Report Abuse

1. What this page is for

1.1 This page explains how to report an Ad, a Destination or traffic delivered through Realpush that is unlawful, malicious, deceptive, infringes someone's rights or breaches our Advertising & Traffic Policy, and what happens after a report.

1.2 Reports about inventory are also welcome: sites, apps or supply sources that send fake or invalid traffic, hide ads, or sell inventory without the right to do so.

1.3 This channel is not for account support or billing questions. Customers use their usual support contact, [email protected], for those. A Customer that wants to contest a decision about its own Campaign or Account uses the review procedure in its role terms.

2. Who can report

Anyone can report. This includes:

(a) people who saw an Ad or were sent to a Destination;

(b) publishers, app owners and supply partners whose inventory showed the Ad;

(c) advertisers and agencies;

(d) owners of intellectual property rights and their authorised representatives;

(e) security researchers and organisations that track malware, phishing or fraud; and

(f) courts, regulators, law enforcement and other public authorities (see section 10).

3. Where to report

3.1 General reports: [email protected]

3.2 Urgent reports (malware, phishing, credential theft, fake system warnings, scams that take payments, content endangering children): send to [email protected] with the word "URGENT" at the start of the subject line, and follow section 8.

3.3 Intellectual property notices: [email protected], with the subject line starting "IP notice", and with the information in section 9.

3.4 Orders and requests from authorities: [email protected] (see section 10).

3.5 Security vulnerabilities in our own systems: [email protected].

3.6 Reports can be written in English. We accept other languages where we can handle them, which may take longer.

4. What a report should contain

4.1 The more of the following a report contains, the faster we can find the Ad. Only the description is required; the rest helps.

(a) What is wrong: a short explanation of why the Ad or Destination is unlawful, harmful or against our policy. For an alleged illegal Ad, say which law or right it breaks, as far as known.

(b) A screenshot or screen recording of the Ad and of the page it led to.

(c) The full URL of the page where the Ad appeared.

(d) The full URL the Ad led to, including everything after "?", and every redirect URL that is known. Copy URLs as text from the address bar.

(e) Date and time the Ad was seen, with the time zone.

(f) The country the person was in, and whether a VPN or proxy was used.

(g) Device, operating system and browser (for example "Android phone, Chrome").

(h) How the Ad appeared: pop-under, push notification, in-page notification, native unit or other.

(i) Any reference numbers, campaign identifiers or click identifiers that appear in the URLs.

(j) The reporter's name and email address, so that we can confirm receipt, ask questions and report the outcome. Reports can be made without a name, but then we cannot reply.

(k) For reports about alleged illegal content: a statement that the reporter believes in good faith that the information in the report is accurate and complete.

5. Capturing evidence safely

5.1 Do not download files offered by a suspicious Ad, do not run them, and do not enter passwords, card details or other personal data on the page.

5.2 Do not send us malware files or sensitive personal data as attachments unless we ask for them. A screenshot and the URLs as text are enough. Writing links as "hxxp://" instead of "http://" prevents them from opening by accident.

5.3 Never send images or videos of child sexual abuse to us, even as evidence. Send only the URL, and report the material to the police or a national reporting hotline.

6. What happens after a report

6.1 Confirmation. Where the report includes an email address, we confirm that we received it.

6.2 Assessment. We use the details in the report to identify the Campaign, the Account and the serving path concerned, and we assess the report against the law and our policies. Ads such as pop-unders and notifications are often short-lived and personalised; if a report does not contain enough detail to identify the Ad, we may ask for more.

6.3 Stopping. Where a report is substantiated, or where it shows clear malware, phishing or another serious violation, we stop the affected Campaigns. In clear or serious cases we do this without first waiting for the advertiser's explanation. Where the risk comes from an Account rather than a single Campaign, we may suspend the Account and the accounts we have evidence it controls. Where the Ad was bought through a third-party demand partner rather than a Campaign in one of our Accounts, we require that partner to stop it and, where needed, stop accepting that partner's ads on the affected inventory.

6.4 Evidence. We preserve the evidence relevant to the report, such as the report itself, captures of the Destination and our serving records, while we act on it. A Destination that looks clean later does not erase earlier evidence.

6.5 The advertiser or publisher. We inform the Customer concerned about a measure we take and the reasons, as its contract and applicable law require. We do not give the reporter's name or contact details to that Customer unless the reporter agrees or the law requires it; section 9.3 applies to intellectual property notices.

6.6 Outcome. Where the report includes an email address, we tell the reporter the outcome where appropriate: whether we took action, in general terms. We may withhold details where telling them would breach the rights of others, the law or an ongoing investigation.

6.7 Further steps. Depending on the case, we may also inform the supply partners and publishers that showed the Ad, block the Destination for future Campaigns, apply holds or adjustments under the Payments, Refunds & Adjustments document, and report the matter to the competent authorities where the law requires or allows it.

7. What we do not promise

7.1 We do not promise a fixed response or removal time. We handle urgent reports first.

7.2 Stopping a Campaign takes effect once the change has reached all our serving systems. Ads already loaded in a browser, or links already opened, can keep working for some time.

7.3 We cannot take down a website, app or file hosted by someone else. We stop our Ads from sending people there. To have the content itself removed, contact its hosting provider, domain registrar or app store, or the competent authority.

7.4 We do not disclose how we detect abuse, or other details that would help someone get around our controls.

7.5 We do not provide legal advice. Our assessment of a report is not a decision on the legal position between the reporter and anyone else.

7.6 A report does not oblige us to act where we conclude, after assessment, that the Ad or Destination is lawful and complies with our policies. We say so where we reply.

8. Urgent cases: malware, phishing, scams, child safety

8.1 Mark the subject "URGENT" (section 3.2). Include the Destination URL as text, the country and the device, as precisely as possible.

8.2 We treat these reports first. Where we can identify the Campaign and the report shows clear malware, phishing, credential theft or a similarly serious harm, we stop it without waiting for the advertiser's explanation, and we collect evidence while stopping it, not before.

8.3 For content endangering children, also contact the police or a national reporting hotline. Section 5.3 applies.

8.4 For an ongoing attack on a specific organisation (for example phishing pages imitating a bank), also inform the organisation concerned; it can act against the site directly.

9. Intellectual property notices

9.1 A notice of infringement of a trademark, copyright or other intellectual property right should contain:

(a) the right concerned (for example the trademark and its registration number and territory, or the copyrighted work);

(b) the name of the rights holder and, if the notice is sent by a representative, confirmation of its authority to act;

(c) the Ad or Destination that allegedly infringes it, with the details in section 4;

(d) an explanation of why the use infringes the right; and

(e) a statement that the sender believes in good faith that the use is not authorised and that the notice is accurate.

9.2 We assess the notice and, where the infringement is clear or substantiated, stop the affected Campaigns.

9.3 To allow the advertiser to respond, we may share the notice, including the rights holder's name, with the advertiser. We tell the sender if we intend to share its personal contact details and do not share them if it objects, unless the law requires otherwise.

9.4 Disputes between the rights holder and the advertiser about whether a use is lawful are for them or the courts to decide. We act on the basis of the information we have.

10. Authorities

10.1 Orders and information requests from courts, regulators and law enforcement go to [email protected]. An order should identify the issuing authority, its legal basis, the content or information concerned (for example URLs, account or campaign identifiers), the territorial scope and any deadline.

10.2 We confirm receipt, verify that the order comes from the authority stated, and inform the authority of the effect given to the order, as the applicable law requires.

10.3 Where the law allows it, we inform the Customer concerned of an order and of the measures taken.

11. Misuse of the reporting channel

11.1 Reports must be made in good faith. Knowingly false reports, reports made to harm a competitor, and automated mass reports without a real basis are misuse.

11.2 Where a person or organisation frequently sends reports that are manifestly unfounded, we may, after a warning, deal with its reports with lower priority or stop processing them for a period. We assess each case individually and keep handling reports that show a clear and serious risk.

11.3 Misuse may also have legal consequences for the sender, for example where a false report harms a business.

12. Personal data in reports

12.1 We use the personal data in a report, such as the reporter's name and email, screenshots and device details, to handle the report, to keep evidence, and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. The Privacy Notice explains how long we keep it and the rights of the people concerned.

12.2 A reporter should include personal data of other people only where it is needed to describe the problem.

13. Other routes remain open

Reporting to us does not prevent anyone from going to the police, a regulator, a consumer protection body or a court, and we do not ask anyone to withdraw a complaint made elsewhere.