How A PPC Fraud Ring Impersonated 300+ Advertisers In May 2014

Just when you think you were safe on the internet, you find out the craziest things that make you rethink  your safety.  Normally, you’d think that as an online advertiser, you’d be safe, but in fact, there could be somebody out there who would use your online persona as a target of advertising fraud.

Unfortunately, there are those people out there who are willing to commit a thing called PPC ad impersonation.  What is PPC ad impersonation?  Basically, it’s when an impostor advertiser decides to take somebody else’s URL and uses it as the Display URL of their own advertisement.

What you have to keep in mind about PPC impersonation is that it’s a big problem.  Bigger than click fraud.  At least with click fraud, although bad in it’s own right, it’s not a real person, but an automated system generating fake clicks on an ad.  With PPC impersonation, marketers need to be watching to ensure that the brand they’re working hard to keep in a positive light isn’t being negatively impacted because of somebody else.

In a recent article found on Search Engine Land written by Lori Weiman, we can learn more about PPC impersonation and the fraud ring that impersonated 300+ advertisers during the month of May of this year.  Aside from the news of this horrendous act of ad impersonation, Lori tells us in more detail about what PPC ad impersonation is, why is  this fraud committed, and how the May 2014 fraud ring was detected.

To find out all the details on this situation, you can check out Lori’s article by following the link below.

Search Engine Land: How A PPC Fraud Ring Impersonated 300+ Advertisers In May 2014