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Money Laundering

Money laundering is the practice of disguising illegally obtained funds to make them appear legal. In online advertising, money launderers utilize "money mules," individuals who are used to funnel money from ad networks to fraudsters. The fraudsters behind this practice recruit people to use their personal information to register various websites with ad networks. Once the websites are registered to display ads, click fraud perpetrators create bogus or copied content on these sites and generate false clicks on their ads, often by means of botnets. The ad network unknowingly makes payments to the various registrants, who manage the deposit. The registrants then transfer the money to the fraudsters for a fee, ranging from 20% to 50% of the payment. Money laundering often goes undetected by ad networks due to the sophistication of the fraudsters' techniques.

Learn More About Money Laundering:
Anchor Intelligence: Anatomy of a Fraudster