A report was allowed entrance to the secretive lab

May 20, 2015 06:19 GMT  ·  By

Being the irrefutable leader in ad-tech with over 300 monthly ad impressions, Google is prone to do all in its power to stop digital ad fraudsters from snatching billions of dollars from the company.

The search engine which owns DoubleClick, the ad technology that allows advertisers to make the most out of their online campaigns, has not been very open about the methods it uses to track down and put a stop to fraudulent ad bots.

However, in an exclusive interview with AdAge, Google opened the "vaultlike" doors of its secretive unit working on preventing cybercriminals from poaching money off the advertising industry.

The London-based team counts around 100 members who lead a constant war to protect digital advertising, which is apparently the most convenient and the most profitable industry for scammers, now that banks have introduced the two-step authentication process.

The team has a unique leader

Google's anti-fraud squad is overlooked by Douglas de Jager, the man who was once on the other side of the barricade, a self-admitted poacher who now uses his knowledge and his experience to help the tech company maintain its dominant position on the charts.

De Jager is also the founder of Spider.io, the company that Google bought at the beginning of last year to assure marketers that the advertising metrics are precise.

The step was an important one for the search engine given that reports show that the company is scammed of around 10 billion dollars (€ 8.97 billion) every year. Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, it can be said with certainty that it was a good investment for the tech giant.

However, the terms of the agreement were not the only matter that Google decided to keep quiet about. Not much information has been made public about the secretive group since the acquisition.

What’s more, members of the team preferred to reveal their first names only, fearing that, if their identity is disclosed to the world, they might be in danger.

Google wants to get more companies involved

So if Google has kept everything under wraps until now, it makes you wonder why it suddenly decided to let a reporter catch a glimpse of what goes around behind closed doors.

The explanation that he received is that they want to share their knowledge with others who could take part in the battle against ad fraudsters. The leader of the group even declared that they plan to push more information on what they do and how they do it so that other companies can follow up.

It seems that Google might have realized that leading a lonely battle could turn out to be in vain and inviting other companies to contribute, even at the cost of revealing its secrets, could prove more effective in combating ad fraud.