Home > Paid Traffic Sources > Mobile

How to hide from Mobile Ad Scout (15)

09-24-2015 05:04 AM #1 guru01 (Member)
How to hide from Mobile Ad Scout

Is there a way I can hide my lander from Mobile Ad Scout? I have a successful pop lander and I don't want other affiliates just copying my lander and making it their own. Has anyone figured out any code I can put on my lander to trick Mobile Ad Scout to not index my lander or index a blank page instead of the real lander.

Any help really appreciated!

09-24-2015 05:10 AM #2 gianishere (Member)

try making conditions such as: geoip, usert-agent, resolution by javascript, among others.

09-24-2015 05:16 AM #3 mfrezz (Member)

You can put proxies IP that they're using into the black-list.
Sent you PM with the list

09-24-2015 06:29 AM #4 sebastian_r (Member)

change ftp folder every day, change URL once a week. this way even when it gets hit by mobile ad scout, it's at least very hard for the affiliate to get the live version.

09-24-2015 07:58 AM #5 William Yang (Senior Member)

Quote Originally Posted by mfrezz View Post
You can put proxies IP that they're using into the black-list.
Sent you PM with the list
Can you send me the ip list as well?

Thanks,

Snowman

09-24-2015 08:32 AM #6 Gary (Member)

I'm sure if someone developed an effective spy tool blocker that worked across the board they would clean up overnight. Amazes me that no-ones done it so far.

09-24-2015 10:29 AM #7 jansee (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by mfrezz View Post
You can put proxies IP that they're using into the black-list.
Sent you PM with the list
Can I have it please. PM me please.

09-24-2015 01:59 PM #8 randomdude (AMC Alumnus)

Quote Originally Posted by mfrezz View Post
You can put proxies IP that they're using into the black-list.
Sent you PM with the list
How did you discover their proxies and how do you know they are theirs?

09-24-2015 03:43 PM #9 erikgyepes (Moderator)

If too many people will know about it they will change them soon. Just my 2 cents.

09-24-2015 05:15 PM #10 northernlights (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by Gary View Post
I'm sure if someone developed an effective spy tool blocker that worked across the board they would clean up overnight. Amazes me that no-ones done it so far.
Problem is that it's technically nearly impossible. Spy tools are using headless browsers (or at least if they're smart enough) which are Webkit based just like your Chrome or Safari and then simply capture rendered pixels to PNG. There's no magic trick you can apply to your site that will prevent this.

If your page renders with normal browsers, it will render with headless browser and will be captured - end of story.

Only way you can avoid this is by never showing the page i.e. blocking by IPs.

*edit* We have something internal we use to trick most of the headless browsers to render a blank page but it's really raw, super technical and not ready for public consumption but if there's interest I could see if I can fix it up.

09-24-2015 05:32 PM #11 kepe95 (Moderator)

I'm sure if someone developed an effective spy tool blocker that worked across the board they would clean up overnight. Amazes me that no-ones done it so far.
Working on it since June, beta will open up in late 2015 Pretty confident it is going to work well for blocking Mobileadscout. Link for the waiting list signup is in my signature.

For now try as recommended:
- As many rules in your tracker as possible without losing traffic, by OS / CARRIER / COUNTRY ...
- Changing domains and paths regularly (but be careful when changing, traffic will still be coming to the old domains / paths)
- block their IPs if you got them is very nice of course, but if they're smart they'll rotate them
- Fancy stuff like screen rotation detection and all kinds of JS snippets do not work well and produce too much click loss from my experience

09-24-2015 09:10 PM #12 fjk87 (Veteran Member)

Some spytools are very easy to catch. As soon as their proxies are changing, you'll have a hard time finding them... all comes down to what proxies they use.

If they use 'regular' proxies, think datacenters / hosting companies, easy to catch. If not, close to impossible.

You can pretty much easily see how good a spytool is in hiding their footprints by checking what landers it finds. Only compliant and legit landers? Probably cloaked by everybody and their mother already...

09-28-2015 05:52 PM #13 doppelganger (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by northernlights View Post
Problem is that it's technically nearly impossible. Spy tools are using headless browsers (or at least if they're smart enough) which are Webkit based just like your Chrome or Safari and then simply capture rendered pixels to PNG. There's no magic trick you can apply to your site that will prevent this.

If your page renders with normal browsers, it will render with headless browser and will be captured - end of story.

Only way you can avoid this is by never showing the page i.e. blocking by IPs.

*edit* We have something internal we use to trick most of the headless browsers to render a blank page but it's really raw, super technical and not ready for public consumption but if there's interest I could see if I can fix it up.
Very interesting, I'd definitely be interested in hearing more about this.

One thing I've done in the past is to create a session or pass a token to my lander from my cloaker. When it is not present they get redirected to a different URL. The spytools will still grab a screenshot of the lander if they're not blocked by other checks but that's it. I have seen many of my landers in the big spy tools but when you click on the link, it sends you somewhere else. Most affiliates will just move on to the next one because they are looking for something that is easy to rip and won't bother trying to recreate my lander.

-Aaron

10-02-2015 10:18 PM #14 samithpich (Member)

Hello northernlights, regards to Helsinki from San Diego. I'd love a copy of the "internal trick" you mentioned... if and when it is ready for public consumption. It sounds like a very useful piece of code

10-02-2015 11:44 PM #15 jennatalia (AMC Alumnus)

Quick primer on detecting headless browsers: http://www.slideshare.net/SergeyShek...an-zhang-owasp

Home > Paid Traffic Sources > Mobile