Pay day lenders targeted by click fraud scammers
Pay day lenders are becoming the primary target for click fraudsters, a fraud prevention firm has warned.
Berlin-based cybersecurity firm Polygraph has estimated that click fraud costs online advertisers more than $115m (£90m) per day, with pay day loan companies particularly at risk.
Click fraud works by using high-value keywords on fake websites to drive traffic. The scammers then receive money every time that these ads are clicked.
Fraudsters are believed to be targeting keywords associated with pay day lenders and other short-term loan companies, capitalising on the cost of living crisis which has pushed more people into debt.
According to Trey Vanes, chief marketing officer at Polygraph, cyber-criminals have been targeting pay day loan ads due to their high pay-out potential.
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“The fraudsters research which ad keywords pay the most per click, and use those keywords to force high paying ads to appear on their scam websites,” Vanes said.
“Since the criminals are all targeting the most lucrative keywords, it has created a situation where thousands of click fraud gangs are targeting pay day loan ads.”
Polygraph’s research found that by displaying adverts based on more than 1,000 of the most popular pay day loan related keywords, criminal gangs are diverting “huge sums of money” away from advertisers and keeping the profits for themselves instead.
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“This problem won’t go away on its own, and it’s a high risk strategy to hope the ad networks will protect you,” added Vanes.
“The reality is we have customers who were wasting most of their ad budgets on click fraud. By taking action and using an independent click fraud detection service to protect them from fake clicks, they now have effective advertising campaigns and don’t need to worry about being ripped off by criminals.”
Polygraph said that up to 80 per cent of genuine advertisers’ customer clicks are now understood to be fake in some circumstances.
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