You're doing a good job of retconning the article but here's what it actually says about Ponzi:
"There are ad tech companies that promise ad buyers they will find fake data. Those vendors will usually eradicate that data at a cost-per-thousand, as a data fee. Similar to what happened with viewability and ad fraud. I’m sure there are companies looking to solve this problem, but you’ve got to wonder: Why would I want to pay more to validate the data that I already paid for? If this happened in the financial industry, then people would’ve been locked up for it — it’s like Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Companies that detect fraud would not need a reason to exist if the market didn’t pay for the fraud to take place."
The bit they explictly compare to Ponzi/Madoff is having to pay an extra fee to detect fakes in data you bought because the "market" is paying for the fraud to take place.
This is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a Ponzi scheme.
Also, this is terrible journalism. It's almost impossible to tell which statements constitute the "confession" and which constitute editorial comment.
"There are ad tech companies that promise ad buyers they will find fake data. Those vendors will usually eradicate that data at a cost-per-thousand, as a data fee. Similar to what happened with viewability and ad fraud. I’m sure there are companies looking to solve this problem, but you’ve got to wonder: Why would I want to pay more to validate the data that I already paid for? If this happened in the financial industry, then people would’ve been locked up for it — it’s like Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Companies that detect fraud would not need a reason to exist if the market didn’t pay for the fraud to take place."
The bit they explictly compare to Ponzi/Madoff is having to pay an extra fee to detect fakes in data you bought because the "market" is paying for the fraud to take place.
This is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a Ponzi scheme.
Also, this is terrible journalism. It's almost impossible to tell which statements constitute the "confession" and which constitute editorial comment.