India leads mobile ad fraud in Asia, blockchain can help fix issues: Report

Only 37% respondents are aware of Blockchain and its application to fraud prevention

India is leading mobile ad fraud in Asia with a rate of 62 per cent as marketers are spending nearly 20 per cent of their advertising budget on ad fraud, a new report said on Monday.

Nine out of 10 marketers said there is scope for improvement in ad fraud prevention methods while 95 per cent respondents felt that lack of penalties and transparency in industry regulations give rise to ad fraud," said the report titled 'Ad Fraud Benchmark Report' from global non-profit organization Mobile Marketing Association.

Major types of ad fraud are cookie stuffing (74 per cent), adware traffic (65 per cent), data fraud (61 per cent) and ad injection (54 per cent).

Only 37 per cent respondents are aware of Blockchain and its application to fraud prevention, said the report published in collaboration with a leading research firm Decision Lab.

"In India, the awareness on ad fraud risks is very low with almost a fifth of the marketers being unclear of their ad fraud budget and majority of them believing that fraudulent activities will only increase," said Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India.

"Marketers must understand the potential of technologies such as Blockchain that can help solve issues related to fraud and create security and transparency in mobile marketing ecosystem," Khurana added.