• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, June 13, 2014

Returning to click fraud, panelists are discussing ways to “inoculate” oneself from its ever-present threat. “Hold your vendors accountable, and tell them you have a zero tolerance policy [for fraud],” Gabe Gottlieb, CEO of Adomic (formerly YieldMetrics), told attendees of MediaPost’s RTB Insider Summit on Friday. “That really drives fear into them.” The trick is “adopting full transparency,” said Charlie Fiordalis, Managing Director of Digital at Media Storm. “Agree on what the campaign entails, and then have that guaranteed by a third party,” he suggested. Dumb or not, don’t be afraid to “Ask questions … especially if something doesn’t feel right,” recommended Steve Dennen, VP of Business Development at comScore. Mike Atkinson, Media Supervisor at McKinney, simply suggested that everyone “do right by each other.” No pollyanna, however, Atkinson admitted that fraud remains a big problem, and tends to grow bigger in relationship to the size of the client and their desired media buy. One problem, he admitted, is that the “pool [of quality ad inventory] is but so big,” which he said often leads to “prospecting.”