Insiders, It's Time for Courageous Action to Unwind a Decade of Fraud

I've been told that folks are too scared to work with me. They are afraid I will call them out for ad fraud. I WON'T do that. Why? Because most folks are hard working individuals who are just doing their jobs and trying not to lose their jobs. They are not the fraudsters, bot makers, or criminal masterminds perpetrating the ad fraud. However, they may have seen things that look suspicious, but not spoken up. They may have even been instructed to not speak up. I understand these circumstances and empathize with you. But we still have a large problem that needs to be solved. And I cannot do it without you.

Ad fraud has grown larger over the last ten years due to the collective inaction of "the good guys." It now saps billions of dollars every year from large advertisers' budgets. Of course that's a big problem. But the more serious and urgent issue is the flow of those dollars to bad actors using the same techniques to steal ad dollars in order to fund unimaginably horrific operations involving CSAM ("child sexual abuse materials"), human trafficking, animal abuse, and worse. Independent researcher Carolina Christofoletti ?has been tirelessly documenting the horrific rise of CSAM, not just across social media due to lack of controls, monitoring, and mitigation efforts, but across the web, due to a new funding source - digital advertising.

Prior to "ad tech" these criminals, like disinformation outlets, obviously could not tap into large advertisers' ad spend. But now, they easily hide amongst millions of other sites and apps on programmatic ad exchanges and make money by selling ads. They avoid detection easily too. As recent as last month, we saw the case with Gannett where mis-declared domains went unnoticed for months and billions of ad impressions were transacted through the largest of ad exchanges, including Google, despite every party up and down the supply chain already paying for brand safety detection. What were they detecting? What were they catching, if anything? Threat actors, like white collar fraudsters, purposefully mis-declare domains to hide their illegal activities while making ad revenue.

There may never be embarrassing screen shots of big advertisers' ads on vile, fringe child abuse sites and underground forums, but these criminals are using the same techniques that fraudsters use to tap large ad budgets successfully. Years of inaction by "the good guys" have emboldened more threat actors and criminal organizations to "get in on this large pot of easy gold." The lack of knowledge about how some "features" make it easier for bad guys to operate in broad daylight means the good guys are literally clueless to the flow of money to bad guys and threat actors alike. For example, here's a great explainer of how "confidential seller accounts" on the largest ad exchange, Google, make it hard for "the good guys" to see that their ad dollars are flowing to Russian propaganda websites, or worse. How could anyone stop it if they can't see it. Again, the same techniques used by fraudsters are being used by these inhuman actors to siphon ad dollars and expand operations.

The harms brought by these illegal operations to children, individual people, small communities, and society as a whole must not be allowed to continue due to our collective inaction. It takes courage to stand up for what is right. It takes courage to speak up. But we must do it now and we must do it together. We are building a chorus, and you are invited to join us. Borrowing the tagline "if you see something, say something," if you see some ad fraud, or worse, say something. And you can say it anonymously too. Go to FouAnaltyics.com and look for the "anonymously report fraud" section. There is no need to log in or identify yourself in any way. Just point me in the right direction and tell me what to look for.

"It takes courage to stand up for what is right. It takes courage to speak up. But we must do it now and we must do it together."

Those working in large public companies can also do their part, by influencing good behavior and setting a good example. I realize we cannot solve a decade of ad fraud overnight; this will take a while; all the more reason to get the processes started now. Let us unwind years of ad fraud together. We can't chop off all the fraud at once; but we can unwind shady actions committed in the past. Like I do with advertisers using FouAnalytics to monitor their own campaigns, we progressively clean the campaigns by adding the most egregious sites and apps to block lists. That makes the campaign better without chopping off 90% of the volume at once.

Here's a simple example of what insiders can do. Look into the CTV apps under your watch that are continuously loading ads throughout the night, when the TV is not even on. Ask questions about how that is possible, when everyone knows that humans go to sleep at night. The number of CTV ads should drop off dramatically after 1a, not remain the same every hour including overnight hours, as the green bars show in the three examples in the chart. When you see something, say something; or ask some questions. These things can be corrected by more people taking courageous action. If you build a "chorus of good" inside your company, more people will help and the collective momentum will mean doing the right thing becomes easier and easier. You won't be the lone voice trying to do the right thing and fighting an uphill battle.

You don't even have to tell me what you've done. But I will be able to see it in the data -- e.g. when these three CTV apps stop loading ads when the TV is off or streaming has ended I will see the green bars drop much lower in the overnight hours.

A seasoned analytics practitioner, Alex Giedt offered the following joyful advice: "Let's switch to an ethic of JOFO (Joy of Finding Out). Finding out is the first step in positively changing marketing operations towards delivering true value. I'd like to add, that another element that has allowed bad actors (of many varieties) to flourish in the digital space is the desire for low effort, like "set-it-and-forget-it" digital marketing. Real digital marketing, however, takes work and, in reality, many campaigns are NOT successful. JOFO will allow orgs to see what is actually happening, avoid the fraud/low value/no value traffic and optimize campaigns towards real success. As someone who analyzes campaign data (and has helped train marketing staff to analyze and optimize campaigns), Finding Out is everything."

You are the insiders who work at agencies, ad tech companies, advertisers, publishers, and public companies -- "if you see something, say something." You are the force of change that can solve a decade of ad fraud. It is time to take courageous action. Build a "chorus of good" inside your companies; you are, after all, protecting your company from risks like shareholder fraud class action lawsuits. You can still "get out in front of it" and you will be recognized for speaking up, taking action, and doing the right thing. That gives you MORE job security, not less.

I am here to help if you need me. Don't be afraid. "Fear is a Reaction; Courage is a Decision." Join our courageous chorus of good.