See Which Companies Are TAG 'Certified Against Fraud'

The Trustworthy Accountability Group announced Wednesday the first group of companies to meet its anti-fraud standards. TAG's cornerstone anti-fraud certification program, "Certified Against Fraud," was awarded to Amobee, ComScore, DoubleVerify, Dstillery, Google, WPP's GroupM, Horizon Media, Integral Ad Science, Moat, Omnicom Group, OpenX, ProData Media, Rocket Fuel, Sovrn, Interpublic Group and WhiteOps, the group said. The move aims to thwart ad fraud by "tagging" everyone in the digital advertising ecosystem, from buyers and sellers of media to ad fraud vendors and intermediaries. Creating a registry of all players in the digital advertising supply chain, however, comes at a cost, as companies must pay at least $20,000 annually to receive the watchdog's Certified Against Fraud seal. Still, the move is a step in the right direction for the ad industry; about $7.2 billion is expected to be lost globally from ad fraud in 2016, up nearly $1 billion from the previous year, according the Association of National Advertisers. "When future business leaders look back on the forgotten scourge of digital ad fraud, they will point to the leadership of companies like these in helping set a new anti-fraud standard that raised the bar for our industry," Mike Zaneis, CEO of TAG, said in a statement. The Certified Against Fraud seal is just one of two core, interlocking elements to negate ad fraud. Several intermediary companies who received TAG's seal are also part of a payment ID system, which creates a record of who gets paid for every impression. Bad actors, who commit fraud through tactics such as selling fake impressions on websites they've listed in ad exchanges, won't be able to get payment IDs if all goes as planned, TAG said.

See Which Companies Are TAG 'Certified Against Fraud'

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