Anti-Fraud Policy

Invalid traffic (IVT) and ad fraud erode the value of the entire programmatic supply chain. This policy describes the controls Adbustr enforces today, and states plainly which controls are not implemented. We would rather be checked against a short accurate list than a long aspirational one.

Inbound request validation

Every request entering the exchange is validated before it becomes eligible for an auction. Requests failing any check are rejected at the entry point and written to our funnel log with a machine-readable reason code:

• Mandatory device.ip and device.ua on every request — requests missing either field are rejected (no_ip_ua)
• User-agent allow-list of supported browser families — user agents outside the list are rejected (browser_not_allowed)
• Adult and illegal content categories — IAB25, IAB25-3 and IAB26 — blocked in site.cat and site.sectioncat (non_mainstream)
• Publisher-level advertiser-domain blocklists (badv) applied to every outbound bid request
• OpenRTB field validation on the inbound request and on every demand response, including secure-inventory enforcement via imp.secure

These are deterministic field-level checks. They are not a substitute for an invalid-traffic detection product, and we do not present them as one.

Controls that are not in place

The following are commonly advertised by exchanges. Adbustr does not currently operate them, and no partner should price, contract, or plan around them:

• No proprietary IVT scanner and no third-party IVT vendor integrated in the bid path
• No proxy, VPN, or datacenter-origin filtering
• No bot, automated-click, or impression-farm pattern detection
• No iframe, webview, or environment-integrity checks
• No automated ads.txt, app-ads.txt, or sellers.json validation of counterparties

Where any of these is added, this policy will be updated with the effective date before the capability is represented commercially.

Partner measurement

Because we run no IVT scoring of our own, measurement by our counterparties is the authoritative signal. We support log-level reconciliation with independent measurement and verification partners engaged by our publisher and demand counterparties. Findings raised against our supply are investigated through a root-cause review and, where warranted, result in the affected supply being suspended.

Logging and disclosure

Each auction decision is logged per request with a verdict and a reason code, so the validation outcomes described above can be reconstructed for any time window. DSP partners may request log-level reconciliation under our standard audit protocol. We do not publish invalid-traffic rates, because we do not measure them.

Onboarding and enforcement

Publishers are reviewed manually at onboarding. Confirmed violations of our Terms — including invalid traffic identified by a counterparty — are enforced at the account level, up to and including termination and withholding of the affected revenue.

Reporting suspected fraud

If you identify suspected invalid traffic from our supply, contact compliance@adbustr.com with a sample of bid request IDs and the time window. We commit to a 48-hour first response.