What is CTV Ad Fraud & How Advertisers Can Prevent it

CTV ad spend is booming, set to reach $42.4 billion by 2027. But with rapid growth comes a surge in ad fraud that can quietly drain budgets and skew results.

In this guide, we break down what CTV ad fraud looks like, the tactics fraudsters use, and how Strategus keeps your campaigns protected with full transparency and real-time oversight.

Fraud is avoidable if you have the right tools and team. Let’s dig in.

What Is Ad Fraud?

Ad fraud happens when advertisers are tricked into paying for fake or misleading media activity. It often involves bots, fake clicks, or ads that no real person ever sees, just to make money off your ad budget.

Some common types include:

• Bot clicks on PPC ads
• Ads that never appear to human viewers (like ad stacking)
• Fake CTV video views
• Misleading impression or performance data

Most of this is done with automated software that fakes user actions (like clicks or conversions) so it looks like your ad is working when it’s not. But real people can be involved too, like in click farms that pay workers to click ads all day.

Even tactics like clicking on a competitor’s paid Google ad to drain their budget count as click fraud.

Why does it matter? Because these fake actions waste your budget, skew your data, and deliver no real ROI. Recognizing ad fraud is the first step toward protecting your campaign, and choosing trustworthy partners is key.

How to Prevent Ad Fraud in Your Campaigns

Ad fraud is always evolving, so stopping it requires a layered approach. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but using multiple tactics together can protect your budget and boost performance.

Here’s how to guard your campaigns against ad fraud:

1. Use ad verification tools: Work with companies like DoubleVerify to scan your traffic and block fake activity. Tools like IAS and DoubleVerify use engagement data, MFA signals (like poor content quality or high ad density), and bot detection to flag fraud before it hurts your budget.
2. Set RTB filters: In programmatic auctions, block suspicious traffic based on IP, device type, or other risk signals.
3. Add human review: Let trained analysts (like our Strategus AdOps team) manually review campaign data to catch what bots miss.
4. Filter devices and IPs: Block known bad actors and traffic from risky regions.
5. Track viewability: Check that ads are actually seen by real people, and for long enough to count.
6. Use geotargeting: Limit where your ads show, so they only appear in areas that matter to your campaign.
7. Monitor campaigns closely: Watch for sudden spikes or odd patterns in metrics– these are often signs of fraud.
8. Work with trusted partners: Join forces with industry groups and partners like Strategus to stay ahead of new threats.

Ad fraud prevention takes constant effort. Even with automation, you still need people watching your campaigns. The more skilled eyes on your data, the easier it is to catch problems early and protect your results.

What Is CTV Ad Fraud?

CTV ad fraud, by extension, is when advertisers are misled about the placement or performance of their connected TV ads. These schemes take advantage of the fragmentation across the CTV supply chain, which is why cross-publisher data transparency is such a critical requirement.

(Source: Luma Partners)

The main risk of CTV ad fraud is wasted spend. Advertisers end up paying money for efforts that do little to drive brand awareness or conversions. Data inaccuracy also occurs, which can misguide strategy and skew campaign performance.

In some cases, ad fraud can also compromise a brand's reputation. Imagine thinking your ads are running on a service like Hulu, and instead find out they're playing alongside politically charged TikTik videos. 

While these ads may still convert, they don’t fall in the category of ‘brand-safe inventory.’ And besides, a true CTV campaign shouldn’t start with a personal device. Connected TVs, by definition, are the big screens in our living rooms (and not the phone screens that we check while on the go).

To this end, you should vet potential CTV partners by asking questions like:

• Can you tell me about the CTV content where your ads run?
• What percentage of your CTV campaigns run on smart TVs?
• Do you offer a reporting dashboard with continuous access to clients?
• What kind of reporting will I receive, and how frequently?
• How much control will I have over where my ads are placed and which websites they appear on?
• How do you handle ad fraud and ensure my ads are not displayed on fraudulent or low-quality websites?

Types of CTV Ad Fraud

So what does CTV ad fraud look like? It can take a few different forms, including:

1. Fake CTV devices: Fraudsters can create software that mimics real CTV devices, generating false ad impressions. These devices can be programmed to watch ads 24/7, inflating viewership numbers and draining advertisers’ budgets.
2. App bundling: Malicious apps can be bundled with legitimate CTV apps. These bundled apps then secretly run in the background, displaying and registering ad views without the user's knowledge.
3. Pixel stuffing: This involves placing an invisible ad unit (a single pixel) on a legitimate CTV app. When a user interacts with the app, they unknowingly trigger the invisible ad to register a view, generating fraudulent impressions. 
4. Traffic spoofing: Fraudsters can manipulate device IDs and IP addresses to make it appear as though real ad impressions are coming from legitimate viewers.
5. Server-side-ad-insertion (SSAI) spoofing: SSAI spoofing happens when fraudsters distribute millions of ad requests from data centers pretending to be CTV devices. No actual viewers ever see these ads, as the inventory SSAI spoofing generates is fake.
6. Geographic misrepresentation: This occurs when fraudsters sell ads that they claim are being shown to U.S. viewers, that are, in fact, being shown to viewers in developing countries with a lower CPM.
7. Seller-based deception: In the same vein as MFA fraud, seller-based deception occurs when CTV platforms or sellers misrepresent the inventory or audience data. This is why it’s so crucial to prioritize premium inventory and find a CTV ad partner Strategus that can conduct measurement across different publishers to identify the highest-performing tactics for your campaigns.

Do note: CTV ad fraud is far less common than other types of digital ad fraud. While ad fraud at large accounts for 10.3% of total ad spend, CTV ad fraud only accounts for ~1.3% of total CTV spend. It’s also less likely to negatively impact viewers in the way that pop-up ads and computer viruses do in non-CTV ad fraud schemes.

How to Save Yourself From CTV Ad Fraud

Here’s how you can deal with CTV ad fraud:

1. Choose Inventory Vendors Carefully

When selecting inventory vendors for advertising, it is essential to prioritize known inventory sources and establish a robust supply path process.

At Strategus, we leverage a vast array of 200+ premium publishers to ensure that the brands and agencies who partner with us can take advantage of both quality and scale.

We also guarantee that our CTV inventory meets the following standards:

• Premium: Our customers’ ads are only placed within high-quality content from sought-after publishers like HGTV and Discovery.
• Long-form: We require that shows and movies be 22 minutes in length or longer to reach captivated viewers. 
• Not user-generated: User-generated content (UGC) falls outside of the realm of premium CTV, so we only serve ads on professionally produced content. 

2. Know Your Audience and Demand Transparency

Effective CTV advertising starts with understanding your audience and their behavior. This can equip you to match peak user activity times for relevant displays and detect any deviations. 

From there, demand detailed reporting and 24/7 transparency from your CTV ad partner. After all, your marketing strategy is only as good as your data, and without around-the-clock visibility you could miss out on opportunities to maximize results.

Say you’re targeting stay-at-home moms in the Denver metro area and your reporting dashboard shows ad impressions occurring at 3 a.m. across the West Coast.

Immediately, you would know something was wrong, which is why campaign monitoring remains one of the most bulletproof defenses against ad fraud.

At Strategus, we take this one step further by getting to know you, your brand, your goals, and your audience.

After we plan and launch your campaigns, our team continuously optimizes them based on real-time data. This type of hands-on-keyboard policing simply can’t yet be replicated by automated ad fraud technologies. 

3. Take Advantage of Fraud Detection Tools

Ad verification tools, ad-blocking technology, and CTV measurement companies are all necessary safeguards against ad fraud.

We’d recommend working directly with companies like DeviceAtlas and IAS or finding a partner like Strategus that’s already forged relationships with intelligence vendors across the industry.

4. Stay Informed on CTV Industry Standards

The CTV industry changes daily. As such, CTV best practices and fraudulent tactics are constantly evolving.

This is where brands and agencies benefit from the hands-on approach of a managed service CTV provider. By working with industry experts, you’ll immediately benefit from the experience, analytics tools, and knowledge required to stay at the cutting edge.

Other Forms of Digital Ad Fraud to Monitor

If you’re executing CTV campaigns, chances are you’re also buying media across the programmatic ecosystem. There are additional forms of ad fraud that come into play in the digital advertising space at large, so here’s a quick list.

1. Ad Stacking

As a common form of display advertising deception, ad stacking occurs when multiple ads are layered on top of each other within a single ad placement. While only the top ad is visible to users, all ads hidden beneath the primary ad are counted as impressions, leading to inflated metrics and fraudulent billing. Because advertisers are often charged on a per-impression basis, this results in spending money on unseen ads.

2. Pixel Stuffing

Similar to ad stacking, this involves placing ads within a pixel so small that it’s practically invisible. An entire webpage could have numerous ads stacked in the invisible pixel to generate fake impressions.

3. Device Spoofing

This occurs when bad actors manipulate the identity of their devices to appear as different devices. While multiple clicks coming from a single device would signal fraud, this approach obscures the device data so that it’s harder to detect.

4. Click Fraud

Also known as pay-per-click fraud, click fraud occurs when bad actors use automated and manual clicking programs to create the illusion of clicks from real buyers. This tactic doesn’t just inflate engagement metrics, it directly targets your budget by generating fake clicks on your ads. 

These clicks come from:

• Automated clicking programs: Bots mimic real users by clicking on your ads, often quickly and repeatedly. This creates the illusion of high engagement, but there's no genuine interest in your product or service.
• Click farms: These operations employ large numbers of low-quality devices (often smartphones) to generate fraudulent clicks. The devices can be physically located in one place or spread across the globe.

5. MFA Fraud

A recent Adalytics report put major brands like Forbes under fire for misleading the advertisers who purchased media on their sites. The controversy focused on a distinct flavor of programmatic ad fraud: made-for-advertising (MFA) sites.

We’ve all seen them. Often, a clickbait headline stops your scroll, luring you to click through to a spammy site (even though you know better). Next thing you know, you land on a dumpster fire of a website, where the content you’re trying to find is buried beneath countless competing display ads. 

If you do stick around, you’ll likely have to click through to multiple pages to read the full article. Even worse, you may unintentionally click on an ad due to the misleading site navigation.

Ad Fraud Detection Companies You Should Know About

Here’s a look at the industry-leading platforms that help us detect, prevent, and mitigate the risks associated with fraudulent ad interactions.

1. Integral Ad Science (IAS)

IAS is a prominent provider of ad verification and optimization solutions. Their comprehensive suite of tools ensures the quality and safety of ad placements. The IAS Threat Lab actively monitors campaigns to detect fraudulent activity, while improving ad placements to maximize performance and ROI.

2. Peer39

Peer39 plays a crucial role in brand safety by assessing the context in real time to minimize the risk of low-quality or harmful content. By analyzing the content and context of web pages, Peer39 provides accurate and granular insights into the suitability and safety of ad placements. 

Moreover, they verify ad viewability, guaranteeing that ads are genuinely seen by human audiences, and offer valuable insights into visibility and engagement metrics for ad placements.

3. DoubleVerify

DoubleVerify’s extensive suite of services includes ad verification, viewability measurement, and brand safety monitoring. By analyzing over 2 billion impressions daily, DoubleVerify identifies comprehensive fraud and invalid traffic, from hijacked devices to bot fraud and injected ads.

How Strategus Provides Ad Fraud Protection

At Strategus, we combine big-screen CTV ads with retargeting across the programmatic ecosystem. This comprehensive approach means we stay vigilant against all these forms of ad fraud, not just those specific to CTV. 

We constantly vet new partners and deliver out-of-the-box integrations with intelligence and ad fraud detection companies to ensure maximum accountability for the media buyers and brand marketers we represent.

In addition, we employ a comprehensive approach at Strategus to stop fraud in its tracks:

• We use premium inventory, and overlay brand safety filters including whitelists/blacklists and third-party tech to avoid dubious impressions pre-bid.
• We integrate with HUMAN, an industry-leading cyber security firm, to scan and block fraudulent biddable impressions before purchase. This industry-leading, platform-level integration is the first of its kind, designed to defund ad fraud at scale. 
• Our senior-level Ad Operations Managers proactively monitor campaigns and take immediate action when needed. With a deep understanding of the CTV landscape, they have the expertise needed to navigate potential fraud risks and make data-driven optimizations.
• Our 24/7 reporting dashboard offers real-time insight into campaign performance, while our attribution suite provides visibility into every touchpoint to distinguish real engagements from fake ones.
• Finally, we provide supply chain transparency with Ads.txt and App-ads.txt.

Does CTV ad fraud exist? Yes. Is it resource-intensive to prevent? Unfortunately, it is.

But by working with an industry-leading CTV partner like Strategus, you have nothing to worry about.

Contact us today to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Ad Fraud?

Ad fraud happens when someone tricks advertisers into paying for fake activity like bot views, clicks, or impressions. Fraudsters use automated tools to fake engagement, making campaigns look like they're working. This wastes ad spend, skews data, and prevents brands from reaching real customers.

How Does Ad Fraud Work?

Ad fraud uses bots, spoofed devices, or fake ad placements to generate false clicks, views, or impressions. Fraudsters make money by selling fake traffic or impressions to advertisers, who believe their ads are being seen by real people. In reality, no real engagement takes place.

How Do Ad Fraudsters Make Money?

Ad fraudsters make money by faking impressions, clicks, or installs and charging advertisers for them. They sell fake traffic through shady ad networks, spoof devices, or stack ads to generate multiple payments from one ad slot. These fake interactions lead to inflated costs and lost ROI.

How to Detect Ad Fraud?

Look for red flags like sudden traffic spikes, low engagement from high impression counts, or activity from suspicious devices or regions. Use ad verification tools, track viewability, and check whether conversions align with audience behavior. Human oversight also helps identify unusual campaign patterns.

How to Prevent Ad Fraud?

Use a layered strategy: work with trusted vendors, apply pre-bid filters, use ad verification tools, block suspicious IPs, and monitor campaigns in real time. Partnering with a managed CTV provider like Strategus adds expert oversight to flag fraud and protect your ad budget.

What Is Ad Stacking?

Ad stacking places multiple ads in a single slot, one on top of the other. Only the top ad is visible, but all stacked ads register as viewed. This inflates impression counts and wastes ad spend, since most of the ads never appear on screen.

What Is Mobile Ad Fraud?

Mobile ad fraud includes fake app installs, click flooding, and device spoofing. Fraudsters simulate user activity or trick advertisers into paying for installs or views that never happen. This type of fraud drains mobile ad budgets and gives a false sense of campaign performance.

How Does Ad Verification Work?

Ad verification tools like IAS and DoubleVerify scan ad traffic to confirm it comes from real users and safe environments. These tools check for viewability, fraud, brand safety, and geographic accuracy to ensure your ads are seen by real people in trusted places.

How Does Click Fraud Work?

Click fraud uses bots or human click farms to repeatedly click ads. This inflates click metrics and wastes ad spend without real interest in your brand. It often targets pay-per-click campaigns, making advertisers pay for fake engagement that doesn't lead to conversions.

How Can Advertisers Go Beyond Ad Verification in OTT and CTV?

Advertisers can go beyond basic ad verification by using premium inventory, cross-publisher measurement, human-led campaign oversight, and platform-level fraud filters. Managed partners like Strategus add custom monitoring, advanced attribution, and real-time optimizations to detect fraud early and ensure campaign performance stays on track.