Bots can perform a wide range of human-like activities online such as making purchases, generating web content and traffic, interacting with users, and spreading malware. The document outlines various ways bots are used for fraudulent purposes like fake ad impressions, click fraud, and account manipulation on sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. It warns that up to a third of digital ad spending may be lost to ad fraud committed through bot activity.

1. marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Bots Can Do Everything You Can
2015 Update
February 2015
Augustine Fou, PhD.
acfou @ mktsci .com
212. 203. 7239

2. February 2015 / Page 1marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Buy Stuff (w/ Bitcoin)
“First time around, the bot
was spending its (roughly)
$100 of weekly Bitcoins on
items from the darknet
marketplace Agora. Since
that has now closed, the
bot is crawling Alpha Bay
instead, described as
“currently the largest
deepweb market place” by
the team.”
Source:
http://thenextweb.com/insider/20
15/11/29/random-darknet-
shopper-bot-that-bought-ecstasy-
online-is-going-on-another-
spending-spree/

3. February 2015 / Page 2marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Make Web Pages/Sites
Characteristics
• Auto-generated by bots,
stuffed with search keywords
• To attract organic search
traffic
• Not human readable (low
instance of natural phrases)
• Stuffed with affiliate links and
display ads

4. February 2015 / Page 3marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Make Fake Traffic
SOURCE: Google’s Digital Attack Map

5. February 2015 / Page 4marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Fake Human Actions
Bots can fake
• mouse movements
• page scrolling
• clicking on ads
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeGYr3jwubY

6. February 2015 / Page 5marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Fake Ad Impressions
http://interiorcom plex.com/
http://modernbab y.com/

7. February 2015 / Page 6marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Commit Click Fraud
buy eye cream online
Olay.com
ad in #1
position

8. February 2015 / Page 7marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Collect Cookies
By visiting various sites and collecting cookies, bots can make themselvs look very
attractive to advertisers, and get retargeted so they earn even higher CPMs (fraud)
Source: DataXu/DoubleVerify Webinar, April 2015

9. February 2015 / Page 8marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Drain Ad Budgets
Advertisers
to spend E$56B in
digital in 2015
Premium publishers
are left with only
2/3 of the dollars
Ad fraud siphons
1/3 of ad spend OUT
of the ecosystem
• Ad dollars are being siphoned OUT of the ecosystem into the pockets of the bad guys
• Advertisers have lower ROI due to fraud (fake impressions, non-humans)
• Publishers have lower revenues (ad dollars stolen by bad guys)
2/3
1/3
Source: Dr. Augustine Fou – Digital Ad
Fraud Case File
http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/
digital-ad-fraud-case-file-augustine-fou-
2014

10. February 2015 / Page 9marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Solve Captchas
Source:
http://news.sciencemag.or
g/technology/2013/10/cap
tcha-busted-ai-company-
claims-have-broken-
internets-favorite-
protection-system
AI Company Claims
to Have Broken the
Internet's Favorite
Protection System

11. February 2015 / Page 10marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Talk to Customers
“In the mid-1960s, MIT professor
Joseph Weizenbaum developed a
computer program called ELIZA, which
could engage in open-ended
conversation with a real human being.
Over time these chat bots have gotten
better and better at interacting with
humans, mostly because programmers
have loaded them up with knowledge
about the real world. They can also
learn from their conversations,
becoming ever more skilled at fooling
us into thinking that they, too, are
intelligent.”
Source: WSJ July 28, 2014

12. February 2015 / Page 11marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Twitter Bot Predicts Future
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3042189/assessing-the-accuracy-of-a-twitter-bot-that-
claims-to-predict-the-future

13. February 2015 / Page 12marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Tinder Bots Do Marketing
http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/11/brazil-tinder-aids-bots/

14. February 2015 / Page 13marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Make Facebook Profiles
Using plagiarized images and content
SOURCE: http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/fake-facebook-profiles-and-likes-investigation-by-augustine-fou

15. February 2015 / Page 14marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Make LinkedIn Profiles
SOURCE: http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/fake-profiles-on-linkedin-digital-forensic-analysis-by-augustine-fou

16. February 2015 / Page 15marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Fake Twitter Accounts
To generate fake followers that big advertisers pay to get

17. February 2015 / Page 16marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Fake YouTube Views
http://www.you tube.com /watch?v=xnkM9RrDzhM
Banned Celebrity Sex
Tapes
bannedsextapes .com

18. February 2015 / Page 17marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Fake Sweepstakes
To collect users’ email addresses
and other personal info when
they enter sweepstakes.

19. February 2015 / Page 18marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Spread Malware
There's a troubling type of porn-based malware that's apparently infected over 110,000 Facebook users
in two days. And you could get the same Click Transmitted Disease.
The Facebook malware is disguised as a Flash update. Basically, you'll see a link to a porn video in one
of your friend's posts. If you click on it (don't) you'll be taken to a website that may or may not be
disguised as YouTube and see the first few seconds of the video. Then the video will prompt you to
download a Flash update to keep watching. If you do, you'll infect your computer with a Trojan that can
highjack your keyboard and mouse.
Gizmodo, Jan 29, 2015
Beware: Porn-Based
Malware Is Sweeping Across
Facebook

20. February 2015 / Page 19marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Write Wikipedia
Mr. Johansson's program scrubs
databases and other digital sources
for information, and then packages it
into an article. On a good day, he
says his "Lsjbot" creates up to 10,000
new entries (PER DAY)
Source: WSJ July 2014

21. February 2015 / Page 20marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Write News
“​America’s oldest news agency
wrote 10X more articles by having
robots do what reporters used to
do.”
Source: Business Insider, Feb 2015
“More news is being written by
robots than you think.”
Souce: Singularity Hub March 2014

22. February 2015 / Page 21marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Bots Write Blog Comments
Comment spam
assembled from
plagiarized
content, with link-
backs to malware
sites.

23. February 2015 / Page 22marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Well Documented Activity
Source: Google Fighting Spam
Source: Google Malware Report
http://www.incapsula.com/blog/bot-traffic-report-2014.html

24. February 2015 / Page 23marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Dr. Augustine Fou – Technical Forensics
“I study ad fraud and how it is committed. I
advise clients on how to detect and mitigate ad
fraud caused by bots; and also how to clean up
measurement, impacted by their activity.”
FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, HCG (OMNICOM)
MCKINSEY CONSULTANT
CLIENT SIDE / AGENCY SIDE EXPERIENCE
PROFESSOR AND COLUMNIST
ENTREPRENEUR / SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
PHD MATERIALS SCIENCE (MIT '95) AT AGE 23
ClickZ Articles: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-clickz
Slideshares: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-slideshares
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/84444-augustinefou
212. 203. 7239 | acfou @ mktsci. com

25. February 2015 / Page 24marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Related Articles
http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/how-click-fraud-search-ad-fraud-works-analysis-by-
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http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/proof-positive-click-fraud-impacting-retailers-by-
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http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/ad-fraud-estimates-by-augustine-fou-technical-
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http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/fake-traffic-site-examples-2014-augustine-fou