Inside a click farm that helps fake online popularity
Click farms are a dubious business people rarely get a peek inside of, but accept as part of our everyday internet existence. We know companies pay bots to shower likes, emoji, ratings, nonsensical comments, and plain traffic on content in order to artificially boost online popularity and rake in ad dollars. Now, a recent raid in Thailand is giving another look at the underbelly of the bot industry.
According to the Bangkok Post, Thai police and soldiers raided a rented home yesterday near the Cambodian border, discovering an alleged click farm ring run by three Chinese nationals. Wang Dong, Niu Bang, and Ni Wenjin are said to have had metal racks set up in the house with hundreds of 5S, 5C, and 4S iPhones wired to computer monitors. In total, 474 iPhones, 347,200 unused SIM cards belonging to Thai mobile phone operators, 10 computers/laptops, and other assorted electronics were reportedly seized. Full story
Click Farm Fraud Trend set to gain traction
These are small fish; the big guys are running bot farms with 100’s to thousands of computers, and they have automated the service. Most likely they are using servers set up in various locations and have the phones set up in a different location. These chaps were busted not for running a click farm but for having violated other rules in Thailand. What we stated years ago is coming to pass. Hackers would be the ones in charge as the world became more and more computerized. Hackers have attacked Banks, huge multi-billion dollar corporations, Bitcoin, Etherium and other virtual currency systems and have gotten away with millions and millions of dollars.
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