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A bot version of you may have helped defraud millions from advertisers
July 08, 2025
You might thinkBuzzFeedis simply a site filled with tests tofigure out your Patronusorwhich Power Ranger you’re most likely to be. However,BuzzFeedfrequently dishes out some amazing investigative journalism, and yesterday it dropped a bombshell report.
According tothe exposé, a team of criminal hackers employed a complicated — but ingenious — system to defraud online advertisers out of millions. The scam involved several prominent Android apps available on theGoogle Play Store, some with tens-of-millions of downloads.
TheBuzzFeedarticle goes over in detail how everything came to be, and clocks in at over 6,000 words. If you want to know about the fraud in-depth, you should definitelyread the incredibly interesting piece, but we’ll give you the shortened version of it here.
The fraud worked like this:
BuzzFeedprovidesa Google Sheets documentwhich lists out the 129 apps, websites, and their associated companies connected to the scheme. However, here are some of the highlights (some of which are still on the Play Store):
Although Google does make a few statements within theBuzzFeedpiece, it appears the search giant was unaware of the fraud scheme beforeBuzzFeedcontacted the company. The article also makes it seem that Google’s systems to monitor already-approved and popular apps is not as effective as one might assume.
Click the button below to read the full exposé.
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