Fraud in Digital Advertising: A Multibillion-Dollar Black Hole: How Marketers Can Minimize Losses Caused by Bogus Web Traffic

This article describes the ways in which digital advertising fraud is being committed, as well as outlining how marketers should respond.

Fraud in Digital Advertising: A Multibillion-Dollar Black Hole: How Marketers Can Minimize Losses Caused by Bogus Web Traffic

Gian M. Fulgoni

comScore, Inc.

INTRODUCTION

Fraud long has been known to be one of the most troublesome issues on the Internet, with digital advertising increasingly one of its prime victims (Edelman, 2014; Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2015; Springborn and Barford, 2013). The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in late 2015 estimated that marketers will waste as much as $7 billion globally in 2016, buying online advertisements that people do not see.1

Fraudsters succeed by creating their own websites and using fake audiences...

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