We’ve all been exposed to a dodgy online shopping situation, or caught out by a vendor that definitely didn’t have access to the official merchandise they claimed to sell. Just ask this guy:
But, while receiving a not-as-advertised fashion item can make for a funny story, when your business relies on something you can only purchase online, dealing with scam artists seems a lot less entertaining.
In particular, this is a major problem facing anyone who needs to buy programmatic ads — or, in some cases, even agent-brokered ads.
You may have heard of “spoofing,” where ad buyers are tricked into paying for space that they don’t actually get. This happens in a number of ways, but one of the most common tricks is for a scammer to buy up cheap ad space from a low-end site and then list it as premium ad space on an exchange, at a much higher price. So, you might think your ad will be displayed on the prestigious NYTimes.com, but, in reality, you’re buying space on ConfusedHamsterMemes.com.
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