• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, December 14, 2017

As we approach the end of another year, mobile seems to be facing as many challenges as opportunities.

Along with maturing growth and mounting competition on all fronts, few challenges loom as large as ad fraud. Once a problem reserved for desktop marketers, mobile ad fraud has become a huge deal, according to a new survey of top marketers by Forrester.

In fact, more than a third of enterprise marketers estimate that at least 40% of their budgets are now exposed to fraud both on mobile web and mobile apps.

What’s more, 92% rated fraud prevention as a critical or high priority over the next 12 months.

Yet only 19% of marketers say they have systematic fraud prevention in place heading into the new year.

For its report -- commissioned by mobile analytics firm AppsFlyer -- Forrester polled 250 marketers whose companies spend at least $1 million a month on digital advertising.

Whether these marketers know it or not, their fraud problem is only made worse by poor data and lack of internal team knowledge -- factors that help fraud to thrive, says Ari Rosenstein, senior marketing director at AppsFlyer.

Despite these threats, 70% of the enterprise marketers surveyed said they plan to increase their budgets for mobile advertising over the next 12 months.

Among companies whose budgets exceed $5 million dollars a month, 39% said that they were planning on increasing their mobile ad spend by more than 30%.

It’s no wonder that Juniper Research expects advertisers to lose $19 billion to fraudulent activities, next year -- and $44 billion by 2022.