certain ads from appearing in your app from the Admob website in the
account administration. I'll have to check again.. can't remember for sure.
On 18/06/2010 5:53 AM, Simon Broenner wrote:
> Hello everyone!
>
> I'd like to divert your attention from actual development issues for a
> moment, in order to make you aware of a troubling development that
> affects everyone who uses Admob advertisements in their programs, and
> everyone who uses these programs.
>
> I'm an active member on a German Android forum, and a number of
> threads have cropped up highlighting a number of mobile phone
> ringtone/horoscope type scams, which are apparently using Admob in
> combination with malicious apps to charge users for services they
> never ordered or agreed to.
>
> For German speaking readers (or people who actually understand what
> comes out of Google Translate), here are the original threads:
>
> http://www.android-hilfe.de/smalltalk-offtopic/26555-achtung-abzocke-blinkogold-de.html
> http://www.android-hilfe.de/android-apps/31470-vorsicht-bei-app-werbung.html
>
>
> The problem:
>
> Apparently the ads in question are regluar Admob-ads. Click on them,
> and usually you'll get pushed into the browser onto a page where this
> dubious "Blinkogold" company tries to sell you horoscopes, ringtones
> and stuff like that. While this is already a little dubious, it's no
> worse than the ads on MTV here in Germany, and seems to be accepted as
> the norm. Whether or not it should be, is a completely different topic.
>
> The problem here, however, is that a few users are reporting that
> they're getting SMS along the lines of "Welcome to your Blinkogold
> horoscope subscription! Your horoscope for the week is xxxxxxx, you've
> been billed for 2,99€ for this SMS. To cancel please visit *link*."
>
> Now, aside from the fact that a) the 3€ are charged to the phone bill
> pretty much no matter what the user does from this point on, and b)
> cancelling is a major hassle because the links don't work properly
> (obviously a ploy to make cancelling more difficult - the "real"
> cancellation link can be found on the Blinkogold homepage somewhere,
> hidden nicely so that it's really hard to find), we have an even more
> troubling devlopment:
>
> This behaviour has appeared consistently in certain apps, and only
> these certain apps. For instance:
>
> World Cup 2010-FotMob
>
> The users are adamant about having only clicked on the Admob banner -
> and DEFINITELY not having sent any type of confirmation SMS to confirm
> their purchase/subscription (which is, obviously, a requirement -
> because a] how else would they know what number to bill [pure IP
> connection up until now, right?] and b] an actual SMS or phone call
> initiated by the user seems to be a requirement by law for selling
> this kind of stuff via phone bill here in Germany).
>
> If these users aren't exaggerating, we have a big problem: If they
> didn't send the SMS, the app must have. This is unlikely, since AFAIK,
> the apps don't have the relevant permissions to send SMS.
>
> Another user (or rather, developer - he clicked on the Admob banner in
> his own program, here:
> http://www.android-hilfe.de/android-apps/31470-vorsicht-bei-app-werbung-6.html#post366043),
> in a far more likely scenario, said that he was pushed into the
> browser when he clicked on the banner, and a two clicks on the
> homepage later, he was in his SMS-app, with a preformulated SMS ready
> to send to Blinkogold, ready to incur costs of 3€ a week for an
> indefinite amount of time.
>
> With the inaccuracy of capacitive touchscreens, and their tendency to
> "click" on items without the user actually intending to do anything,
> this type of behaviour in web sites (and the Admob banners that link
> to them) is quite troubling. It's easy to imagine a user clicking on
> the banner and then ending up with a subscription without any further
> user interaction than having a finger resting on the edge of the
> touchscreen (this is probably the reason why the iPad is 50% bezel,
> but that's another topic :P).
>
> Now, the obvious question here is: What can we do about it? First of
> all, we need to narrow down how this is happening. I'm assuming a
> combination of user error and greed on the part of Admob - the actual
> transactions taking place appear (at least on the surface) to be legal
> here in Germany, and a minimal amount of user interaction is PROBABLY
> (it's unlikely that there was truly no user error involved at all)
> required in order for this to work.
>
> However, from my point of view, the amount of user action required for
> subscription to these services is not sufficient, which would lead me
> to classify the service in question as a scam. And scams that prey on
> unsuspecting users and then charge them through their phone bill
> (something we, as end users, have surprisingly little control over)
> are something we definitely DON'T want on Android. Therefore, assuming
> the reports are at least 50% correct and not so embellished that
> they're outright lies, we should be finding a way to remove Blinkogold
> (and other dubious advertisers) from Admob and any other sources
> Android uses for in-app advertisement (are there any others?).
>
> This is where all you developers come in: How do we procede? I'm
> assuming a single complaint lodged with Admob will be shrugged off
> easily, considering the amount of money at stake. Possibly it would be
> more effective to contact Google itself (a chance to prove themselves
> once again in their "Do no evil!" stance) and have them take care of
> it. Maybe a few Google employees will read this post and know where to
> go from here.
>
> If you have any ideas on how to procede, or information about the
> technicalities concerning the methodology used by Blinkogold (and
> similar "services") to trap unsuspecting Android users, please chime in!
>
> Kind regards from Germany and the members of android-hilfe.de
> <http://android-hilfe.de>, and thanks for reading!
>
> --
> Simon Broenner
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--
Sincerely,
Brad Gies
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