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Users do not even need to launch the application: clicks occur even if the application is not running, which means that the battery can exhaust and that the data is consumed. This fraudulent action occurs with ads served with Google's AdMob and Twitter's MoPub, which shows how bad actors are exploiting Twitter's advertising platform. Back in March BuzzFeed News reported a massive advertising fraud scheme that also exploited MoPub by hiding video ads behind legitimate banner ads.
In addition to fraudulently clicking ads, the DU group applications involved in the schema – Omni Cleaner, RAM Master, Smart Cooler, Total Cleaner and AIO Flashlight, in addition to Selfie Camera – also hid their affiliation with the company. They did not reveal that they were collecting data and sending it back to China as well.
BuzzFeed News discovered DU's participation after reviewing 5,000 popular apps on the Play Store. He found many more apps involved in advertising fraud than the six DU group apps, which proves that it is a major problem that Google has to solve. Richard Kramer, senior analyst at Arete Research, told the publication that Google needed to do more to solve the problem. "Advertising fraud is simply the norm in China (and for many other applications), and … Google should do a lot more to prevent it, even if it would significantly reduce sales." They can neither pretend to ignore nor deny problem, "he said.
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