Blacklist

A blacklist in the world of mobile fraud describes a database of known fraud signal providers.

What are blacklists?

Any publisher or source who’s behavior matches known fraud patterns is reported as mobile fraud, and blocked when possible.

Many anti-fraud solutions buy or maintain their own blacklists of Device IDs, bot signatures, and IP addresses known to perpetrate fraud.

Once added to a blacklist, all clicks and installs from a blacklisted source are automatically blocked.

Why are blacklists important?

It is both cheap and easy for criminals to change both their IP addresses and their Device IDs, evading the real-time protection offered by most blacklists.

Additionally, only data providers with massive, real-time databases and advanced machine learning capabilities, can identify fraudulent devices and IP addresses quickly and efficiently, to deliver meaningful real-time protection.

Similarly, many fraud providers blacklist only a couple of bot signatures, as developing the required database for bot signatures requires massive resources.