App marketing is a fairly new option in the big scheme of things, but the fraudsters have been quick to get their fingers in this pie. According to a new study, app marketers are on track to lose as much as $100 million this year alone, and that number is likely only going to go up in the upcoming years.
The research comes from AppsFlyer, which looked at a wide range of information about fraudulent click data, fraudulent installs from fake devices, and a variety of other fraud that impacts app marketers.
The study looked at information from around the world and found that on a per capita basis, Germany accounted for the most fraud, followed by Australia, China, Canada, the UK and finally the US. The US, however, was actually the region that had the most fraudulent activity, but due to the high saturation of mobile users in the US, it wasn’t as high per user.
Android devices are also victims about 50% more often than iOS, but when fraud is successful against an iOS device, it is more likely to generate high levels of revenue for the attacker.
To help combat this fraud, AppsFlyer is launching a new system called DeviceRank, which is designed to fight fraud. The technology is described as being something like a credit score in that it looks at a variety of behaviors, and ranks a device based on what is deemed to be questionable activity. While all users do some things that automated ranking software like this can deem questionable, this system helps to put a tangible ranking on how risky each device is.
CEO of AppsFlyer, Oren Kaniel, said, “As we’ve seen from our global study, fraudsters and scammers are growing increasingly sophisticated, tricking advertisers into paying for both installs and in-app engagement. DeviceRank takes a radically different approach, cutting off fraud at the source and adding transparency to our industry in order to protect advertisers, our partners and the entire market. AppsFlyer is in a unique position to apply this game-changing technology and leverage our scale across the mobile industry, arming marketers worldwide with the best solution to combat fraud.”
Whether marketers use this new service or not, it is clear that some action needs to be taken to help protect app developers, app markets, and others from this problem. You can see the full report HERE.
