#Clickfraud

[reillybrutus]

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[mfilterit]

Maximizing Impact During IPL: Why Smart Brands Focus on Ad Monitoring, Frequency Capping & Fraud Prevention

The Indian Premier League (IPL) continues to shatter records, not just on the field but also in the advertising arena. The 2025 season has witnessed a remarkable 29% increase in the number of advertisers compared to the previous year, with over 55 brands vying for attention during the first five matches alone.

However, with this vast opportunity comes significant risk. The surge in advertising can lead to overspending, ad fatigue among viewers, and an uptick in fraudulent activities targeting high-profile events like the IPL.

This blog explores how strategic implementation of ad monitoring, frequency capping, and fraud detection can be the difference between a successful IPL campaign and a costly misstep.

What will your brand get out of IPL advertising?

Here are the benefits your brand will get out of IPL advertising:

Fast Massive Reach

The Indian Premier League (IPL) isn’t just a cricket tournament — it’s a nationwide spectacle with a global fanbase. In the 2024 season, the IPL reached a cumulative audience of 546 million viewers on television alone, with digital platforms like JioCinema attracting an additional 620 million viewers. This unparalleled reach offers brands instant national visibility.

For brands, this means instant national visibility. Doesn’t matter if you’re launching a new product or driving top-of-funnel awareness, IPL advertising is your opening batsman — aggressive, high-impact, and out to make a statement from ball one.

In most media environments, building this kind of reach would take weeks, even months. With IPL, it can happen in a matter of days, sometimes even overnight. You’re not just reaching people — you’re entering living rooms, conversations, and social media feeds in real time.

Hyper-Engaged Audience

IPL viewers are not just numerous; they are deeply engaged. During the 2024 season, JioCinema reported that viewers spent an average of 75 minutes per session, up from over 60 minutes in the previous season. This substantial time spent indicates a highly captivated audience, providing brands with extended exposure and increased opportunities for message retention.

A neuroscience study revealed that during IPL 2024, viewers exhibited 1.2 times higher attention to ads on connected TVs compared to linear TV, and brand equity increased by 1.5 times on connected TVs. This heightened engagement translates to more effective advertising, as audiences are more receptive and responsive to brand messages during the tournament.

Better Brand Recall

Repeated exposure during the IPL significantly enhances brand recall. The tournament’s high-frequency matches and extensive viewership provide multiple touchpoints for audiences to internalize brand messages.

Integrating advertisements with specific in-game moments, such as boundaries or wickets, further amplifies recall. For instance, Cadbury Dairy Milk’s #ThankYouFirstCoach campaign during IPL 2024, which featured heartfelt tributes to cricketers’ first coaches, resonated deeply with audiences and reinforced brand association.

By now you’ve understood the massive opportunity IPL advertising is. But over the years, there’s been a marked increase in programmatic ad buys and real-time bidding (RTB). Platforms like JioCinema have enabled precise audience targeting, allowing brands to bid dynamically for premium ad slots in real time. While this opens up opportunities for better efficiency and control, it also intensifies competition.

With thousands of brands vying for the same inventory, standing out without overspending becomes a strategic challenge. The very speed and scale of programmatic — if not managed carefully — can lead to frequency spikes, wasted impressions, or audience fatigue. For smart advertisers, this creates an opportunity: those who can balance agility with optimization can win both attention and efficiency.

To know more about Combined Monitoring, FCAP, and Fraud Prevention click here

[langfristigesseo]

Umgang mit Klickbetrug und Bot-Verkehr

Ein effektives Management von Klickbetrug und Bot-Verkehr ist entscheidend, um Online-Werbeinvestitionen zu schützen. Erkennen Sie verdächtige Trends wie wiederholte Klicks oder abnormale Aktivitäten in Kampagnen. Verwenden Sie Tools wie CAPTCHA-Tests und Traffic-Analysen, um Betrug zu verhindern. Nutzen Sie fortgeschrittene Analysen , um Unregelmäßigkeiten in Traffic-Mustern zu identifizieren. Blockieren Sie betrügerische Quellen und melden Sie Fälle umgehend, um die Integrität der Kampagne zu wahren. Durch die regelmäßige Überwachung von IP-Adressen, Klick-Zeitstempeln und den Einsatz von Algorithmen unterstützen Sie die Betrugserkennung . Analysieren Sie Daten-Trends, verfeinern Sie Targeting-Strategien und verbessern Sie die Cybersicherheitsmaßnahmen, um Risiken zu minimieren. Proaktives Handeln und die Zusammenarbeit mit Branchenpartnern sind entscheidend im Kampf gegen diese Bedrohungen.

Haupterkenntnisse:

Implementieren Sie CAPTCHA-Tests, um Bot-Verkehr zu verhindern und menschliche Benutzer zu unterscheiden.

Analysieren Sie Klickdaten auf Unregelmäßigkeiten, um Klickbetrug und Bot-Verkehr zu erkennen.

Nutzen Sie fortschrittliche Analysetools, um verdächtige Verkehrs-muster zu identifizieren.

Blockieren Sie betrügerische Quellen und melden Sie Klickbetrugsfälle umgehend.

Verwenden Sie Überwachungstools, um IP-Adressen zu verfolgen und wiederholte Klicks auf Anzeigen zu erkennen.

Verständnis von Klickbetrug und Bot-Traffic

Das Verständnis von Click-Fraud und Bot-Traffic ist entscheidend für Unternehmen, um ihre Online-Werbungsinvestitionen zu schützen. Click-Fraud-Taktiken beinhalten betrügerische Klicks auf Online-Anzeigen, die die Klickzahlen künstlich erhöhen und Werbebudgets erschöpfen. Diese täuschende Praxis kann sich erheblich auf Unternehmen auswirken, indem Ressourcen verschwendet werden und die Rendite der Investition verringert wird. Auf der anderen Seite birgt Bot-Traffic Risiken, da automatisierte Website-Besuche generiert werden, die den Datenverkehr verzerren und möglicherweise die Integrität von Online-Kampagnen gefährden. Um diesen Bedrohungen entgegenzuwirken, müssen Unternehmen wirksame Bot-Traffic-Präventionsmaßnahmen umsetzen, wie die Verwendung von CAPTCHA-Tests oder den Einsatz ausgeklügelter Traffic-Analysetools, um zwischen menschlichen und Bot-Interaktionen zu unterscheiden. Durch die proaktive Bewältigung dieser Probleme können Unternehmen ihre Online-Werbemaßnahmen schützen und sicherstellen, dass ihre Marketingstrategien echte Zielgruppen erreichen und die Wirkung ihrer Kampagnen maximieren.

Erkennung von Klickbetrugsmustern

Die Erkennung von Clickfraud-Mustern erfordert eine gründliche Analyse von Klickdaten, um verdächtige Trends und Unregelmäßigkeiten in Online-Werbekampagnen zu identifizieren. Die Identifizierung von Clickfraud beinhaltet die Untersuchung von Metriken wie Klickraten , Konversionsraten und dem Verhalten von Besuchern auf der Website. Ein häufiger Indikator für Clickfraud ist eine auffallend hohe Anzahl von Klicks bei einer niedrigen Konversionsrate, was darauf hindeutet, dass die Klicks von Bots oder betrügerischen Quellen generiert werden könnten.

Um Clickfraud-Muster effektiv zu erkennen, können Werbetreibende Clickfraud-Präventionstools einsetzen, die Klickdaten in Echtzeit analysieren und jegliche unübliche Aktivitäten zur weiteren Untersuchung kennzeichnen. Diese Tools können helfen, Muster wie wiederholte Klicks von derselben IP-Adresse, Klicks zu ungewöhnlichen Zeiten oder Klicks aus Standorten, die nicht zur Zielgruppe gehören, zu identifizieren.

Bot-Verkehrsunfälle verhindern

Um die Integrität von Online-Werbekampagnen zu wahren, ist es entscheidend, robuste Maßnahmen zur Verhinderung von Bot-Traffic-Vorfällen zu implementieren. Die Identifizierung betrügerischer Aktivitäten und die Minimierung finanzieller Verluste sind wichtige Aspekte dieser Präventionsstrategie. Ein effektiver Ansatz besteht darin, die Website-Traffic-Muster regelmäßig auf Unregelmäßigkeiten zu überwachen, die auf Bot-Aktivitäten hinweisen könnten. Das Einrichten von CAPTCHA-Tests kann auch helfen, zwischen menschlichen Nutzern und Bots zu unterscheiden. Darüber hinaus kann es von Vorteil sein, anspruchsvolle Algorithmen zu implementieren, die verdächtige IP-Adressen oder ungewöhnliche Klickmuster erkennen und blockieren können, um Bot-Traffic-Vorfälle zu verhindern.

Die Schulung der Mitarbeiter, die Online-Werbekampagnen verwalten, über die mit Bot-Traffic verbundenen Risiken und die Schulung darin, Anzeichen für betrügerische Aktivitäten zu erkennen, ist entscheidend. Indem man sich über die neuesten Taktiken, die von Bots verwendet werden, informiert hält und Präventionsmaßnahmen kontinuierlich aktualisiert, können Unternehmen im Kampf gegen Bot-Traffic einen Schritt voraus bleiben. Letztendlich können Investitionen in die Prävention von Bot-Traffic-Vorfällen die Wirksamkeit und Glaubwürdigkeit von Online-Werbemaßnahmen schützen und sicherstellen, dass Marketingbudgets nicht durch betrügerische Aktivitäten geleert werden.

Werkzeuge für die Analyse von Klickbetrug

Eine wertvolle Ressource im Kampf gegen Klickbetrug ist die Nutzung von fortgeschrittenen Analysetools , die darauf ausgelegt sind, verdächtige Muster im Online-Verkehr zu überprüfen und zu erkennen. Diese Tools spielen eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Prävention von Klickbetrug , indem sie ungewöhnliche Klickaktivitäten identifizieren, die auf betrügerisches Verhalten hinweisen können. Durch die Nutzung von sophistizierten Algorithmen können diese Tools riesige Datenmengen analysieren, um Unregelmäßigkeiten in Klickmustern zu identifizieren, wie z.B. eine ungewöhnlich hohe Anzahl von Klicks von einer einzelnen IP-Adresse oder eine übermäßige Anzahl von Klicks innerhalb eines kurzen Zeitraums.

Darüber hinaus sind diese Tools für die Bot-Verkehrsanalyse unerlässlich, da sie zwischen legitimem menschlichem Verkehr und botgeneriertem Verkehr unterscheiden können. Durch die Untersuchung verschiedener Metriken wie Klickzeitstempel, Nutzerverhalten und Verweisquellen können diese Tools Bot-Verkehr genau identifizieren und Werbetreibenden helfen, erforderliche Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um dessen Auswirkungen zu minimieren.

Blockierung von Bot-Traffic-Quellen

Die Nutzung von Tools zur Analyse von Klickbetrug kann zur Identifizierung von Bot-Traffic-Quellen führen, die blockiert werden müssen, um die Integrität von Online-Werbekampagnen zu gewährleisten. Die Prävention von Bot-Traffic ist entscheidend, um sicherzustellen, dass Anzeigenbudgets nicht für nicht-menschliche Interaktionen verschwendet werden. Durch die Analyse von Verkehrs-Mustern können Werbetreibende Quellen identifizieren, die betrügerische Klicks und Besuche generieren.

Das Blockieren betrügerischer Quellen ist ein wesentlicher Schritt zur Minderung der Auswirkungen von Bot-Traffic auf digitale Kampagnen. Dieser Prozess beinhaltet die Identifizierung von Mustern wie ungewöhnlich hohen Klickraten bei niedrigen Konversionsraten, wiederholtem Klickverhalten von denselben IP-Adressen oder Spitzen im Verkehr aus unbekannten Standorten. Sobald diese Muster erkannt sind, können Maßnahmen ergriffen werden, um die Quellen zu blockieren, die für die Bot-Aktivität verantwortlich sind.

Die Implementierung robuster Maßnahmen zur Blockierung von Bot-Traffic-Quellen ist eine fortlaufende Aufgabe, die kontinuierliche Überwachung und Anpassung erfordert, um den sich entwickelnden betrügerischen Taktiken voraus zu sein. Werbetreibende müssen wachsam bleiben in ihren Bemühungen, Klickbetrug zu bekämpfen und die Wirksamkeit ihrer Online-Werbungsinvestitionen zu schützen.

Berichterstattung über Klickbetrug an Plattformen

Die Meldung von Fällen von Klickbetrug an Werbeplattformen ist entscheidend für die Integrität von Online-Marketingkampagnen. Die Warnung vor Klickbetrug spielt eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Identifizierung von betrügerischen Aktivitäten und stellt sicher, dass Werbetreibende nicht für illegitime Klicks berechnet werden. Bei der Meldung von Klickbetrug ist es wichtig, detaillierte Beweise wie verdächtige Muster in Klickdaten oder ungewöhnlich hohe Klickraten vorzulegen, um Ihren Anspruch zu unterstützen.

Plattformen haben die Verantwortung, diese Berichte zeitnah zu untersuchen und die erforderlichen Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um Klickbetrug zu bekämpfen. Plattformverantwortlichkeit ist entscheidend, um Transparenz und Vertrauen im digitalen Werbeumfeld aufrechtzuerhalten. Durch die Einhaltung der Plattformen für die Erkennung und Verhinderung von Klickbetrug können Werbetreibende mehr Vertrauen in die Wirksamkeit ihrer Online-Kampagnen haben.

Überwachung der Auswirkungen von Klickbetrug

Die effektive Überwachung der Auswirkungen von Klickbetrug ist wichtig, um die Integrität und Leistung von Online-Werbekampagnen zu bewerten. Die Analyse der Auswirkungen von Klickbetrug beinhaltet die Bewertung des Ausmaßes, in dem betrügerische Klicks die Kampagnendaten verzerren und die Ergebnisse verfälschen. Durch die Implementierung robuster Techniken zur Überwachung von Klickbetrug können Werbetreibende verdächtige Muster identifizieren, wie z.B. hohe Klickvolumina von einer einzigen IP-Adresse oder wiederholte Klicks auf dieselbe Anzeige. Zu diesen Überwachungstechniken können das Tracking von IP-Adressen, die Analyse von Klick-Zeitstempeln und der Einsatz von Machine-Learning-Algorithmen zur Erkennung abnormales Klickverhalten gehören.

Durch regelmäßige Überwachung können Werbetreibende die Auswirkungen von Klickbetrug auf ihre Kampagnen messen und somit fundierte Entscheidungen hinsichtlich Budgetzuweisung und Kampagnenoptimierung treffen. Durch das Verfolgen und Analysieren von Klickbetrugsdaten im Laufe der Zeit können Werbetreibende Trends und Muster identifizieren, die auf organisierte Klickbetrugsaktivitäten hinweisen können. Diese Informationen sind entscheidend für die Anpassung von Targeting-Parametern, die Verfeinerung von Anzeigenkreativen und die Zusammenarbeit mit Werbeplattformen, um Klickbetrugsrisiken effektiv zu mindern. Letztendlich ist die proaktive Überwachung der Auswirkungen von Klickbetrug entscheidend, um die Effizienz und Glaubwürdigkeit von Online-Werbemaßnahmen aufrechtzuerhalten.

Über den Autor: Ralf Seybold — Agentur für Sichtbarkeit

Ralf Seybold ist der Gründer und Geschäftsführer der Agentur für Sichtbarkeit, die sich auf Online-Marketing und Suchmaschinenoptimierung (SEO) spezialisiert hat. Mit seiner langjährigen Erfahrung und umfassenden Expertise hilft er Unternehmen dabei, ihre digitale Präsenz zu optimieren und in der Online-Welt sichtbar zu werden. Auf seiner Webseite seybold.de bietet Ralf Seybold fundierte Einblicke in aktuelle SEO-Trends und maßgeschneiderte Strategien zur Steigerung der Sichtbarkeit im Netz. Sein ganzheitlicher Ansatz und seine Innovationskraft machen ihn zu einem gefragten Experten in der Branche. Darüber hinaus veröffentlicht er regelmäßig Fachbeiträge auf intuitives-wissen.de, in denen er vertiefte Einblicke und praxisnahe Tipps zu den neuesten Entwicklungen im Bereich SEO und Online-Marketing gibt. Hier finden sich weitere Informationen zu seiner Person, wie Fachvorträge, Social Media Accounts, Berufserfahrung, Auszeichnungen und Zertifizierungen, Engagements, Vorträge und Veröffentlichungen.

[poweradspy1231]

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[jpmellojr]

EFF Calls for FTC Action on Poisoned Set-Top Boxes

TV set-top boxes infected with malware are being sold online at Amazon and other resellers, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation wants the Federal Trade Commission to put a stop to it. https://jpmellojr.blogspot.com/2023/11/eff-calls-for-ftc-action-on-poisoned.html

[wesmartcorp]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Private equity rips off its investors, too

I'm coming to DEFCON! TOMORROW (Aug 9), I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On SATURDAY (Aug 10), I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

It's amazing how many of the scams that have devastated our economy and everyday people owe their success to the fact that we assume that rich people know what they're doing, so if they're doing something, it must be real.

Think of how many people lost everything by gambling on junk bonds, exotic mortgage derivatives, cryptocurrency and web3, because they saw that the largest financial institutions in the world were going all-in on these weird, incomprehensible bets.

Then there are the people who are convinced that online advertising is built around a mind-control ray, because tech companies claim that's what they have ("I am an evil dopamine-loop-hacking wizard and I can sell anything to anyone!"), and because huge, sober blue-chip companies hand billions to these soi dissant svengalis. Sure, online ads are a swamp of clickfraud and garbage, but would these super smart captains of industry spend so much on online advertising if it didn't work super-well?

http://pluralistic.net/HowToDestroySurveillanceCapitalism

From our worms'-eye-view here on the ground, it's easy to assume that rich people and the people who sell them stuff are all on the same side. "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product," right? If Facebook is tormenting you with surveillance advertising, it must be doing so on behalf of the surveillance advertisers, for whom Mark Zuckerberg has bottomless reservoirs of honest, forthright impulses.

The reality is simultaneously weirder, and obvious in hindsight. The reason Zuck is tormenting you is that he's a remorseless sociopath who doesn't care who he hurts. He rips off everyone he can rip off, and that includes advertisers, who have seen steady price-hikes and lower-fidelity targeting, even as ad-fraud has skyrocketed while Facebook draws down its anti-fraud spending:

https://www.404media.co/where-facebooks-ai-slop-comes-from/

This is not to say that Facebook advertisers have your best interests at heart, that they aren't engaged in active deception in order to better themselves at your expense. Rather, it's to say that there's no honor among thieves, and Zuck is an equal-opportunity predator. Moreover, both Zuck and his advertisers are credulous dolts, so the mere fact that they are pouring money into something (advertisers: FB ads; Zuck: metaverse) it doesn't follow that these are real or important or the coming thing.

For me, the Ur-example of "rich people are dumb, even when it comes to money" is the private equity sector. I've written a lot about PE, and how destructive it is to the real economy, from Toys R Us to pet grooming:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/05/rugged-individuals/#misleading-by-analogy

How they killed Red Lobster:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/#invertebrates

And how they actually created the death panels that Sarah Palin warned us about (it's OK, though: these death panels are run by the efficient private sector, not government bureaucrats):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/26/death-panels/#what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-CMS

The devastating effect of private equity on the real economy is increasingly well understood, and a curious side-effect of this is that people assume that if PE is destroying their lives, they must be doing so on behalf of their investors, who are making bank.

But – like Zuck – PE bosses are just as happy to steal from their investors as they are to to steal from the workers and customers of the businesses they acquire on those investors' behalf. They swaddle this theft in performative complexity and specialized jargon, but when you strip all that away, you find more fraud.

All the misery that PE inflicts on workers, communities and customers are just a convincer in a Big Store con, a bid to make the scam seem credible. For a certain kind of investor, any economic activity that destroys communities and workers' livelihoods must be a good bet. This is the dynamic at work in the pitch of AI image-generator companies, who spend tens of billions on technology that there is no substantial market for:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/25/accountability-sinks/#work-harder-not-smarter

AI image generators represent a high-profile, extremely visible example of "a job that AI can do." Nevermind that AI illustration went from a novelty to a tired cliche in less than a year. Even if you think that AI illustrations are a perfect substitute for commercial illustrations, that still won't come anywhere near making AI companies a profit. Add up the entire wage bill for every commercial illustrator in the world, hand it to Open AI, and you're not even gonna cover the kombucha budget for Open AI's staff kitchens.

Hell, all the wages of every commercial illustrator that ever lived won't pay back even a fraction of the money the AI companies spent on image generators. The pauperization of an entire class of creative workers is just a canned demo, a way to fool investors into thinking that there is a whole universe of similarly situated workers whose wages can be diverted to AI companies. This is the logic of small-time spammers, scaled up to the scale of the entire S&P 500. Smalltime spammers looked at AI and thought, "OK, I can generate as much botshit as I want on demand for free. Science fiction magazines pay $0.10/word. So if I generate a billion words, I'll get $100 million." But that's not how any of that works: sf magazines don't buy botshit, and even if they did, the entire market for short fiction adds up to what Sam Altman spends on a single designer t-shirt. The point of destroying these beloved, useful things isn't to make a lot of money by taking their markets – it's to convince dopey, panicked rich people to give you lots of money you can steal, because they think you can do this to every market and they don't want to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-brainworms/#four-hour-work-week

Take "divi recaps": after a private equity firm acquires a company (by borrowing money against its assets), it typically declares a "special dividend," emptying out the company's cash reserves and pocketing them. A "divi recap" is when PE then takes out another massive loan against the company's (remaining) assets and pockets that:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/17/divi-recaps/#graebers-ghost

All of this happens under an opaque cloud, thanks to the light-to-nonexistent disclosure rules for PE. A public company has to open its books for the SEC, its investors, and the world. PE is private – and so are its finances. It is absolutely routine for PE bosses to put their spouses, kids, and pals on the payroll and hand them millions for doing little to nothing, all at the expense of their investors:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/02/sec-set-to-lower-massive-boom-on-private-equity-industry.html

PE bosses charge huge fees to their investors – not merely the usual 2-and-20 (2% of the funds under management and 20% of any profits) – but also a wide variety of special one-off fees that pile to the sky. They also dip into their investors' funds to issue themselves massive loans that they use to make side-bets, without telling the investors about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/10/monopoly-begets-monopoly/#gary-gensler

PE investors are chickens ripe for the plucking: take "continuation funds," which allow PE bosses to soak the rich people and pension funds who supply them with billions:

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/mergers-and-acquisitions/matt-levines-money-stuff-buyout-funds-buy-from-themselves

Remember 2-and-20? 2% of all the money you manage, every year, and 20% of all the profits. You'd think that these would be somewhat zero sum, right? If you use some of your investors' cash to buy a company, and then sell off that company for a profit, you get the 20%, but now the pot of money you're managing has gone down by the amount you used to buy the company, and so your 2% carry goes down, too.

But what if you sell your portfolio companies to yourself, using your investors' own money? When you do that, you continue to hold the company on your PE firm's books, meaning you continue to get the 2% carry, and you can pocket 20% of the sale price as a "profit":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/20/continuation-fraud/#buyout-groups

This is straight-up fraud, wrapped up in so much jargon that it can successfully masquerade as "financial engineering" ("financial engineering" is really just a euphemism for "fraud"). PE bosses keep coming up with new, exotic ways to steal from their investors. The latest scam is "tax receivable agreements":

https://archive.ph/RczJ9

On its face, this is a tax scam. When a company goes public, early investors generally hold stock in the original partnership or LLC; this company ends up holding a ton of shares in the new, public company. When they sell those non-public shares in the LLC, this creates a (potentially gigantic) tax credit.

A TRA hustle involves tracking down these LLC shareholders and convincing them to sign off on dumping the LLC's shares, which generates a huge tax credit for the public company. The hustler offers to split these credits with the LLC holders.

All of this is especially attractive to PE bosses, who often take a company private, do a bunch of "financial engineering" and then take it public again, leaving the PE firm as the owner of those LLC shares that can be converted to a TRA and a huge windfall – which the PE bosses pocket, because they (not their investors) are holding those credits.

This scam is really doing big numbers. KKR – the monsters who killed Toys R Us – just diverted $650 million in TRA loot, prompting a lawsuit from Steamfitters union pension fund, which had handed these jerks millions of its members' money to gamble with:

https://archive.ph/kqQvI

This highlights another very weird aspect of the PE scam: they are absolutely dependent on pension funds. To add insult to injury, PE funds are notorious union-busters – they use union money to buy companies and destroy their unions:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/05/mr-gotcha/#no-ethical-consumption-under-capitalism

People who try to understand the PE business model often give up, because it seems to make no sense, leading many to assume that they're too unsophisticated to grasp the complex financials here. For example, PE is absolutely dependent on massive loans as a way of looting its businesses, but it also often defaults on those loans. Why do banks and investors keep making huge loans to PE deadbeats? Because – like the PE fund investors – they are credulous dolts.

The reason PE seems like a scam is that it is a scam. It is a fractal scam – every part of it is a scam. You might have heard about the "carried interest" tax loophole that allows PE bosses to avoid billions in taxes on the money they steal from their investors, creditors, workers and customers. Most people assume "carried interest" has something to do with "interest" on a loan. Nope: "carried interest" is a 16th century nautical tax rule designed for mercantalist sea-captains who had an "interest" in the cargo they "carried":

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/29/writers-must-be-paid/#carried-interest

But rich people and other "sophisticated investors" (like pension fund investment managers) are no smarter than the rest of us. They are herd animals. When they see other rich people piling into some scheme or asset class, they rush to join them, which makes the asset price go up, which makes them think they're smart (until the inevitable rug-pull). When one plute jumps off the Empire State Building, the rest of them jump, too.

Which is why there's more money flooding into PE than at any time in history, $2.62T in "dry powder," handed over to greedy, thieving PE bosses in a poker game where everyone is the sucker at the table:

https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2di1vzgjcmzovkcea8f0g/portfolio/private-equitys-dry-powder-mountain-reaches-record-height

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/08/sucker-at-the-table/#clucks-definance

[fishmech]

there are so many people who think it already makes perfect images/writing/video/whatever right now, right this very second. and it's extremely funny that they think so! it's full buy-in to the marketing despite pretenses to being opposed.

you can't even reliably get pre-prepared text placed in the images, it can't reliably perform extremely basic math in the text output, so on and so forth. whenever someone lets the direct output out to public view it's visibly Bad. It all only gets to looking/sounding good when somebody goes over it meticulously to edit and fix it. Some of it isn't even amenable to being fixed, like the video generator stuff.

and there's no like, real evidence that the future of anything in this direction is going to or can fix any of these problems. just trying to average the likelihood of text outputs is never going to give the things the ability to keep track of what things are at least verifiable or what things it's already written to produce an actively useful novel-machine. averaging the outputs of images is probably never going to fix the "it can't even consistently form text, even though normal programs doing so in normal image producing setups have handled that for 60 years" stuff or the inability to keep track of lighting and the like. no one even bothers to talk about AI music as a serious threat again since that got too noticeable at being ok for a few seconds all on tis own before you start needing to tightly edit it. video stuff has all the problems of images multiplied by time.

like honestly its pretty relevant that despite all the resources stuffed into ai it still keeps being like barely functional at all with all that was taken. it only "works" for creating placeholder objects and putting up things not even intended to be seen by actual people (eg those entirely spam sites that effectively function only to clickfraud some ad revenue). and the people saying "oh itll just get better magically" can't see that.

every time a new advancement in machine learning generative art comes around, people freak out, one person points out that even after all this time the machine still can't grok basic aesthetic associations that human artists make intuitively, they are pressed with further scaremongering about how the technology will improve, their critiques dismissed as nitpicking tiny flaws that the AI will iron out eventually, which it never actually does.

[reillybrutus]

The Shocking Truth About Click Fraud Exposed! Insider Secrets & Top Prevention Tips Revealed

Welcome to our jaw-dropping deep dive into the clandestine realm of click fraud! In this riveting video, come with us as we lift the veil on the nefarious tactics employed by fraudsters to distort online advertising campaigns for their profit, leaving businesses and advertisers on the hook. Brace yourself for a shocking expose of the dark underbelly of the internet, where schemes and deception run rampant.

Get ready to be astonished as we unravel the mysteries behind click fraud and reveal how you could be the next target. Don't miss out on this eye-opening journey into the world of deceit and manipulation!

Don't miss out on this revealing expose that will change the way you see online advertising forever. Hit that like button, share with your friends, and subscribe for more shocking insights into the underbelly of the internet. 🔒 Stay informed, stay vigilant, and join us on this journey of unraveling the mysteries of Click Fraud.

[mfilterit]

How Fraudsters Manipulate App Installs and What Marketers Can Do About It?

Mobile apps are big business and the same is apparent through the significant advertising budgets dedicated to increasing app installs. In 2022 alone, advertisers spent more than $18 billion on advertising their apps to drive more installs. This makes the app install advertising business lucrative.  

Unfortunately, this lure also attracts bad actors and frauds. That’s perhaps why, today, app install fraud is one of the most common forms of ad fraud in the online realm. According to our analysis, we have found that on IOS, the average fraud at the install level is 57% which rapidly increases to 70% on Android devices.  

Fraudsters use fake app installs to steal from advertising budgets. The financial impact of this, while significant, is only a small part of all the trouble caused for the advertisers as a result of these activities. What’s more troublesome is that fraudsters are evolving their methods and employing sophisticated methods to carry out their fraudulent activities.   

In times like these, advertisers need to start ahead of the curve to protect their ad budgets. To do this, one must first understand how app install fraud works and that’s exactly what the next section describes. Read on. 

The Hidden Tactics Behind Install Fraud

While it may seem like app install fraud is a single threat, the reality is much more complex. Fraudsters utilize several simple and complex methods to fake installs and steal from advertisers’ budgets. Here’s a quick overview of the most common methods employed by app install fraudsters: 

– Click Injection:

This is one of the most sophisticated forms of app install fraud. To execute this, fraudsters publish an app that “listens” for app download broadcasts. Using this information, they can “inject” a click right before an app install is completed. This allows fraudsters to claim the credit for the app install despite not contributing anything to make it happen. 

– Click Spamming:

Click spamming is usually employed to target campaigns where advertisers are paying for clicks on their ads. As the name suggests, fraudsters generate a large number of fake clicks, usually using bots, and claim the rewards. However, the advertiser unfortunately ends up paying for clicks that will not result in any genuine interest or installs of their application. 

– Organic Hijacking:

Another sophisticated form of app install fraud; organic hijacking works by stealing the credit of organic installs. Fraudsters employ malware or other methods to send a fake click right before an app download is completed, claiming the credit for the app installs, along with the associated reward.  

– Incent traffic:

This type of app install fraud is one of the most difficult to detect, as it uses real users to scam advertisers. In this type of fraud, fraudsters place ads on incent walls and incentivize real users to download an application and in some cases, complete an action that claims the reward. In many cases, fraudsters straight out share a part of their affiliate payout with the user. While there are real users involved and the app download is also authentic, since the user is only interested in the reward, the entire activity doesn’t drive any value for the advertiser.  

– SDK Spoofing:

With SDK Spoofing, fraudsters usually use a malware-laced app of their own to infect user devices. This app then manipulates the SDK communication of the advertisers’ apps to generate fake installs and register other actions that may be rewarded by the advertiser. Alarmingly, such an activity is extremely difficult to track and can be conducted indefinitely, effectively draining entire ad budgets without delivering any real value.  

But Aren’t Fraud Checks by MMPs Enough?  

to know more, click here

[davidesau]

Any digital marketer is fully aware of how costly click fraud is, yet so few acts on solving the issue because of the tremendous manual work involved. Luckily, PPC Protect is an automated click fraud prevention software that helps significantly reduce the cost and threat of PPC ad fraud. In the digital age that we live in today, millions of customers are inclined towards purchasing goods and services online making it easier than ever to sell something without even speaking to the person (besides the words and through an ad).

[popularproducer]

Good morning friends.. We came up with a way to describe what happens today in the digital world but in a brick and mortar setting. Fraud is fraud. According to Wikipedia, Click fraud is a type of fraud that occurs on the Internet in pay-per-click (PPC) online advertising. In this type of advertising, the owners of websites that post the ads are paid an amount of money determined by how many visitors to the sites click on the ads. #clickfraud #digitaladvertising #digitalmarketing #digitalsales #payperclick #ppc #popularproducer (at New York, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ywrlfHhli/?igshid=ke4hp2pi2eya

[clickfraudfree]

Unlocking Revenue – Monetizing Your Campaigns with ClickFraudFree

https://new2024.clickfraudfree.com/en/unlocking-revenue-monetizing-your-campaigns-with-clickfraudfree

🚀 Ready to Monetize? Empower Your Ads with ClickFraudFree! Transform campaigns, boost your bottom line—let's chat about elevating your digital advertising game!

[libr-tumbl-alternative]

"As internet users migrate from desktop and laptop computers to mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, cybercriminals are too". Reblog with caption 🙃