‘Methbot’ scamming millions in ad dollars a day: report

A criminal group is raking in more than $3 million a day in ad fraud, security firm WhiteOps says.

The scam operates by charging ad companies for as many as 300 million video ads a day as if they ran on big-name media websites like ESPN and Fox News, according to WhiteOps’s findings. The videos are actually being open and run in simulated environment with no human watching.

{mosads}The security firm, who named the operation “Methbot” after finding references to meth in the code, called it “the largest and most profitable ad fraud operation to strike digital advertising to date.”

The group behind it is said to use around 1000 dedicated servers in located in the United States and Netherlands. 

WhiteOps is making available on its website data, including more than 500,000 internet addresses used by the bot and a list of media companies that were impersonated, to help halt any criminal activity.