraud and identity theft.Malicious bots use methods such as credential stuffing, brute-force attacks, and phishing to access user accounts.
— Credential stuffing. Stuffing, that is, stuffing or substitution of credentials, is a popular method of hacking accounts. Bots try to log into an account using data obtained during their leakage on other sites. In essence, they repeatedly enter password options until the attempt is successful.
— Brute force attacks. Unlike stuffing, in this case automated scripts try to gain access to an account by trying the most popular password combinations. For example, admin, qwerty, 12345, etc.
— Phishing attacks. Attackers trick users into telling them or entering their login credentials. To do this, they create clones of popular sites, such as Sberbank or Gosuslugi, and also resort to social engineering.
Spam distribution
Fraudsters collect email addresses from all sorts of sources and launch a spam bot to send out advertisements, phishing emails, etc. They spam not only email.Bots send spam via messengers and comments on social networks, forums, email services, often advertising illegal goods or services. In addition, they distribute malware, leave comments, publish low-quality content, manipulate site backlinks, etc.
Resource owners who care about the safety of their users use various anti-bot protection measures to prevent unwanted bot activity and spam.
Impersonalization
There are bots designed specifically to imitate the behavior of real users on online platforms of varying scale and scope. They create fake profiles and interact with creatives and content — generate likes, reposts, subscriptions, comment and publish posts.In addition, there is a more global problem when fraudsters call people and pretend to be “FSB majors,” “Sberbank security service,” and other well-known organizations and services. Here, the attackers create an effect of urgency, pressuring the victims into a sense of fear or confusion. They often use tactics to create a false sense of impending danger or emphasize fictitious consequences of non-compliance, forcing the victim to transfer funds under pressure.
Emptying catalogs in online stores
In this type of fraud, scammers use bots to buy limited-edition items from online stores, as well as tickets to concert events, for the purpose of reselling them at a speculative price.Malicious bots attack online stores by starting but not completing the checkout process. For example, they add items to the cart but intentionally do not complete the purchase.
— False scarcity. Bots create a false scarcity of goods, so potential buyers are left without a choice. Because of this, the latter may go to competitors, which reduces their loyalty to the brand as a whole.
— Another option is a complete buyout of goods. In this case, bots try to buy up as many goods as possible, which will then be sold by the attacker at an inflated price. Most often, tickets to events, limited collections of sneakers or toys are subject to attacks.
Web scraping
In this case, fraudsters use bots to automatically partially or completely copy content and other data from websites. This method is often used by competitors as part of commercial espionage.Sites differ in functionality, interfaces, and content, so attackers also provide web scrapers with different capabilities.
How the attack occurs:
- The bot is fed one or more URLs.
- It then downloads the entire HTML code of the specified page. More advanced scrapers can display the entire site, including CSS and Javascript elements.
- The bot then either extracts all the data on the page. Ideally, the attacker can specify what data exactly he needs. For example, it is necessary to extract only the prices of goods - without descriptions, characteristics, images and other data.
- The scraper outputs all collected data into a format convenient for the customer. As a rule, this is a CSV or Excel table. More advanced bots support other formats, such as JSON, which can be used for API.
Such automated scripts can be homemade or ready-made, cloud-based or local, act as a browser extension or separate software, and have a user interface.
Fake reviews and ratings
Bots generate fake positive or negative reviews online, manipulating company ratings in order to influence the decisions of potential buyers.Bank card and payment fraud
Bots attack user accounts to gain control over their accounts for further financial fraud. Most often, attacks are made on online payment services that offer API endpoints for checking bank cards and accounts.Automated Bot Attack Technologies
Bots can quickly do the work of thousands of humans in a short period of time. When networked, they can achieve incredible scale and expose vulnerabilities in traditional authentication and security systems.Headless browsers
To carry out stealthy bot attacks, cybercriminals use headless browsers. These are browser-like applications that lack a user interface but can automatically perform certain web tasks, such as account hijacking or click fraud, that are undetectable by traditional security measures.
API Abuse
API abuse is another way to carry out bot attacks. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) allow different software systems to interact with each other. Attackers can manipulate APIs to gain unauthorized access to user accounts or steal sensitive information.
Click farms
Click farms are usually located in Asian countries. These are “offices” equipped with stands for smartphones, united into a single network. Each such farm, consisting of a dozen smartphones, is managed by one person. His task is to click on advertisements, boost likes on social networks, watch videos, etc.
Click farms create the illusion of genuine user engagement, but in reality, users are not interested in the content they are interacting with. It is a quick way to generate the desired engagement.
Botnets and bot farms
Automated scripts organized into a botnet or bot farm imitate human behavior on the Internet and its interaction with sites and applications. In a relatively short period of time, they are able to generate large volumes of fake clicks, views, applications and orders. Because of this, it becomes more difficult for resource owners to separate real traffic from fake.
The automated nature of such attacks allows complex tasks to be performed quickly and efficiently using advanced algorithms that mimic human behavior, solve captchas, and exploit system vulnerabilities.
We are looking for ways to protect against fraud and bots
It is important to note that not all bots are designed solely to perform malicious actions. There are those that perform useful tasks, such as indexing sites for search engines. However, distinguishing good bots from bad ones is not so easy, and many malicious automated scripts do a good job of disguising themselves as positive interactions.There is a simple (general) rule of thumb that distinguishes useful bots from malicious ones: the former tend to follow established rules and patterns, while the latter exhibit erratic or suspicious behavior.
A combination of prevention techniques such as behavioral analysis, machine learning, artificial intelligence, advanced authentication methods, and network monitoring can help identify unwanted bot activity and slow down or even stop their attacks. These techniques can help identify abnormal behavior patterns that indicate malicious activity.
However, attackers are not giving up and are changing their tactics and technologies to avoid detection.
