Many malicious adtech companies offer what they call a "smartlink" to marketing affiliates. These affiliates publish the smartlink url on a website, an instagram post, and facebook ad, etc. and receive a commission based on some criteria of the adtech company.

But what is a smartlink really? You can think of it like this...

A Guy tells you he'll pay you to deliver packages. You can deliver them to anyone you want. Here's the catch: you only get paid if the recipient buys the contents AFTER they open it.

You don't know what's inside the packages, but the Guy gives you a hint by labeling it "mainstream", "dating", "gaming" etc. This way you can try to find people who are most likely to buy the content inside.

So you run all around town handing out packages, being super creative and decorating them so people will open the box.. and hoping they'll buy what's inside when they do. The Guy decides whats in the package and whether you get paid.

Sounds smart, right?

VexTrio's Los Pollos is one company that offers smartlinks, but there are many others, including Propeller Ads (via Monetag). Some call them direct links. For the technical folks - these links enter the user/victim into the traffic distribution system (TDS). These links are used to deliver everything from scams to malware.

#adtech #cybercrime #threatintel #cybersecurity #infosec #tds #vextrio #infoblox #infobloxthreatintel #scam #malware #phishing