Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 20:07:45 -0400
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [WSFA] Smartphone Apps Fraudulently Collecting Revenue From Invisible Ads
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Story:
Thousands of mobile applications are downloading ads that are never
presented to users but which collected an estimated $850 million in
fraudulent revenue from advertisers per year. The downloading of these
invisible ads can slow down users' phones and consume up to 2GB of
bandwidth per day. Forensiq, an online technology firm fighting fraud for
advertisers, found over 5,000 apps displayed unseen ads on both Apple and
Android devices. "The sheer amount of activity generated by apps with fake
ads was what initially exposed the scam. Forensiq noticed that some apps
were calling up ads at such a high frequency that the intended audience
couldn't possibly be actual humans."
                         -- 30 --

Story and links to original article at
<http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/15/07/23/1539259/smartphone-apps-fraudulently-collecting-revenue-from-invisible-ads>

So, if your phone seems slow, I'd check....

         mark