BUZZFEEDNEWS - Jan 27 - In just the past three weeks, Grindr has been slammed by the Norwegian Consumer Council for exposing users' personal information, suspended from Twitter's ad network as a result of that investigation, and alleged to have been the way a Michigan hairstylist met the man who brutally murdered him. Adding to those concerns is new research showing that Grindr's Android app was exploited by ad fraudsters in a scheme that stole money from advertisers. Amin Bandeali, CTO of Pixalate, the Palo Alto ad fraud detection firm that identified the scam, said Grindr was likely targeted because of its large user base. Here's how the scam worked: A normal banner ad was bought on Grindr's Android app. The fraudsters then attached code that disguised the Grindr banner ad to look like a Roku video ad slot. This fake ad space was sold on programmatic advertising exchanges, the online marketplaces where digital ads are bought and sold. So cheap banner ads were used to resell more expensive video ads.
by Craig Silverman
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