The Programmatic Glossary
A practical glossary designed to help marketers, advertisers and ad-tech professionals understand the terminology that powers programmatic advertising
Fraud & Brand Safety
Domain Laundering
A type of ad fraud where criminals fake or misrepresent the origin of low-quality or fraudulent ad inventory, making it appear as though it is coming from a premium, well-known publisher. This tricks buyers into paying premium prices for worthless impressions.
HOW IT WORKS
Fraudsters manipulate the bid request data to replace their actual domain with a reputable one. Since buyers are bidding on what they believe is premium inventory, they pay premium CPMs (Cost Per Mille). Buyers can protect themselves by checking ads.txt files and using sellers.json to verify supply chains.
EXAMPLE
A fraudster creates a bot-driven website with no real audience. In bid requests, they replace their domain with that of a major newspaper. Advertisers see the newspaper's brand name and bid accordingly. The ads never appear in the real newspaper. They go to the fraudulent site, seen only by bots.
RELATED TERMS
Ads.txt | Sellers.Json | Invalid Traffic (IVT) | Supply Path Optimisation (SPO) | Brand Safety
