1. Gray Hat Techniques
Used by Mainstream Sites
Dr. Augustine Fou
http://linkd.in/augustinefou
October 2013
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Augustine Fou

2. Autoplay Video Takeover
Break.com
Autoplayed T-mobile
video ad in full page
takeover.
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Augustine Fou

3. Autoplay Video Ads
Break.com
Multiple video ads
auto-played
simultaneously on
the same page.
-3-
Augustine Fou

4. Galleries of Images
Break.com
Every click to
the next image
loads a new ad
impression.
-4-
Augustine Fou

5. Proven Click Bait
Break.com
Pictures which are designed to get the
user to click, and then click through
nearly the entire 40 image gallery to
find said image.
-5-
Augustine Fou

6. High Freq Porn Keywords
Break.com
Incorporating
known, high
frequency porn
keywords to get
organic traffic.
1,080 results for
“glory hole”
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21,500 results for
“rape”
MANY others
so offensive
that it is NOT
possible to
show here.
Augustine Fou

7. Porn Link-bait Copy
Break.com
Thousands of
pages of pornkeyword
stuffed pages
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Augustine Fou

8. Duplicate Loading comScore
Searched for the following on Google
"<script>
var _comscore = _comscore ||
[];
_comscore.push({ c1: "2", c2:
"4000003", c3: "4000003", c4:
window.location.href, c5: "", c6: "", c15: "" });"
Which is the comScore beacon from
the page source of Break.com
Google shows about 200 results with
the same beacon code “4000003”
-8-
Augustine Fou

9. Auto Refresh Ads
Inflating ad impressions served
Same page, but ads are auto-refreshed every 2 mins; 7 more ad impressions
-9-
Augustine Fou

10. Related Articles
Bad Guys Happily Rob Display Advertisers
By: Augustine Fou, July 23, 2012
Everything Fake (Display Ad Fraud, Search Click Fraud)
By: Augustine Fou, April 2013
Blacklisting vs Whitelisting
By: Augustine Fou, October 2013
Fake Profiles on Facebook
By: Augustine Fou, July 2013
How Display Ad Fraud Works
By: Augustine Fou, May 2013
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Augustine Fou

11. Dr. Augustine Fou – Digital Consigliere
“I advise clients on optimizing
advertising across all channels. One
aspect of this is detecting waste and
fraud; and then taking steps to mitigate
it.”
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: http://linkd.in/augustinefou
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@acfou
Augustine Fou