Right Scam FollowUp

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:04:17 GMT

I thought I'd follow up on the RightFielders scam I uncovered. BlogAds sent me an email, indicating they had previously received complaints about RightPundits and were already investigating the issue. They asked them to change the wording on their order page to remove any confusion. RightPundits made the change. Then I got an email from Mary McCain. They demanded my posts be taken down and that my allegations were false. And if I didn't, they would report me to BlogAds.

http://www.destroyallmalware.com/?guid=20080506235631

Right Ad Scam

Wed, 07 May 2008 04:56:31 GMT

Today, I discovered an ad scam on the BlogAds network. I first came upon the fraudulent network a few weeks ago when I started to get a ton of referrers from them. When I checked into the referrers, it turned out it was referrer spam (not legit). I sent them an email to stop it, they turned off the switch and I stopped receiving a ton of (fake) referrers from them. Then I got an email from a reader informing me of potential impression fraud. I didn't really think twice of it as I get more emails than I can bother consuming. But the same day, I was checking out my blogs on the BlogAds network and discovered they were were making some good coin from their advertisers. It appears they are making more than $1000 per week on BlogAds. They are employing an array of tactics to defraud their advertisers. First, it appears they are using a botnet (or the likes of) to inflate hits, but I can't prove that. Second, they are placing premium ads in the bottom of sidebars of other irrelevant blogs on their network. This artificially inflates their numbers with impressions their advertisers would surely gag on, if they only knew. Their primary blog is called RightPundits, but they also have other blogs; RightFielders and RightCelebrity. If you advertise in one of their premium BlogAds units, then your ad will also appear on the other blogs, but further down the sidebar. In fact, it may appear more often down the sidebar of other blogs, then where the advertiser actually intended to place it. They do have text in some (not all) places that indicate that ads may be placed elsewhere, but the text is confusing at best.

They are also using AdSense, but only the link units. This is likely because Google would've quickly booted them if they were using a unit that might generate revenues for fake impression. They don't seem to be breaking any AdSense terms or policies. They are also using AdBrite, but less preeminently.

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Right Scam FollowUp

Right Ad Scam