Click fraud glossary

Datacenter traffic refers to web visits originating from servers in data centers rather than residential or mobile networks. For advertisers, this type of traffic often signals potential click fraud, as it can indicate automated bots or fraudulent activities designed to generate fake clicks and drain advertising budgets.

Device blocking is a method used to prevent specific devices from generating fake or fraudulent clicks on digital ads. By identifying and blocking unique device identifiers like IP addresses or device fingerprints, advertisers can stop repeated invalid traffic and protect their ad spend from click fraud schemes.

A device fingerprint is a unique digital identifier created by collecting specific details about a device, such as its browser type, operating system, screen resolution, and installed plugins. This information helps detect suspicious activity, like repeated fake clicks from the same device attempting to manipulate online advertising campaigns and generate fraudulent traffic.

Device spoofing is a sneaky technique where fraudsters make one device appear as another to trick advertising systems. Scammers can fake device details like browser type, operating system, or IP address to generate false clicks and create the illusion of legitimate web traffic, ultimately wasting advertisers' budgets.

Domain spoofing is a deceptive technique where fraudsters disguise their low-quality websites as legitimate, premium sites to trick advertisers into buying ad space. This scam allows them to steal advertising revenue by making fake traffic appear to come from reputable domains, causing financial harm to businesses.

Fake clicks are fraudulent, artificially generated website or ad clicks that are not made by genuine human users. These clicks are often created by bots, scripts, or paid click farms to deliberately inflate website traffic, drain advertising budgets, and manipulate online metrics, causing financial harm to advertisers and website owners.

Fake installs refer to fraudulent app downloads or installations generated by bots or click farms to artificially inflate download numbers. These deceptive practices can drain advertising budgets, skew performance metrics, and create misleading engagement statistics for mobile apps and digital advertising campaigns.

Fake leads are false or fabricated contact submissions that appear to be potential customers but are actually generated by bots, click farms, or malicious actors. These fraudulent leads waste advertising budgets, skew marketing analytics, and prevent businesses from accurately tracking genuine customer interest in their products or services.

A fingerprint is a unique digital identifier created by collecting specific data points about a device or user, such as browser type, screen resolution, or IP address. In click fraud, fraudsters use sophisticated techniques to mask or manipulate these digital fingerprints to make fake clicks appear legitimate and avoid detection.

A fraudulent publisher is a website or online platform that deliberately generates fake clicks, impressions, or traffic to earn money from advertisers through deceptive means. These unethical publishers use bots, click farms, or other artificial methods to inflate their ad revenue, causing financial harm to advertisers and undermining the integrity of digital advertising.

Friendly fraud occurs when a customer makes a purchase and then disputes the charge with their credit card company, claiming they didn't authorize the transaction, even though they did. This type of chargeback can harm businesses by causing financial losses and increased processing fees, similar to how click fraud can drain advertising budgets through invalid traffic.