Foreword to the white paper“Fraude, le côté obscur du Marketing Digital” published by the CPA (Collectif de la Performance & de l’Acquisition) and written by Christophe Bosquet, co-founder of Effinity and President of the CPA’s Collège Technologies Marketing.
Fraud is a human trait! In fact, it is present in all human activities. Sport, politics, gambling, finance, business, you name it. Wherever there are rules and potential for gain, there are people or organizations who try to bend those rules to their advantage and take a share of the spoils. If cheating isn’t gambling, fraud is often winning! Is it any wonder, then, that the fast-growing digital world, which is attracting more and more advertisers and investment, is also falling victim to fraudsters? Certainly not. Fraud is the downside of success!
It’s also important to remember that the general context of the business world is not without influence on fraud. The culture of results (to the detriment of analysis of resources), the constant pressure to lower rates (you can’t touch pregnant women for one euro per CPM), the dehumanization of relations, etc. are all incentives that encourage fraud. Clearly, no business sector has succeeded in completely and definitively eliminating fraud. As soon as one breach is closed, another opens up. And neither will digital technology.
That said, it is essential to fight fraud firmly, to reduce it, of course, but also to “save the honor” of the profession. Not all athletes are dopers, not all politicians are “rotten”, not all digital players are fraudsters! It’s a daily task, and everyone in the digital chain (advertisers, agencies, publishers, various service providers, etc.) has to get to grips with it, by questioning themselves, analyzing their practices and so on. Fraud often stems from imprecise rules that give fraudsters room to maneuver: a contract that doesn’t sufficiently specify deliverables, an organization that doesn’t differentiate between those who control and those who buy, and so on. This will enable us, if not to eliminate fraud, at least to differentiate it from bad practices. And it’s absolutely essential to make this differentiation, so that the bulk of our efforts to combat fraud are directed at the right targets.
That’s why the CPA has chosen to dedicate this white paper exclusively to fraud techniques. So that everyone can clearly identify the areas of weakness to watch out for. As you will read, solutions exist to limit fraud. They are often based on common sense and are not that complicated to implement.
At a time when everyone (media, advertisers, etc.) seems to be discovering and being surprised that fraud exists in digital, we felt it important to provide some tangible and rational elements on the subject. The survey we carried out among advertisers and agencies on fraud in the Display sector is a step in this direction.
We hope that this white paper will help you to understand fraud systems, so that you can protect your business against them. It’s certainly not the construction of a hermetic wall against fraud, but a foundation stone that we felt was necessary to lay.
Download the white paper Fraud, the dark side of digital marketing
