aimm News

App Malware Reads Notifications Blood Pressure Tracker App

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

 

As a leading mobile compliance and fraud specialist company, MCP Insight continually tests and validates potential issues coming from websites or malicious applications.
MCP have put together their document ‘MCP Mobile Malware Update‘ to reflect on a recent discovery of a malicious application called “Blood Pressure Tracker App”.

MCP understands the brand damage such fraud does to the mobile payments Industry and we will work with partners to ensure that fraud and the malicious operators perpetrating
fraud, are shut down. MCP work helps mitigate the impact of malicious activity, whilst also showing the importance of anti-fraud solutions and the role they play protecting business and consumers alike.

www.mcpinsight.com

 

Take a Journey with Mobile Billing – EE BT event, supported by aimm

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

On the 23rd March EE/BT, supported by aimm, hosted the  ‘Take a Journey with Mobile Billing’ event at the BT Tower.

The aim of the event was to provide an introduction to Charge to Bill, as an additional payment method for the transport and parking sector.  The event demonstrated how – by giving a wider choice of payment options to their customers – the transport sector could reach those that may not wish to or are able to buy transport tickets the traditional ways.

Naomi Hone, Charge to Bill Manager at EE/BT said: ‘there are 72 million mobile phones in the UK, and carrier billing is already automatically enabled on most of them. This essentially means that the majority of people are walking around with a ticketing vending machine in their pocket!’

With speakers from aimm, EE, Kaleyra and Plusdial, as well as a panel featuring Fonix and DMB, answering questions  from the audience, it was a great opportunity to start the conversation around the opportunities that mobile billing can provide the transport industry.

European digital content industry will triple by 2026

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

The European digital content industry reached last year almost €45.3B in terms of revenues and will reach €114,6B in five years (x3). These data result from an analysis carried out by Telecoming, a company specializing in monetization technology (Adtech and Direct Carrier Billing) since 2008. The firm has studied the evolution of digital content consumption in Europe.

Last year, 498M Europeans accessed digital content and spent on average €15 per month. 52% of total revenue came from video, games (34%) and music (14%). The study concludes that the consumption trend will go up. In 2026 a total of 606M users will consume digital content and increase their monthly spending to €30.5 per month. The video games sector, perhaps driven by the metaverse, will be the sector that will experience the highest growth. In five years, it will account for 47% of the total income of the digital content industry, above video (42%) and music services (12%).

Roberto Monge, Chief Operations Officer at Telecoming, stated, “the European digital content industry is very dynamic, and the average spending will continue growing. The subscription model will predominate because it meets users’ expectations. The UK and Germany are the leading digital entertainment markets, with great growth potential.”

 

The UK, the leading video consumer

In 2021, the UK was the country that consumed the most digital video services (44% of the population). In 2026 it will also be the top country, with 59% (41,3M users) of the active population appreciating this type of content. The UK has the most profitable digital video services market: €4,2B in 2021 and €5,7B in 2026 (62% will come through subscriptions). At some distance, Germany will follow with a volume of €5B in the coming five years. It is estimated that the entire European market will reach €30.6B in that period.

Video games will register the highest growth

According to Telecoming’s research, 62% of Europeans will enjoy mobile games in 2026 (+9 points vs 2021). Germany led the ranking with 49.8M users last year, followed by the UK (44.8M). Both countries will add followers in the coming years (+14 M in Germany and +11.4 in the UK). European mobile gamers played almost 2B games in 2021.

The evolution of the mobile gaming market will be an unprecedented growth.  €15,6B generated in 2021 will become €68,6B in 2026. This growth will go hand in hand with the consolidation of the metaverse, the next big thing where the leading technology industry players are already investing.

9 out of 10 Europeans pay for digital music services. However, the UK is the largest market (€16B in 2026). 18% of Britons accessed a digital music service in 2021. This percentage will increase to 22% in 2026. 97% of these will also subscribe to a digital music service and pay €10.8 per subscription (average). This is also a general trend in Europe. In 2026, 98% of users will subscribe to at least one music service.

 

Telecoming is an international company specialized in digital services monetization technologies. It deploys solutions aimed at improving mobile payment processes and advertising technology. A scalable, flexible, and secure platform seamlessly integrates revenue generation tools for companies operating in the digital environment. Leader on the economics of digital content since 2008, Telecoming currently operates in 21 countries.

Advertising monitoring identifies ‘sick’ attempts to capitalise on Ukraine War

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Leading advertising fraud monitoring provider, MCP Insight, has revealed that in the past weeks it has picked up the emergence of shameless attempts to capitalise on the publics’ empathy for the plight of the citizens of Ukraine.

Soon after the Russian invasion, the MCP Scanner ad monitoring tool began identifying emotive banner adverts, such as the need for a ‘Ukrainian No Fly Zone’, appearing on random websites.

Members of the public clicking these adverts found themselves redirected to Adult (pornographic) content websites, and not to the balanced information sources or charity pages which the web user might reasonably expect.

These particular adverts, run by third-party affiliate marketeers, are the latest in a trend of misleading and in some cases, fraudulent adverts being picked up worldwide by MCP’s scanning tool.

Commenting on the finds, MCP’s Head of Compliance, David Ashman, said: “Companies or individuals seeking to gain commercial advantage by misleading the vulnerable consumer is a sad reality of the digital age; however, with the lives of women, children and everyday citizens being lost in Ukraine, this new style of sickly targeted advertising scrapes the very bottom of the moral barrel”

Without use of tools, such as MCPs Scanner, mainstream brands paying for referral traffic are often blind to the techniques and messages that certain Affiliates use to encourage user clicks through to the brand website.

The scope of potential harm extends not only to those consumers being misled, or children potentially being exposed to sexual content; charities also suffer when their legitimate calls for help are priced out of the market by unscrupulous advertisers.

These nefarious advertising practices are being brought into sharp focus with the UK Government’s Online Safety Bill.

The Bill will place a greater duty of care on companies and brands to understand the entire consumer journey and increase the controls and protections to identify and block these inappropriate traffic sources.

MCP’s Founder, Toby Padgham commented: “There is far more companies could be doing, voluntarily, to clean up the internet. Whilst we welcome the aims of the Online Safety Bill, the need for prescriptive regulation could have been prevented. We encourage big brands to utilise the tools already available to them to better self-police the leads and referrals they receive, as this will lead to the best outcome both for consumer and the Brand’s reputation”

MCP Insight is an anti-fraud & compliance solutions provider, with operations across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

MCP Insight Launches Scanner 3.0

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

MCP Insight, which specialises in anti-fraud and compliance systems, has made significant upgrades to its market intelligence tool, Scanner (now version 3.0). This will be available to clients from today.

Scanner has underpinned MCP’s expansion to 30 countries, supporting mobile content partners and mobile operators with key market intel and compliance monitoring.
“We have listened to client needs and worked closely with them over the past 6 months to understand what new product features should be added to Scanner. These new features will help clients grow their business, by having fast access to key market analysis and compliance support.” Toby Padgham, Director MCP.

MCP Scanner 3.0 adds significant new functionality, including:

  • New & Improved UI With Microservices Deployed to speed up the usage and interactive loading
  • Comparative analysis between your Brands, Competitor Watchlist and Rest of Industry
  • Performance/Market Share Metrics
  • Brand Category Analysis
  • Super Filters by MNO, Aggregator, Merchant, Category, Payment Types
  • Quarterly/Monthly/Weekly or Custom Range comparison between Brands
  • Brand Advertising Channel Analysis
  • New Brand Discoveries, Consistent/Periodic
  • New Facebook scanning engine
  • Full end-to-end tests showing payment flows

…And much, much more

To get an overview of the new system take a look at the video prepared by MCP Insight that gives you a look inside: MCP Insight Scanner 3.0

Learn more about Scanner