The digital advertising watchdog echoes the Senator’s concerns that advertising technology firms are wasting advertiser and taxpayer dollars.
NYC – Today, with the support of advocacy by Check My Ads Institute, U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) formally requested the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigate pervasive fraud within the digital advertising industry, highlighting alarming evidence that adtech companies are misleading government entities and taxpayers, charities, and other businesses about their ability to detect and prevent fraudulent ad placements.
Senator Warner’s letters to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and DOJ Attorney General Pam Bondi cite new research by cybersecurity and digital forensics firm Adalytics, exposing how major adtech vendors have failed to deliver the “real-time bot detection” that they promised. As a result, advertisements intended for human audiences instead were shown, for at least five years, to easily-identifiable bots operated from data centers, including bots on industry group bot lists.
The research emphasizes that thousands of advertisers were impacted. Affected federal government entities include the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Census Bureau (Census), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the United States Postal Service (USPS).
“Once again, we see that the internet’s primary business model—digital advertising—is fundamentally broken,” said Sarah Kay Wiley, Director of Policy at Check My Ads Institute. “Ad verification companies claim their technology ensures ads reach human viewers, yet this research proves they are routinely misclassifying basic bot traffic as human, profiting directly from their deception, and wasting taxpayer money. We are grateful for Senator Warner’s leadership, and support his calls for accountability and swift FTC and DOJ action.”
Senator Warner reiterated the frustrations voiced in his 2016 letter to then-Chairwoman of the FTC, Edith Ramirez that bots create fake consumer traffic, artificially driving up the cost of advertising “in the same way that the price of a stock can be manipulated with artificial trading volume.” According to industry estimates, digital advertising fraud accounts for approximately $84 billion annually, inflating advertising costs for businesses, non-profits, and government agencies. Senator Warner emphasized that such fraud not only wastes public funds but also undermines essential government outreach and recruitment efforts.
“This isn’t just a technology failure; it’s a systemic deception,” stated Arielle Garcia, Chief Operating Officer at Check My Ads Institute. “Just recently, the former CEO of ad verification company Kubient was sentenced to prison for defrauding investors by, in part, misrepresenting his firm’s real-time bot detection capabilities. Similarly, these firms have promised sophisticated ‘real-time’ detection and ‘pre-bid’ bot filtration, while American businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, and taxpayers foot the bill for their ineffective tech. It’s past time that these companies are held accountable.”
In his letters, Senator Warner posed critical questions to the FTC and DOJ, specifically challenging whether ad companies genuinely possess and utilize the necessary data and technology to perform the services they claim. The Senator has requested a thorough investigation and report from both agencies within the next month.
A copy of Senator Warner’s letter to the FTC is available here.
A copy of the letter to the DOJ is available here.
###
About Check My Ads Institute
Check My Ads Institute, the digital advertising watchdog, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit established in 2021 to build a better internet business model for advertisers, publishers and people. We shine a light on the opaque global advertising technology industry, which has enabled systemic manipulation and fraud, through unfettered access to its vast infrastructure: ads, advertiser budgets and our own intimate personal information. The unregulated transfer of power takes place largely outside the view of advertisers, regulators, and citizens. Check My Ads is pushing for accountability in the digital advertising industry through consumer-informed, free-market solutions and common-sense state, federal, and international regulation. We believe that advertisers and the public deserve transparency and choice.