Gaming fraud soared by 172% to date globally

FRAUDULENT activity in gaming has increased by a whopping 172.95% between August 2019 and this year, with the US alone seeing a surge of 310.29% in the same period.

In a statement, app marketing platform Adjust said that fraudsters are not only faking paid installs but also the organic traffic, to hide the paid installs they steal.

“Out of 200 million rejected installs, two thirds of these were organic and the rest were paid installs. About 36.64% of the e-commerce frauds were caused by fake users or bots.

“If we fail to stop this, it can distort critical marketing data used for business decisions,” said its director of fraud prevention Andreas Naumann.

Acknowledging that marketers are technically not losing money, Naumann said the fake organic installs can compromise data integrity and insights marketers need from their marketing activities.

As a result, he added, marketers run a risk of “flying blind” in a situation where fraudulent activity is rampant, by working on corrupted data, including the data on organics. 

“Without having a clear view, it is simply impossible to make strategic, data-driven decisions. Ultimately, fraud is and will remain to be a challenge in the industry.

“However, by implementing the right tools, we will be able to stay one step ahead of the fraudsters and ensure transparency remains a top priority.

“In the end, marketers must be able to trust their data,” said Naumann.

Among the top nations having to deal with fake users/bots include the US (68.7%), China (65.6%), Japan (60.7%) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea) 47%. – Nov 24, 2020.

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