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Pixalate Releases Q4 2023 Ad Fraud Research on Global CTV Device Spoofing for Roku and Amazon Fire TV: Google AdExchange, FreeWheel, Magnite Sold the Most Spoofed-Device Ads

Mar 21, 2024 1:00:00 PM

Research finds 90% of Roku device and 82% of Amazon Fire TV spoofing originates from desktop devices; MLB, Hallmark TV, Fox News, and Lifetime among the CTV apps spoofed most often in Q4 2023

LONDON, 21 March 2024 -- Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, today released its Q4 2023 CTV Device Spoofing Reports for Roku and Amazon. Its findings expose the frequency with which non-Roku and non-Amazon CTV devices impersonate Roku or Amazon devices, respectively, in the open programmatic advertising ecosystem. 

Pixalate’s data science team analyzed 8+ billion open programmatic advertising transactions on Roku (7B+) and Amazon Fire TV (1B+) devices to identify trends pertaining to Invalid Traffic (IVT). The report represents data collected between October 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023 (“Q4 2023”).

Key Findings

  • 52% of all spoofed Roku traffic came from non-Roku devices in Q4 2023 (up from 23% in Q3 2023)
  • 25% of all spoofed Fire TV traffic came from non-Fire TV devices in Q4 2023

Top CTV Apps Impacted by Device Spoofing in Q4 2023

Roku

  1. Lifetime
  2. Hallmark TV
  3. MLB
  4. OnDemandKorea
  5. TVGratis TV

Amazon Fire TV

  1. Univision App: Univision & Unimas Free
  2. Fox News
  3. Pluto TV 
  4. Peacock TV
  5. fuboTV

Top Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) Impacted by CTV Device Spoofing in Q4

Roku

  1. Google AdExchange
  2. FreeWheel
  3. Magnite
  4. Triton Digital 
  5. PulsePoint

Amazon Fire TV

  1. Google AdExchange 
  2. FreeWheel 
  3. Magnite
  4. Connatix
  5. Xandr Monetize

CTV Device Spoofing

Device spoofing, a form of IVT, uses a device (such as an iPhone) to masquerade as another device (such as a Roku). Fraudulent actors utilize this technique knowing that portraying a Roku or Amazon device entices advertisers to spend more, believing the ad will be shown on a premium CTV device.

“Using other devices to spoof this highly-valuable traffic is an increasingly popular tactic that fraudsters continue to use,” said Amit Shetty, VP Product at Pixalate. “Essentially, fraudsters modify the bid stream and other signals to make the bid requests appear as though they are being received from CTV devices.”

Download a free copy of the Roku and Amazon Fire TV reports:

Amazon Fire TV     Roku

Learn more about CTV device spoofing from Pixalate’s original blog post.

About Pixalate

Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT).  pixalate.com

Disclaimer

The content of this press release, and the Global CTV Device Spoofing Reports (the Report), reflect Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may  be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to programmatic advertising activity in the time period studied.

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