Annual Conference Reporter on the Scene:
Developing Creative Solutions to Mitigate Fraud in Online Recruitment

Presenter: Gretchen King and Melinda Moore
Reporter: Frank Kelly, Virtual Incentives

SUMMARY OF THE CONFERENCE SESSION
In this session, we covered how careful planning can help researchers avoid having unqualified participants in research studies.

The session was described as follows:
“As client-oriented qualitative research shifts to a more online-friendly environment, researchers are able to better meet the needs of participants’ busy and unique lives. However, online environments also increase the chance that the recruitment process will inevitably encounter illegitimate registrants, whether they are computer-generated code automatically filling out surveys for incentives (bots) or individuals attempting to gain entry to incentive through fraudulent means (scammers). This presentation will share their processes and practices developed during online focus group recruiting for two different clients.

Researchers will share the new business and academic practices they developed as they moved through two focus group projects for clients. These practices include client communication skills, designing the recruitment process to mitigate fraudulent activity, and developing skills that identify when fraudulent activity occurs. Researchers will also highlight the practices they developed to identify scammers who attended focus groups and how they minimized their participation in the group.”

KEY SESSION TAKEAWAYS
I took a lot away from this session, including:

• It is important to plan upfront to have stringent validation requirements for study participants to avoid extensive time spent on cross-referencing data to ensure accuracy.
• Expect false data—and watch for it with logic checks along with technology such as Geo-IP checks, captcha to avoid bots, and physical address validation.
• Postal delivery of rewards is the best defense against fraudulent participants when there is a geographic requirement; logic checks in the profile process are necessary to ensure that recruits are not trying to game the system to qualify.

We were reminded to assume that nearly all respondents who are solicited from social media platforms will be fraudulent, unless measures are taken to validate that they are the audience you seek. Recruitments via email links must also be carefully vetted for authenticity, which can be quite time consuming.

FINAL COMMENTS AND TAKEAWAYS
The final reminder from the session was one of the best takeaways: when significant incentives are involved for participation, expect the need for extensive due diligence.

About the Reporter

Frank Kelly, Virtual Incentives

Find Frank on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/frank-kelly-0b83a0