Four schemes that the company identified -- three in late 2020 and one in early 2021 -- were major efforts that may have cost publishers between $1 million and $5 million a month.
One called "Multiterra" artificially inflated inventory volume, directing media investment away from legitimate CTV supply providers. It generated more than three million fake impressions a day at its peak.
Another scheme called "SneakyTerra" involved fraudsters that hijacked real CTV device sessions -- spoofing over two million devices each day.
Two other fraud schemes -- "LeoTerra/StreamScam" and "ParrotTerra" -- set up counterfeit SSAI (server-side ad insertion) servers and then manufactured CTV inventory placed across apps, IPs (intellectual property) and devices.
An analyst says DoubleVerify can detect over 500,000 fraudulent CTV devices a day.
The company cites eMarketer estimates that U.S. connected TV advertisers spent $14.44 billion in 2021. Projections are that by 2025 that number is projected to grow to $27.5 billion.
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Wayne, it seems that much of the growth in CTV ad revenue is coming from digital media spenders who use programmatic systems to buy their time---not savvier "linear TV" advertisers who place their buys direct---and, largely, avoid fraud. The solution---short term-----is to buy direct---even if you can't give every long tail venue proper consideration.