Mobile Ad Fraud Is a Multi-Billion Dollar Problem
Mobile Measurement Platforms (MMPs) and attribution vendors are under growing pressure to eliminate fraud from the ad funnel. But eliminating mobile ad fraud isn’t easy. MMPs and advertisers only have ephemeral device IDs, known as Google Advertising ID (GAID) for Android and Apple Advertising ID (IDFA) for iOS. They analyze click patterns to determine if there is ad fraud in Android & iOS applications. That telemetry shows what happened, but not how or who performed the action — leaving most mobile ad fraud undetected and unchecked.
Today, fraudsters have an arsenal at their fingertips to create ad fraud. They can generate spoofed installs, click farms, fake devices, modified devices, fake and modified applications, session replays, deepfakes, and hyper-realistic synthetic clicks and activities in apps. These methods mean that simply knowing that a click, download, or pattern of activities occurred in an app isn’t enough. These methods lead to too many attribution disputes, credits, and clawbacks.
Customer Identity is the Missing Link in Ad Attribution
Today, MMPs and advertisers need to know that a true customer identity – an actual, real, and trusted user in a trusted session – clicked on the ad, engaged with its content, or performed the download associated with each campaign.
Mobile ad attribution systems have always been able to track and filter activities (e.g., ad clicks, app installs, conversions). They cannot create or verify an application, install, device, or user identity. Asking an MMP or ad attribution if the campaign activity originated from a valid, trusted device, application, install, or environment is like asking a cashier if the dollar that was just paid came from a good place – the cashier has no way of knowing. Although some of the leading MMP and ad attribution vendors offer basic detections for OS-level compromises, such as Android root detection and iOS jailbreak detection, they still rely on click patterns and probabilistic modeling to detect fraud. On the whole, they don’t use a trusted identity or interrogate the activity to know if it’s coming from a trusted instance, app, device, or environment.
IDAnchor’s Chain of Trust Stops Ad Fraud
Appdome’s IDAnchor™ binds each customer identity to a living, multi-layered, and immutable chain of trust from mobile DevOps to device. This includes unique fingerprints for the:
- DevOps Workspace (Workspace ID)
- App Release (Release ID)
- Install Instance (Install ID)
- Mobile Device (Device ID)
All of these identifiers are tamper-resistant, cannot be disabled or reset, and are protected in the runtime of the app — even across factory resets, re-installs, or changes in device state. In the mobile ad attribution context, this creates a persistent, trustworthy way to verify:
- The application upgrade, install, and device history associated with each customer identity.
- That each click is coming from a real and trusted app, install, and device.
- That each install is associated with a single legitimate device and app instance.
- That re-engagements, referrals, and campaign interactions are tied to the same true chain of trust (i.e., no re-installs or application substitutions have been made).
The chain of trust grows with each customer’s journey and allows the brand to tie each ad engagement back to a living chain of trust for each user over time. That means brands can measure the lifetime value (LTV) of real users more accurately, correlate cross-campaign behavior, and validate conversion signals with confidence.
Unlike static or ephemeral device binding, IDAnchor’s identity framework is living. It grows and adapts with the customer across sessions, installs, re-engagements, and campaign cycles — creating an ever-strengthening bond between the customer’s identity and the publisher that released the Android or iOS app. That persistent chain of trust makes it exponentially harder for fraudsters to replicate, mimic, or reuse a real customer identity to exploit, inflate, or manipulate ad attribution signals.
Ad Fraud Techniques Eliminated by IDAnchor
IDAnchor brings customer identity into the MMP and ad attribution model and eliminates the risk of mobile ad fraud in the ad attribution cycle. Today, large segments of the mobile ad fraud economy are not addressed by MMPs and ad attribution systems. The fidelity of the campaign metrics, spend, audience targeting, and ROI is at stake. With a trusted customer identity at the center of attribution models, mobile ad attribution data isn’t “fuzzy.” Fuzzy ad attribution data undermines the campaign’s primary purpose – to reach real users on real devices, using real applications in a trusted session.
IDAnchor’s chain of trust is combined with real-time threat signals that detect mobile ad fraud through the engagement lifecycle. Together, here’s how IDAnchor prevents the most common attribution fraud vectors:
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- Install Farms & Click Farms – Detects fake installs and interactions by checking for trusted Device IDs, Install IDs, and app source origin.
- SDK Spoofing Attacks – Blocks forged SDK telemetry and fake install events by validating installs originate from a trusted app release (Release ID), running in a trusted install (Install ID) on a genuine device (Device ID)
- Ad Click Spoofing – Prevents replayed or automated clicks using immutable device and install identities as well as runtime protections for on-device bots. For example, a fraudster replays a legitimate click signal using a script running inside an emulator or a modified app to spoof attribution on a different device.
- GAID/IDFA Cycling & Device Spoofing – Stops attackers from resetting device-level identifiers to inflate user counts or CPI earnings. For example, when fraudsters reset GAID/IDFA via Android Debug Bridge (ADB) shell commands or OS-level automation to associate the same install with multiple fake users.
- Referral Fraud – Ensures unique users and installs per campaign by tying all attribution events to persistent identity fingerprints.
- Promo Code Abuse – Prevents promotion stacking and reuse by enforcing one-time use across trusted device-install pairs.
- Emulator Abuse & Bot Traffic – Detects and blocks emulator environments and automated behaviors before attribution fires.
With IDAnchor, mobile brands don’t just see that a click or install occurred — they see whether it occurred within a trusted identity context.
Rebuilding Signal Integrity in the Ad Funnel
Mobile advertisers don’t need more attribution data — they need to eliminate mobile ad fraud. By layering IDAnchor’s persistent identity into the MMP and attribution stack, mobile brands can dramatically reduce fraud without changing existing MMP or ad attribution vendors or workflows.
While MMPs do the work of recording clicks, installs, and event telemetry to know what happened, CIP and IDAnchor do the work of knowing who performed these actions — and whether that identity is real and trusted. IDAnchor validates the customer identity into the ad lifecycle, verifying that each event is part of a real customer journey that persists across application releases, device upgrades, carrier changes, and more.
If your mobile business needs to eliminate mobile ad fraud, let us show you how IDAnchor can bring customer identity into the ad funnel in your mobile applications. Contact us at info@appdome.com or click the button below to request a live demo from one of our identity experts.
