Bots, fake accounts, and malicious users were thrusted into the limelight following Elon Musk's recent bid to take over Twitter. The social media platform had initially claimed that only 5% of their users were fake, but Musk disputed that fact, claiming the number was closer to 20%, leading him to put the deal on hold.
CHEQ data shows that across 5.2 million website visits originating from Twitter, 12% of them were fake, including automation tools, botnets, scrapers, click farms and more. This unfolding event has bright widespread public attention to one of the greatest issues of our times, that often isn't talked about – the "Fake Web."
Bots and fake users aren't just a Twitter problem, It's the entire internet. World of Statistics recently published data showing that over 60% of all internet traffic is non-human and CHEQ found that the internet is nearing half a billion fake shoppers. Everyone is affected by the Fake Web - PayPal recently admitted 4.5 million of its accounts were completely fake. Superbowl advertisers saw 17 billion ad views being generated by bots and Amazon has been dealing with "fake review brokers" who are jeopardizing the integrity of their product reviews. The list goes on, but one thing is certain, we live in an age where we don't know who and what is real, and the "Fake Web" is getting out of control.
How did the "Fake Web" become such a huge problem?
There are several driving factors behind the rise of the "Fake Web". First off, we have to consider that the incentive to commit fraud online is constantly growing. All of our shopping has moved online (especially since the pandemic), which means more credit card transactions are being conducted on the web.
Digital advertising spending is growing, incentivizing ad fraud and click fraud. Most of our news is consumed via social media now, which means that anyone looking to manipulate public opinion, can do so with bots and fake accounts, something that wasn't possible in the age of broadcast. Another driving factor behind the "Fake Web", is the growing sophistication of fraudsters, hackers and the tools they use.
Today, building an automation tool that can fill out a contact form on a website is rudimentary. Writing more sophisticated scripts and deploying botnets that can carry out large-scale attacks are now commonplace. Even less sophisticated forms of fake activity are now extremely easy to deploy, as click farms offer their services out in the open, for anyone looking to by clicks, likes, shares and comments online.
Fake activity is eroding the foundational trust of the internet. Not knowing if our website traffic is real, or if a review on Amazon is legitimate, or whether the story I'm reading on social media is being shared from an authentic account – all of these are eroding our trust in the internet. A website's ability to sell online is compromised by fake shoppers and eCommerce fraud.
A consumer's ability to trust online reviews is hurt by fake review brokers. An advertiser's ability to run online campaigns is threatened by hordes of bots engaging with their ads. Our trust in news, in social media, in business – all these are eroded by the rise of the "Fake Web," and it's time for the world to finally understand that this is truly one of the greatest issues of our time.
