This smart scam allow advertisers to make money by draining your Android phone

Remember when we knew that it was theoretically possible for a web page, or an application, to steal its processor cycles to mine the cryptocurrency, potentially draining the battery and cellular data in the process? BuzzFeed reports that ad networks have discovered a similar scam: one that allows energy-hungry and lucrative video ads to hide behind traditional banner ads in Android applications, so users do not even come to know about their presence.

According to BuzzFeed, it is not the fault of application developers: they were surprised to find a lot of complaints about why their applications are running out of batteries and consuming more of their data. Instead, the report suggests that the advertising networks with which they had registered had been hijacked by scammers within the largest advertisement business. (BuzzFeed traced the ads to a company called OutStream Media, a subsidiary of Aniview - Aniview says it is a self-service platform and it's not it's the fault, but BuzzFeed paints an image of Aniview as a seemingly unclear organization).

The scam is not only at the expense of consumers, but also the advertising networks, as fraudsters buy cheap banner spots and fill them with expensive video ads, which benefit from the process.

Actually, the technique already has a name: they are known by the term "in-banner video ads," and the advertising fraud companies that spoke with BuzzFeed say every month they see "tens of millions of dollars" of these bad ads.