InMobi cheats me out of more than $2000

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Advertising Networks
21

Well despite @SohanM looking into this for me, I am still not any better off.

inMobi claim that I had fraudulent click activity on the traffic:

Our system detected fraud clicks which set off a few flags. And this happened over a period of time hence the account was blocked.

If this is the case then why did I have to work so hard to find out this information? I have never and will never engage in any fraudulent activity as suggested and any developer with common sense would do the same.

To summarize:
I ran banner traffic from a trending app over 2 months with inMobi, which accrued over $2000 of revenue.

The eCPM and CTR were standard rates throughout the entire time (Really wish I could screenshot this data, but my account was completely locked out).

As the first payment became due (they are net60) my account suddenly wouldn’t let me in. After contacting support I managed to find out that my account had been blocked (without a notice!):

We regret to inform that your account has been blocked hence you have been seeing this message. This is due to the violation of InMobi guidelines and conditions.

It took them 15 days to supply the further that I demanded, only to state the following:

As updated you earlier, we regret to inform you that your account with InMobi is blocked permanently.

Why is my account blocked?
To prevent any unusual or unauthorized activities, we have put stringent rules in place. After careful investigation and scrutiny by specialist, it is confirmed that your account is not adhering to InMobi’s terms of service. We are therefore blocking your account in our system. Please note that this cannot be undone.

It took posting a detailed thread both here and on Facebook for a rep to get in contact, only to receive this statement:

Our system detected fraud clicks which set off a few flags. And this happened over a period of time hence the account was blocked.

This very same traffic is now with TapIt, which is performing perfectly normally, albeit the app is no longer trending.

inMobi cheated me out of significant revenue. I advise you not to use them if you like getting paid what you earned fairly.

22

Sorry to hear mate.

I actually never understood why ppl go with niche-advertisers. All of them have the same customers (formerly “the world”). I don’t think anyone would be willed to pay more for their ads than they need so why should you earn more? Niche-Advertisers try to catch devs by promising higher eCPM … where do you think this higher eCPM (if true) come from, when the general cash-flow must - by nature - be the same on every ad network.

That’s mainly the reason I stick with admob. No troubles there, reliable, 100% fillrate, biggest inventory, they make you earn money. I actually don’t care about 5% eCPM more or less, I care more for having a reliable ad partner on hand which doesn’t try to trick me.

23

I can vouch @A1ka1inE on behalf of the TapIt by Phunware ad platform. Fraudulent click activity is an issue that our network is studying more closely as a result from questions and concerns raised by advertisers, especially the ones who pay on a cpc model.

A CTR over 1% for an app with banner ads can raise some attention which is why at TapIt we have implemented some protocols to evaluate to see if an app truly performs well for the network and if it’s providing true traffic without any bot traffic. Some of the protocols when looking at apps are as follows:

  1. If a site has a CTR especially if it’s over 1% (which A1ka1inE apps have), the content of the app needs to be looked at. A1ka1inE has apps that causes user to constantly be interacting with the app, therefore there is a higher likelihood of more clicks.

  2. Does the app convert for the ad platform. This means out of all the users who contribute to those clicks, how many are actually installing an app, filling out their email address, going to the ads landing page and filling out information, or whatever else the advertiser establishes as the conversion. A1ka1inE’s apps DO convert.

  3. There are reporting tools and algorithms that are used to see the concentration of IP addresses that come from the ad requests within the apps (i.e. are all ad requests that are sent to the ad platform coming from the same IP address? Several? or many?). Looking at the timestamps (i.e. what time the ad request was made/sent) of the ad requests as well as how many installs the app has are also important. If Google Play says an app has 10,000 installs and the app is sending over a million ad requests a day, that doesn’t look to good.

  4. What’s the relationship the developer has with the ad platform, and (if the ad platform supplies one) what’s the relationship with the account manager at the platform and the developer? For many circumstances that I’m learning more and more from by being on this forum (and this could be another topic entirely) is that there is a large percentage of developers who refrain from speaking to the ad platforms on a consistent basis.

From the viewpoint of the ad platform, if I send numerous emails throughout the course of a time frame to a developer in regards to sending more traffic for a campaign we may have, optimizing the app’s performance, etc. and the developer doesn’t respond, I’m more inclined to view this developer dealing in fraudulent activity if/when our platform picks up caution flags on the developer’s apps.

A1ka1inE is a developer that I have the highest respect for. The communication is solid between the two of us. I see number of posts, likes, and compliments he receives in these forums. Like me, he agrees that better communication needs to be established between networks and developers. There are networks out there that truly care about the developer, but I also understand that there are developers out there that see networks as companies that withhold money developers and are only looking to make a quick buck.

24

Thanks for sharing, was thinking of implementing them, but now no way.
Developers should know about scammer ad networks so good to share everytime they scam us.
Probably they would have gain more money if they gave you your 2k$ but now is too late.

Stick with startapp guys…And admob if your account is still alive :wink:

25

I have been dealing with them in the past days. They offer me a fixed cpm, but with net60 payment terms. After your experience I think I have to think twice.

Thanks for sharing

26

Added inmobi to my shitlist (it’s very long at this point). Sorry for your loss.

27

they offer you a fixed cpm, how do you know they don’t cheat you in other data? like impression, clicks

28

can you share the ‘shitlist’?:wink:

29

Sadly you can’t know it with Inmobi or other network. The only way is using an analytics site like Google analytics or flurry.

30

Im interested too :slight_smile:

31

My shitlist is pretty much all ad networks except admob, Millennial Media, inneractive, startapp, appnext. There is of course lot’s of other good ad networks out there but they’re on my shitlist until proven otherwise :slight_smile:

I always thought inmobi seemed like a good ad network and only read good things about them but clearly I was wrong. Admob should also be on my shitlist for what they’ve done to other developers but they pay too good right now.

32

can we calculate in our app? each time we show up an ad(like interstitial), we count once ourself.

33

I started receiving similar complaints from users a few weeks ago. (this kind of “bug” with banners is unacceptable, as it causes user frustration and bad ratings)
I use AdMob mediation with 5 networks, so I suspected InMobi immediately, without being a 100% sure it was coming from them.

I know by experience that InMobi has huge security breaches / poor screening process / poor SDK that allows advertisers to pull this kind of auto-opening crap. I have a history of porn pop-ups opening without user action. Of course InMobi denied it was their fault. Fortunately I managed to get a user to send me a screenshot of the porn ad, that proved it was displayed inside an InMobi window.
They blocked a few fraudulent campaigns, but I knew this would happen again, as they have no technical solution to prevent banners from opening pages without user action.

Thanks to your feedback, I am pretty sure now that the ad network behind this new issue is InMobi.

34

HI,
IN my view , iNmobi is honest network, I am using since 1.5+years.
only noticed two problems,
recent fill rate is less
and there was payment issue (delay) for three months.
But to the surprise, this month payment came on time even without following up the them.

35

Well in my view inMobi are a very DISHONEST network.

36

I have a history of porn pop-ups opening without user action

Same for me. But it was from MobFox last year…
Some bad comments (and I understand them…) and insulting emails from my users after, Mobfox is banned from my app

37

I am really happy to working with appnext its really a huge advertising and monetizing platform and I am also really happy for my account manager “Marianne Houllou” she is a nice manager for me she helps me at every bit problem i guess you guys to move forward appnext its really helpful to you

38

Immobi is the worst network I have ever used…don’t trust them and don’t use them…very low eCpm and payments are net-60 I think…

39

Lol yeah, same as vserv

40

why are we bumping old threads from 2 years ago?