MOSCOW, February 8 (RAPSI) – A cyber security company based in Canada, Sentrant, has claimed that Russian mobile application firm, Academ Media, is responsible for mass fraud conducted through online advertisement service MoPub, Financial Times has reported.

According to Sentrant, Academ Media has been allegedly conducting a sophisticated fraud that has targeted the fast growing market of mobile advertisement. MoPub which belongs to Twitter has been a specific target for the fraudsters.

Sentrant has claimed that more than 200 apps in Google Play store have been used in a fraud. After installation of such an app on the mobile phone was complete, it began to download advertisements that were invisible to consumers. Allegedly this allowed Academ Media to earn $250,000 a day from companies that are paying for amount of views by consumers, although no people have seen actual advertisements.

Novosibirsk-based Academ Media strongly denies all allegations. The firm claims that a year ago it was attacked by a hacker who stole data and used it to conduct fraud and transform mobile apps by Academ Media into fraudulent ones.

Google Play removed apps by Academ Media from the store in September despite protests from an app firm.