• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 12, 2025

An independent advertising agency has notified Microsoft it has encountered significant challenges with invalid traffic and junk leads that have impacted performance of client campaigns, and could potentially cost the ad giant millions of dollars.

Aimclear account leads have observed patterns of fake leads including spam bots, fake names, and nonexistent businesses for a variety of its clients.

Marty Weintraub, founder of Aimclear, called the fraud a “very sophisticated click farm” despite the practice being an “old school tactic.” 

Examples of company documents seen by MediaPost include those dated September 2024, which came from DZGDSFG. Another that was dated October 2024 came from MaryWhite, and another that was dated November 2024 came from sfge.

All the email addresses for the leads use @etc.com, which can be used for things like looking up web sites that have to do with specific topics, according to a Google search.

These leads and others demonstrate signs of non-human traffic, such as anonymous IPs and bot-generated behaviors.

Microsoft is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars “in yanked spend because we can't trust it,” Weintraub said, despite sending many good leads to Aimclear clients.

The brands impacted are missing traffic and leads in favor of potentially more expensive leads from other channels because Microsoft leads cannot be trusted.

Aimclear has submitted multiple reports and more than enough data, highlighting evidence of fraudulent clicks and non-human activity.

The company acknowledges that investigations take time, but says the issue persists despite providing sufficient documentation.

The agency, which is committed to working with Microsoft Ads to resolve this issue, is requesting ad credits to offset the budget spent on invalid traffic.

A credit will allow Aimclear’s clients to reinvest in Microsoft Ads and continue using the platform.

“Microsoft has historically worked really well with markers,” Weintraub said. “It has always been the less corporate company. The one that had our back, gave us the data.”

A Microsoft spokesperson said the company is committed to providing a safe and high-quality experience to users, advertisers and publishers.

"We employ a sophisticated system of real-time and post-click automated and manual processes to maintain high traffic quality standards," the spokesperson said. "We investigate any reports and take appropriate action where necessary in accordance with our platform policies. We also encourage reporting&nbs p;suspicious activity so we can review and take appropriate remediation steps."

Update: This article was updated with a response from Microsoft.