Fraudsters, give us a break, please.
New research from DoubleVerify reveals a massive 140% surge in CTV fraud schemes in Q1 compared to last year, highlighting how quickly bad actors are exploiting the streaming ad boom. The report identified more than 50 unique bot attacks (including variants) in 2025, along with a sharp 10x rise in fraudulent streaming apps.
The financial stakes are high, too. DV estimates that fraud in unprotected campaigns — campaigns without protections turned on — costs advertisers approximately $1.8 million per billion CTV impressions served.
Why This Matters
Transparency in CTV has become one of the biggest conversations in adtech. (As we predicted back in December!) Advertisers are increasingly asking tougher questions about where campaigns actually run, how inventory moves through the pipes, and whether they can verify what they bought. This report reinforces why.
Streaming TV has attracted massive ad budgets because it promises premium content and high-quality audiences. However, as inventory volume expands — thanks in part to FAST channels, but also because nearly every streaming platform has become ad-supported in recent years — visibility has become harder to maintain. That inherently creates openings for fraudsters.
DV’s findings also undercut a common industry assumption that private marketplace deals and direct buys automatically reduce fraud risk. According to the research, bot activity was still found within these types of buys.
Experts React
According to DV Fraud Lab head Gilit Saporta:
“CTV is attracting premium spend and bad actors right along with it. Fraudsters are quick to exploit inefficiencies in the ecosystem, using AI and limited transparency to siphon value from advertisers.”
Our Take
For years, CTV has been central to advertising’s premium future. But parts of the ecosystem are beginning to resemble the same opaque, messy infrastructure the industry once criticized on the open web.
Solving that will require a few changes — namely, greater measurement granularity, better interoperability, and more openness from CTV platforms. As they say, it takes a village.
AdTechRadar is owned by Chris Harihar, an EVP at Mod Op. DoubleVerify is a Mod Op client.
