In today’s digital-first world, online advertising has become a cornerstone of marketing strategies—but with its growth comes a darker side: ad fraud. As brands invest heavily to reach consumers across websites, apps, and social media, fraudsters are exploiting the system at scale.
From fake impressions to automated bot clicks, ad fraud is now a widespread issue quietly draining billions from ad budgets every year. Despite advances in adtech, this form of abuse remains alarmingly prevalent, posing a serious threat to the efficiency and credibility of digital campaigns.
One of those instances of widespread ad fraud is ‘Mirage’, which uses fake Android apps disguised as helpful tools to deliver aggressive ads, affecting millions of users. Following this, Integral Ad Science’s (IAS) Threat Lab identified almost 300 app IDs linked to Mirage, with over 70 million downloads and 350 million daily bid requests.
The findings were done following IAS’s latest partnership with Google to remove fraudulent apps from the Play Store, as well as using IAS’s fraud pre-bid avoidance solution to protect partners within their DSPs.
Moreover, ‘Mirage’ picks up where the ‘Vapor’ fraud scheme left off, using ‘phone cleaner’ utilities that promise to fix the problems they cause, but instead deliver more ads. ‘Mirage’ apps present the illusion of utility, appearing useful on the surface but offering nothing real underneath.
To learn more about this ad fraud scheme–and how brands can protect their ads from showing in these fraudulent apps, MARKETECH APAC spoke exclusively to Scott Pierce, head of fraud protection at Integral Ad Science, as he explains more of this latest threat to advertisers, as well as sharing his insights on ad fraud protection and ensuring to brands that their ads will appear accordingly to context–without wasting ad dollars.
Behind the ‘Mirage’ and its impact on advertising
Scott noted that when IAS Threat Lab first investigated the MIrage fraud scheme, they uncovered a sprawling network of over 300 fraudulent apps posing as utility tools like phone cleaners and battery savers. Moreover, they noted that this was a global operation because these apps misled users worldwide including here in APAC.
“This indicates what we already know about threat actors in not caring about geography. Some Mirage apps even climbed the charts in the APAC region under false pretenses, hijacking devices with out of context full screen ads and eroding user trust across the board,” he said.
He also noted that the biggest threat that these Mirage apps pose is how quickly they turn from being passive to aggressive.
An example of this app is one ironically named “CleanUp Master”, which had actually managed to achieve the top spot in the US Play Store’s Top New Free Chart by appearing to be a legitimate phone cleaning tool. IAS’s report noted that initially the app had no ads, but as more users continued to download it, the threat actors activated a torrent of advertising leading to each user suddenly seeing dozens of full screen ads per day.
“For users, that resulted in a frustrating experience due to the bombardment of intrusive ads. In contrast advertisers ended up paying for invalid impressions that likely yielded zero engagement, essentially showing their ads in a vacuum and wasting ad spend,” Scott added.
IAS on taking ad fraud schemes head-on
In terms of tackling ad fraud schemes directly, Scott stated that IAS takes a proactive approach in threat hunting to ensure that their clients’ ads appear in suitable environments.
Moreover, IAS also deploys fraud-detecting capabilities on multiple layers, such as their Threat Lab researchers and real-time machine learning models that are continuously scanning for any anomaly signs of malicious app activity.
“Once we have identified a rogue app, we add its ID to our blocklists and share that intelligence across the industry allowing us to prevent ads from ever being bought or shown on those apps in the first place,”
Speaking about this latest ad fraud incident, he added, “In the case of a Mirage-type app, IAS will flag it almost in real time to stop our clients’ ads from appearing there. This will effectively cut off the app’s ad revenue and the threat actors’ incentive to continue the scheme.”
He also highlighted the importance of their partnership with Google, where through the intelligence IAS gathered, they worked closely with Google’s team to quickly take action by removing every identified Mirage app from the Play Store. In response, Google Play Protect then began actively alerting users and disabling those apps even if they were installed from outside of the Play Store.
“This coordinated takedown essentially stopped the fraud in its tracks and dramatically reduced the risk for everyone. By pulling these malicious apps out of circulation (and even off users’ devices), users were spared further ad bombardment, and our clients’ ads were no longer in a fraudulent environment,” Scott explained.
Advice for brands to navigate ad fraud schemes
For Scott, brands should be proactive and insist on transparency in where their ads run–and ensuring that they must rely on reliable apps to host their ads.
“One key step is relying on known, reputable apps from allowlists and independent verification partners, and monitoring the campaign reports of any unfamiliar app names or sudden spikes that could signal potential fraudulent activity,” he explained.
As part of ensuring that ad transparency, Scott said that for them at IAS, they will continue to update their detection systems and capabilities to keep fraudulent apps out of their clients’ media buys.
Moreover, they will also invest heavily in research and technology to spot emerging fraud schemes early, as well as collaborate with industry partners to shut them down quickly.
“When advertisers combine that vigilance with our safeguards, they can be assured that their ads will run in legitimate, high-quality environments. IAS customers are protected with our pre-bid fraud avoidance solution, integrated across leading DSPs,” he concluded.
As digital advertising continues to evolve, so too do the tactics of those looking to exploit it. Combating ad fraud requires more than just reactive measures—it demands industry-wide collaboration, greater transparency, and ongoing investment in fraud detection technologies. For marketers, it also means staying vigilant, asking tougher questions about where their ad dollars go, and prioritising quality over scale.
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