INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Users trying to clean up their web browsing experience by installing an ad blocking extension may want to think twice as new research from
AdGuard has revealed that many popular ad blockers are not only fake but also malicious.After a thorough investigation of the ad blockers
available on the Chrome Web Store, the firm found that many including AdBlock by AdBlock, Inc and Ublock by Charlie Lee were using the names
of two other very popular ad blockers, AdBlock and uBlock Origin, to trick users into downloading them
However, AdGuard also found that these ad blockers were engaged in malicious behavior.At first these add-ons did what they were supposed to
installed for around 55 hours, these extensions began to send out a request to urldata.net for each new domain they visited
This allowed the extensions to receive affiliate links from the sites users visited and if they made a purchase while visiting them, the
extensions owner would be paid a commission from those sites.The technique used by the fake ad blockers is known as cookie stuffing and is
basically an ad fraud scheme
Not only are the creators of these fake extensions using the names of more popular ad blockers to trick users into downloading them, they
are also using their browsing activity and online purchases to earn commissions for themselves.According to AdGuard, Google has received
multiple reports about how these fake ad blockers are using the names of more popular extensions for their own benefit but the search giant
has yet to remove them from the Chrome Web store.These two extensions have over 1.6m weekly active users who were stuffed with cookies from
more than 300 websites from the Alexa Top 10000
While the damage is difficult to estimate, AdGuard believes that the creators are earning millions each month from cookie stuffing.There is
a silver lining though as now that the fake ad blocker scheme has been uncovered, the owners of affiliate programs can follow the money
trail to find out who is behind this scheme
Cookie stuffing and other ad fraud schemes are illegal and there's a chance that the developers of these extensions will be held
responsible for their actions.
