Part 3: Myth and Truths Around Survey Fraud Through the Eyes of MR Professionals
5 Part Series | November 29, 2022
Please review part 2 here.
As follow up to our Survey Fraudster interview recap, we wanted to focus on application of key learnings.
Let’s start with some myth busting.
Myth 1: I can see the fraud by reviewing my data.
- Truth: This strategy is too little, too late. You may be able to catch the obvious, but this activity cannot be identified with any high degree of success by the human eye. Plus, you only catch it after it already filled a quota and populated your data set.
Myth 2: I don’t need to pay for these services. I can just deduplicate on the IP Address and user agent string and that will get rid of enough.
- Truth: The IP Address / User Agent pairing does not give any high degree of information that allows for deduplication and/or fraud detection.
Myth 3: Market Research surveys don’t pay enough to chase the incentive.
- Truth: A $1 incentive is worth the time to steal especially when your country’s daily wage is the same. Plus, fraudsters are chasing more just the incentives. The complex supplier payments deep in the programmatic system offer substantial financial incentives.
Myth 4: I trust my sample partner. They wouldn’t send me bad survey participants.
- Truth: Letting your sample traffic source own your survey data quality is a misalignment. Sample companies tie profit to clicks where Researchers require high quality full completes. We believe in fruitful partnerships. We also believe in trusting your partner, but verifying too.
Myth 5: I can’t afford the time for open ends in my survey and besides, I don’t need it for my research.
- Truth: Utilizing open ends as a quality assurance measurement as well as a research instrument is one of the best survey data quality strategies you can implement.
Myth 6: Sample is a commodity and I have boosted profits by finding the lowest price.
- Truth: When shopping for the lowest price sample, you get what you pay for. Use sample sources you trust, but don’t assume they clean the fraud out before it gets to your survey. Fraudsters do everything they can to get the incentive including having pristine looking devices that don’t trip any device detection mechanisms.
Next post we’ll offer a strategic concept to achieve an effective data quality strategy in your online research business.
Click here for Part 4/5: 4 Components of a Great Quality Program
If you would like help with your survey data quality with the OpinionRoute ID Suite initiative, reach out here.