{"id":4800,"date":"2018-02-02T07:41:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T15:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/?p=4800"},"modified":"2020-09-04T10:18:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T15:18:11","slug":"fake-traffic-spot-never-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/fake-traffic-spot-never-buy\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake Traffic: How to Spot it, and Why Never to Buy it"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\">\r\n<article class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\">\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-style-beige has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-772205c6 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained is-style-beige--1\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50)\">\r\n<header class=\"wp-block-group c-breadcrumbs aligngrid has-global-padding is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-61973aa6 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<header class=\"wp-block-group aligngrid is-content-justification-left is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-d68226ec wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\" style=\"margin-bottom:5px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mediavine-dev.d1.moderntribe.qa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/chevron-left2.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-542\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9\/16;object-fit:contain;width:auto;height:20px\"\/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"is-style-small is-style-small--2\"><a href=\"\/blog\/\">Back to Blog<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/header>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity aligngrid\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\"\/>\r\n<\/header>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-style-default has-neutral-20-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--70);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60)\"><div class=\"aligncenter aligncenter wp-block-tribe-terms\"><ul class=\"wp-block-tribe-terms__list\"><li class=\"wp-block-tribe-terms__term\"><span class=\"wp-block-tribe-terms__link t-category\">Advertising<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n<h1 style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--10);\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-title\">Fake Traffic: How to Spot it, and Why Never to Buy it<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-9b38c6d9 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-bottom:0;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\"><div style=\"margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-author-name\">Steve Marsi<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u2022<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-date has-10-font-size\"><time datetime=\"2018-02-02T07:41:30-06:00\">February 2, 2018<\/time><\/div><\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\">Traffic. We all want more of it for obvious reasons. The more traffic a website generates, the bigger its audience and the greater its earning potential becomes.\n\nAll traffic is not created equal, however.\n\nThere are entire companies devoted to deceiving publishers and advertisers alike by selling traffic that isn&#8217;t even real, often times unbeknownst to any of the parties involved.\n\n<strong>What is fake traffic?<\/strong>\n\nFake traffic is traffic generated by click farms, bots or software, not by humans. Fake traffic is used to artificially inflate ad revenue by making a site&#8217;s audience appear greater than it is in reality. An astonishing amount of ad impressions are served to fraudulent visitors.\n\nIf an advertising network identifies a website&#8217;s traffic as fake, it will likely result in suspensions or even bans on the publisher\u2019s advertising account once violations are uncovered.\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4868 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/analytics.png\" alt=\"man holding a tablet with pie charts on it \" width=\"1400\" height=\"982\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/analytics.png 1400w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/analytics-428x300.png 428w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/analytics-768x539.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/analytics-656x460.png 656w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/>\n\n<strong>How can you identify fake traffic?<\/strong>\n\nIt&#8217;s not always simple, but Google Analytics is a great place to start.\u00a0Check out the following factors under Audience Overview for possible warning signs:\n<ul>\n \t<li><strong>Bounce Rate<\/strong>: This is defined as the percentage of single-page sessions in which there was no interaction with the page. If this number is extremely high &#8211; or, ironically, extremely low &#8211; it&#8217;s potentially due to fake traffic.<\/li>\n \t<li><strong>Average Session Duration<\/strong>: Some users may stay on site for several minutes. Some visits via Facebook or Instagram may only last about 30 seconds. Anything significantly below that is a possible sign of bots masked as human users.<\/li>\n \t<li><strong>Pages\/Session<\/strong>: Similarly, variation is normal. Some visitors will read 4-5 pages per session, while others will only read one. If the\u00a0<em>average<\/em> is at or near one, that&#8217;s abnormal.<\/li>\n \t<li><strong>New Sessions<\/strong>: New users are terrific, but not if <em>every<\/em> user suddenly is. An unusually high number of new sessions is just that: Unusual. Ditto a low or non-existent number, which is probably the same bots over and over again.<\/li>\n \t<li><strong>Geos<\/strong>: Are the audience&#8217;s language, country and city consistent with the website&#8217;s content? A disproportionate amount visitors from non-English speaking countries can often be a sign of suspect traffic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nMediavine conducts a thorough vetting of every applicant using this same data, and our Site Health check in your dashboard may also spot abnormalities if you&#8217;re suddenly seeing red.\n\nYou can also glance at your own statistics and see if anything is amiss on a routine basis. Here&#8217;s a snapshot of the Google Analytics from one of our sites. See traffic source #10:\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4801 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-29-at-3.46.04-PM.png\" alt=\"Google Analytics screenshot showing traffic sources \" width=\"1639\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-29-at-3.46.04-PM.png 1639w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-29-at-3.46.04-PM-441x291.png 441w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-29-at-3.46.04-PM-768x506.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-29-at-3.46.04-PM-698x460.png 698w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1639px) 100vw, 1639px\" \/>\n\nWhile <strong>no single metric tells the whole story<\/strong>, if you pay attention to the irregularities, you&#8217;ll begin to see how all the pieces work together and know when to maintain a healthy skepticism.\n\nMany factors can skew one statistic or another, but in the case of this particular fake traffic source (variance.tv), it was flying just about every red flag out there.\n\n<strong>NOTE<\/strong>: We did not buy this traffic. (Yes, you can buy traffic a number of ways, which we&#8217;ll get into in a moment). Many (probably most) times, fake traffic is simply spammers sending bogus pageviews to your Google Analytics to either get your attention and induce panic, or to mask or inflate their own traffic numbers, hoping you won&#8217;t notice.\n\nIn any event, your ads are not loading and no one is visiting your page. If you see something like this, don&#8217;t panic, but take action sooner rather than later. Ads and earnings will not be affected, but your reporting will be; See the extreme case below, in which RPMs plummet as Google Analytics counts all the artificial sessions with no ad impressions to show for them:\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21882 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RPM-.png\" alt=\"graph showing fake traffic increase with RPM drop\" width=\"512\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RPM-.png 512w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RPM--320x269.png 320w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RPM--375x315.png 375w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RPM--441x370.png 441w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RPM--273x229.png 273w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RPM--223x187.png 223w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RPM--335x281.png 335w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RPM--347x291.png 347w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/>\n\nSee our guide to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/how-to-block-google-analytics-spam\/\">filtering out Google Analytics referral spam<\/a>\u00a0for more on how to eliminate bots on the reporting end. Also, in case this doesn&#8217;t go without saying:\n\n<strong>Do not buy fake traffic.<\/strong>\n\nNo one selling fake traffic calls it fake traffic, of course, but there are loads of low-cost traffic generators out there. Their deals sound too good to be true, and they are. Most use software to send valueless hits. Some are click farms in non-English speaking countries. Others employ traffic sourcing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/craigsilverman\/these-publishers-bought-millions-of-website-visits-they\">methods that are surprisingly sophisticated<\/a>.\n\nPlenty of sponsored networks, PR firms and even reputable-sounding social media influencers offer to bring publishers a set number of visitors for a flat rate or on a cost per click basis. While these often sound like legitimate businesses, in many cases they won&#8217;t fully disclose their techniques because the traffic they&#8217;re sending isn&#8217;t real.\n\nIf you don&#8217;t understand their methods and can&#8217;t throughly establish the origin of traffic, it&#8217;s better to avoid all such offers and focus on growing traffic organically.\u00a0It\u2019s not worth a potential ban from every advertising exchange, and likely won&#8217;t monetize regardless, if you don&#8217;t know who you&#8217;re buying from or who&#8217;s coming to your site.\n\nOr, if you want to buy real traffic, prepare to pay accordingly. Sponsored Facebook and Instagram posts, along with verified social media influencers, represent a terrific opportunity to market content to legitimate users. Most importantly, you&#8217;ll be able to verify the legitimacy of these visitors via their analytics and your own.\n\n<strong>Other tips for stopping fake traffic<\/strong>\n\nIf you&#8217;re still having problems, we recommend reaching out to your host to see if they can help you block troublesome IP&#8217;s or suspicious sources. There are also good security plugins with premium plans that can be helpful in mitigating bad traffic sources.<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-09aec4f2 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-right:0;padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60)\">\r\n<p class=\"is-style-small is-style-small--3\">About the author<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);\" class=\"wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__avatar\"><img alt='' src='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/033e1d1dad8227b46745d12af4d935ef1fc9e4febca51b9f175c69dbdf01a5df?s=96&#038;d=blank&#038;r=g' 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z\"><\/path><\/svg>\t\t<span class=\"wp-block-outermost-social-sharing-link-label screen-reader-text\">\n\t\t\tShare on WhatsApp\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/article>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<aside class=\"wp-block-group aligngrid  is-animated-on-scroll-25 tribe-animation-type-fade-in tribe-animation-direction-bottom is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);--tribe-animation-speed:0.6s;--tribe-animation-offset:50px;--tribe-animation-delay:0s;--tribe-animation-easing:var(--easing--ease-out-sine)\">\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-small is-style-small--5\" id=\"h-related-posts\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">Related Posts<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:0;\" class=\"b-related-posts b-related-posts--layout-grid  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t-body-small\">Jan 21, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__excerpt\">Back to Blog \u2022 This article was updated on January 21, 2026, to reflect the 2026 eCPM calendar. If you\u2019ve ever looked at your dashboard and thought, \u201cWhat just happened?\u201d You\u2019re not alone. eCPMs move seasonally. Sometimes dramatically. And while it can feel random in the moment, those swings usually have very little to do&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/best-ecpm-days\/\" class=\"c-post-card__link-overlay\" aria-label=\"Read more about Why eCPMs Rise and Fall Throughout the Year (And How to Work With It)\"><\/a>\n<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"c-post-card c-post-card__layout-vertical\">\n\t<div class=\"c-post-card__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__image aspect-ratio-cover aspect-ratio-3-2\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"711\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Blog-Images-Kendall-2-edited-3.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Blog-Images-Kendall-2-edited-3.png 711w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Blog-Images-Kendall-2-edited-3-320x240.png 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 711px) 100vw, 711px\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__primary-category t-category\">Advertising<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"c-post-card__title t-display-xx-small t-transparent-underline\">What to Expect From eCPMs in Q1 (And How to Plan for It)<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata-readtime\">5 minutes<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-author t-body-small\">Brad Hagmann<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-separator t-body-small\">\u2022<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-date t-body-small\">Jan 16, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__excerpt\">Back to Blog 4 min read \u2022 \u2022 Q1 has a reputation. For many publishers, it\u2019s the quarter where eCPMs cool off, dashboards look less exciting, and questions start popping up fast. Is something wrong? Did I miss something? Should I be worried? Short answer: probably not. Q1 behaves the way it does for reasons&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/what-to-expect-from-ecpms-in-q1-and-how-to-plan-for-it\/\" class=\"c-post-card__link-overlay\" aria-label=\"Read more about What to Expect From eCPMs in Q1 (And How to Plan for It)\"><\/a>\n<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"c-post-card c-post-card__layout-vertical\">\n\t<div class=\"c-post-card__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__image aspect-ratio-cover aspect-ratio-3-2\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03-1024x512.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03-320x160.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03-1170x585.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03-800x400.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03-569x285.jpg 569w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03-960x480.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03-1080x540.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mediavine-cmp-implementation-blog-03.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__primary-category t-category\">Advertising<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"c-post-card__title t-display-xx-small t-transparent-underline\">Mediavine&#8217;s CMP Moves to CONSENTMANAGER: Unlocking Enhanced Compliance and Revenue Opportunities for Publishers<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-author t-body-small\">The Mediavine Team<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-separator t-body-small\">\u2022<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-date t-body-small\">Jun 2, 2025<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__excerpt\">Back to Blog \u2022 As the digital advertising landscape evolves, the need for effective data management and compliance has never been more critical. As part of our commitment to providing exceptional solutions for our publishers, Mediavine is excited to announce our partnership with CONSENTMANAGER, a third-party Consent Management Platform (CMP).&nbsp; As a part of this&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/mediavines-cmp-moves-to-consentmanager\/\" class=\"c-post-card__link-overlay\" aria-label=\"Read more about Mediavine&#8217;s CMP Moves to CONSENTMANAGER: Unlocking Enhanced Compliance and Revenue Opportunities for Publishers\"><\/a>\n<\/article>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/aside>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back to Blog \u2022 Traffic. We all want more of it for obvious reasons. The more traffic a website generates, the bigger its audience and the greater its earning potential becomes. All traffic is not created equal, however. There are entire companies devoted to deceiving publishers and advertisers alike by selling traffic that isn&#8217;t even&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44445,"featured_media":21689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,19],"tags":[],"audience_post":[],"class_list":["post-4800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","category-traffic-growth"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fake Traffic: How to Spot it, and Why Never to Buy it - Mediavine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are entire companies devoted to deceiving publishers and advertisers alike by selling traffic that isn&#039;t even real.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/fake-traffic-spot-never-buy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fake Traffic: How to Spot it, and Why Never to Buy it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are entire companies devoted to deceiving publishers and advertisers alike by selling traffic that isn&#039;t even real.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/fake-traffic-spot-never-buy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mediavine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mediavinepublishernetwork\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-02T15:41:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-04T15:18:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mediavine-08.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1196\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"805\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Marsi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mediavine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mediavine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Marsi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/fake-traffic-spot-never-buy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/fake-traffic-spot-never-buy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Marsi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/55e7fe919ceda99dc3c55fc04d35f7d8\"},\"headline\":\"Fake Traffic: How to Spot it, and Why Never to Buy it\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-02T15:41:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-04T15:18:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/fake-traffic-spot-never-buy\/\"},\"wordCount\":950,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/fake-traffic-spot-never-buy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mediavine-08.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Advertising\",\"Traffic Growth\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/fake-traffic-spot-never-buy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/fake-traffic-spot-never-buy\/\",\"name\":\"Fake Traffic: How to Spot it, and Why Never to Buy it - 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