Ad Fraud/Impression Fraud/Traffic Fraud, call it what you want but unless more people take a stand and speak up the bad guys are going to keep winning.  Dr Augustine Fou is one person who stands up to the bad guys.  I need to thank a lot of people for their help and insights but today Dr Fou.

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article about my experience with a digital advertising campaign. LIN Digital’s Lack Of Transparency I had no idea what I was dealing with but I knew something was wrong.  After I posted my piece I started doing more research.  It was fascinating to read about ad fraud, traffic fraud and every other kind of fraud when it comes to digital advertising.  In my article I mentioned certain referring websites that showed up in the ad campaign.

I sent Dr Fou a tweet about the article I posted and then I tweeted him about certain referring websites.  I didn’t really expect a response because in this day and age, people don’t respond, it’s a one way communication of asking and not receiving.  I must mention that every single person I reached out to for answers or opinions I received a response from.  This tells me that those fighting fraud care and I was completely blown away by the feedback.

Before we go any further, let’s watch a video explaining how the digital advertising world works.  You might have to watch it a few times because I know I did.

For a real life example of how easy it is to make money with ad fraud, read this.  Jack Marshall at Digiday wrote a great article.

Fraudulent traffic: adventures in ad farming

OK, a little more confused? That is good, let’s proceed.  Dr Fou cares enough about fighting the bad guys that he looked into two publisher networks I mentioned for referring traffic which I believed were a complete joke.    Here is what Dr Fou had to say.

[slideshare id=35573496&doc=faketrafficsiteexamples2014augustinefou-140606105914-phpapp01]

As I mentioned to Dr Fou, it is the small business owner that makes the world go around.  A small business owner must advertise and must trust someone or something that will not screw them over.  The world is not going back to phone books.  I don’t know of any small business owner that accepts fraud as a normal business practice and allocates for it in their marketing budget unlike large business.   Until the big boys of the advertising world step up and say enough is enough, the small business owner is going to pay the price.

Dr Augustine Fou, thank you for your help and your insights.  I look forward to sharing with you again.

Mike Woelfel