Here's another really good reason not to illegally stream films online

Date:
Thu, 09 Mar 2023 21:26:12 +0000

Description:
Criminals found abusing Google Ads on dodgy streaming sites, and netting big profits, researchers found.

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An unknown criminal group has made a technically complex construction of
bogus websites and video streaming platforms that defrauded Google Ads users and made at least $1.2 million a month for over a year, experts have
revealed.

A report from cybersecurity researchers Malwarebytes and Deepsee analyzed an illegal video streaming operation and uncovered a complex and creative way
the authors earned their keep.

They named the operation DeepStreamer, which operated around a website called mikerin, which the pair found was loading ads deep under the content of a separate website called moviesjoy. Hiding the ads in plain sight

Moviesjoy was the streaming website that offered its visitors free HD movies and TV series with absolutely zero ads on the site. Once you hit the play button, you can start streaming right away, without any interruptions in the middle, the site claims.

The ads, however, were there - they were just embedded and hidden. What the researchers had uncovered was a trick in which ads from seemingly regular websites were being loaded on the movie site, but not shown anywhere.

The legitimate websites are embedded and hidden into the page via iFrames,
the researchers found, while the users watching the video content were completely unaware of their existence. Read more

A global ad fraud campaign based on Google Ads has made millions

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In total, four Google ads would load per page. The page would reload from
time to time, bringing in fresh ads.

The users and visitors of the illegal website arent the ones being defrauded here, though. Its Google Ads users, those who are paying Google to display their ads to relevant audiences, who are not getting their moneys worth.
While one might argue that the pirates tried too hard and could have simply displayed the ads to their visitors - the researchers said Google would probably not allow it.

Furthermore, there is no way legitimate advertisers (meaning those that would pay more) would accept traffic coming from a site offering pirated movies, they concluded. Here's our rundown of the 3 right now



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/heres-another-really-good-reason-not-to-illegal ly-stream-films-online


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