Google acknowledges Android fraud that was stealing millions in fake ad revenue, has removed those apps and blacklisted sites
Owing to the new aspects of an ad fraud operation across apps and websites that were monetizing with numerous ad platforms, Google in the past week removed apps involved in the ad fraud scheme, so they can no longer monetize with Google. It also blacklisted additional apps and websites that are outside of its ad network, to ensure that advertisers using Display & Video 360 do not buy any of this traffic. Google says that it is continuing to monitor this operation and will continue to take action if it finds any additional invalid traffic. Google estimates that the dollar value impacted how much advertiser spends across the apps and websites involved in the operation and is under $10 million. The majority of impacted advertiser spend was from invalid traffic on inventory from non-Google, third-party ad networks. Google deploys comprehensive, state-of-the-art systems and procedures to combat ad fraud. The company's engineering and operations teams, across various organizations, are also taking systemic action to disrupt this threat, including the take down of command and control infrastructure that powers the associated botnet. In addition, Google has shared relevant technical information with trusted partners across the ecosystem, so that they can also harden their defenses and ... 
Read Here»