Democratic Senators Say Digital Ad Fraud Rampant

A pair of powerful Democratic Sens have called on the Federal Trade Commission to protect consumers from digital advertising fraud, which they suggest is rampant, including potential regulation of reform of ad exchanges. In a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, Sens Mark Warner (D-VA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) -- members of the Senate Banking Committee as well as active on communications and tech issues -- pointed to recent studies that have found "rampant fraud" in the $60 billion digital ad market, including one finding that as much as 98% of all ad clicks on major ad platforms, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and LinkedIn, were not by human fingers but by computer-automated bots.

"The ad fraud market has scaled to such an extent that it has attracted participation by organized crime," to put an even tougher point on the issue. “Bots plague the digital advertising space by creating fake consumer traffic, artificially driving up the cost of advertising in the same way human fraudsters can manipulate the price of a stock by creating artificial trading volume," they told Chairwoman Ramirez, suggesting regulation or legislation may be needed to stem the tide.