Google is testing to detect bogus ads

[romerome]

[yahoo.com...]

During these tests, Google and the partners shut off all of their programmatic ad inventory for brief periods, say, 10 to 15 minutes, and then scour the ad exchanges to see what's listed. Google and its partners found thousands if not millions of video and display ad spots still available on multiple ad exchanges, despite no ads actually being for sale at that time, the people said, asking not to be identified because the results haven't been publicly released.
These include Google's own AdEx exchange, as well as AppNexus, Oath's BrightRoll, and PubMatic. Google also discovered fraudsters claiming to be able to sell YouTube ad inventory on various exchanges, one of the people said.

[keyplyr]

Their solution:

Here's how it works. By inserting a text file on their sites, web publishers can make it clear who is allowed to sell their ad space and who isn't. Assuming enough publishers implement the ads.txt solution — and enough ad buyers make an effort to purchase ads only from authorized sellers — this could go a long way toward weeding out spoofing

[creeking]

""Google's been running a secret test to detect bogus ads — and its findings should make the industry nervous""

[tangor]

Tie the apron strings tighter, that always works. :(

Publishers already run code, will adding more code (and bloat) solve the problem?

Probably not. Thieves and scammers are SO ingenious!