CTV ad fraud in India is driven by premium CPMs and immature verification infrastructure. Three primary fraud types: app spoofing, device spoofing, and bot-driven invalid traffic.
App spoofing
App spoofing occurs when a fraudulent app misrepresents itself as a premium CTV publisher in the bid request. A mobile app declares itself as JioCinema in the OpenRTB bid request, the DSP bids premium CTV CPMs, but the ad actually runs in a mobile app, not real CTV. App spoofing concentrates on premium Indian CTV publishers commanding INR 300-600 CPMs for sports content. Defence: sellers.json and app-ads.txt enforcement. Require IAS or DoubleVerify pre-bid filtering that checks app-ads.txt compliance before bidding on all programmatic CTV buys in India.
Device spoofing
Device spoofing involves mobile or desktop traffic pretending to be CTV traffic. A mobile app sends a bid request declaring itself as a CTV device to attract higher CPMs. Detectable through IP analysis (mobile carrier IPs do not match residential broadband ranges), user-agent analysis, and device graph matching. Require SIVT (Sophisticated Invalid Traffic) filtering as a contractual requirement in all media buys.
Bot traffic and automated viewing
Bot-driven IVT involves automated processes generating fake ad impressions without a human viewer. Bots in CTV emulate smart TV devices and report completion events without actual viewing. Paradoxically, bot traffic often shows suspiciously high VCR (98-100%) with abnormal viewing patterns at unusual hours. India-specific: bot traffic concentrates around premium live events such as IPL cricket, where CPMs are highest.
Scale in India
Unverified programmatic CTV inventory globally runs 5-15% IVT rates; premium publisher direct inventory runs 1-3%. India is estimated at the higher end due to younger infrastructure. At INR 400 CPM, a 10 million impression campaign may pay INR 3-4 lakh for fraudulent traffic on unverified buys.
What advertisers should do
Minimum baseline: (1) Require IAS or DoubleVerify pre-bid SIVT filtering; (2) Include app-ads.txt compliance as a filter; (3) Monitor post-campaign IVT reports; (4) For live events, require post-event third-party verification. Direct deals eliminate most app spoofing risk. Programmatic open auction carries more fraud risk than PMPs, which carry more than direct deals.