Advertising fraud has been one of the industry's biggest concerns for several years now, and the truth is that it seems that this scourge has no end in sight, at least not in the near future.
Despite the apparent efforts of brands and digital partners to make the digital advertising market a safer environment for companies, their efforts are insufficient.
And this is precisely because marketers' greatest enemy is in their own home.
That's according to a recent, in-depth investigation by BuzzFeed News , which reveals that even the most credible players in the industry are profiting from fraud.
They discovered that around 40 websites had used a special code that afghanistan phone number produced an avalanche of views of video advertisements from major companies such as P&G, Unilever, Hershey's, Johnson & Johnson, Ford and MGM.
Advertisements from nearly 100 brands were found to be fraudulently reproduced on these websites, while nearly 50 appeared multiple times.
The documents released by BuzzFeed also show that the CEO of an advertising platform and digital marketing agency owns 12 websites that earned revenue from fraudulent visits , and his company provided the advertising platform to carry out these practices.
But there is more, as a former employee of one of the largest advertising networks is also involved in the matter. He is linked to a group of 8 sites that are part of the fraud and is a consultant for another company to which another 8 sites are attributed.
The investigation also identifies the co-founder of one of the 20 largest advertising networks in the United States as the person responsible for another of the websites in this fraudulent network.
After learning of this information, the companies that own the websites involved claimed to be unaware of this fraudulent activity, while the 301network platform is in the process of being closed, as are many of the websites involved.