34 per cent of all mobile traffic is at risk of fraud, according to a report from AppLift and Forensiq.

That figure is made up of traffic that is suspected of fraud (22 per cent) and considered at high risk (12 per cent).

The report shows that. while there is no significant difference in fraud levels between iOS and Android, how a campaign is bought can have a huge impact. Traffic bought on a CPC (cost per click) basis is most at-risk of fraud, three times more likely to be fraudulent than CPM (cost per thousand impressions), while CPI (cost per install) is by far the least likely, 10 times less than CPM.

The proportion of fraudulent traffic also soars during the night (as seen in the graph above) while real users are asleep, as most fraud fails to take app usage patterns into account.

“The rise in fraudulent activity not only undermines the integrity of the advertising industry, but it is extremely costly for advertisers,” said AppLift CEO and co-founder Tim Koschella. “By benefiting from the fraud detection system such as that offered through DataLift, marketers can better understand their mobile programmatic data, detect fraud prior to bidding, and therefore salvage a significant portion of their ad spend.”