JICWEBS Offers ABC Audit to Tackle Online Ad Fraud

In the UK, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) is to provide independent audits to companies providing anti-fraud products, under a scheme launched by the country's Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS).

Last year, JICWEBS published < 22639>Good Practice Principles for use in auditing company procedures to combat fraudulent ads. The principles are based on the JICWEBS 'taxonomy' report, describing the different types of potential online ad fraud, and an initial set of best practices for reducing the risk. These principles cover fraud education and policies, setting correct campaign ROIs, ad inventory sources, anti-fraud technology, and vendors. More recently, JICWEBS changed from a part-time entity into a limited company operating full-time, as it steps up efforts to tackle online ad fraud and promote brand safety.

The new ABC certification will be given to those companies that successfully demonstrate how their products deal with sixteen different sources of fraud listed in the 'taxonomy' report. JICWEBS Chairman Richard Foan (pictured) noted that this certification scheme took longer to come to fruition because some companies expressed concern about sharing confidential and competitive information around how their products worked. 'Consequently, we worked with the companies to build a scheme that worked for them and the JICWEBS stakeholders', he explained.

Web site: www.jicwebs.org .