“If we can’t fix fraud, all this other stuff doesn’t matter. This is the biggest threat we’re facing. We’ve got to work as an industry to find and drive fraud out of our business.”

The quote above came from an executive at a major bank, but the department he runs may surprise you. He isn’t a risk or security expert looking to identify patterns of credit card fraud. Instead, it’s Lou Pasklis, SVP of global media investment at Bank of America, speaking about how financial institutions are wholly unprepared to handle today’s online advertising world.

Nowhere are Pasklis’ concerns more prevalent than in online video, an industry that has significantly grown in popularity over the last several years. In rapidly changing industries, growth attracts unsavory and nefarious actors, in this case, schemers looking to defraud advertisers and publishers.

According to a report from Visible Measures, views for branded video reached 4.1 billion in 2015, a 19% increase in viewership from Q4 2014. Financial institutions like TD Bank have been spearheading the banking industry’s use of video, with initiatives like their “Surprise the Customer” campaign, which has generated more than 20 million impressions. With numbers like that, the allure of online video sounds promising, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is not all rainbows and butterflies. Digital video also suffers from significant ad fraud, with double the amount of bots affecting video ads than display ads, according to a study by White Ops and the ANA.

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