Understanding Poll Bots and Poll Bot Fraud

Originally written at Anura

Updated on: November 2, 2023

For any organization that wants to collect data that reflects the real priorities and attitudes of its target audience, polls can be an essential tool. A well-conducted poll can give insight into public sentiment on nearly any given topic, such as whether the majority favors a particular political candidate, price tolerance for a product or service, general awareness of specific information, and more.

When able to analyze and understand the poll data, you can make predictions about how the population will react to particular situations. Potential situations could include introductions to new products and how the consumers could respond to the product line.

Inaccurate poll data could lead to disastrous results, even for a popular and well-liked company. Take, for instance, the failure of the “New Coke” launch. Coke was, and still is, the most popular soda brand on the market,?valued at $37.3 billion dollars ?compared to Pepsico’s $30.8 billion. Despite extensive taste-testing and going with the most popular result, the company had underestimated public sentiment towards the classic formula. When Coca-Cola announced “New Coke,” the backlash was hefty.

This is one of the potential scenarios that extensive polling is supposed to help prevent. And, if anything, it’s easier to get a larger sample size of poll responses now than it was in 1985 during the “New Coke” debacle.

Yet, despite the rise of online polling solutions and the ability to send surveys electronically, polling accuracy remains an enormous problem. One issue that?contributes to inaccurate polls ?is the existence of poll bots—automated programs that fill out polls and surveys on behalf of a person.

Why Do Poll Bots Exist?

So, why do poll bots even exist? What’s the purpose of having an automated program for filling out random responses to complex survey questions instead of letting a human do it?

One possible innocuous purpose for utilizing a poll bot (or any variety of form bots) is to streamline tasks for individuals with hectic schedules. Rather than expending effort crafting extensive responses to frequently asked survey questions, a predictive typing tool can aid a human user in saving time and reducing frustration. Nonetheless, dedicated poll bots are more frequently found for less benign motivations.

The main motivations behind bot fraud on polls and surveys can typically be summed up as:

For Personal Gain

The bot user is leveraging the poll bot to complete many surveys quickly because they somehow stand to?personally profit from the act . This could be because they’re being paid based on the number of polls filled out, they’re redirecting poll incentives towards themselves, or some other scenarios where they stand to gain something of monetary value in exchange for a certain number of polls being filled out.

To sabotage Market Research

Another potential reason for poll bot fraud is to sabotage your market research efforts. By spamming your polls with worthless bot replies that don’t reflect real consumer sentiment, a competitor could lure you into making a costly mistake. Or they could trick you into believing a PR problem exists when it doesn’t—leading to long and wasteful “remediation” efforts.

To Gain Internet Fame

Certain fraudsters aren't driven by financial gain or a competitive edge–what they seek is merely five minutes of fame, disregarding the costs of others. They may choose their targets indiscriminately or focus on businesses with high visibility to ensure maximum attention. Anticipating the actions of these thrill seekers can be challenging, making them difficult to brace against proactively.

Political Activism

In election seasons, pollsters must remain vigilant about potential political poll fraud. Hacktivist groups aligned with specific agendas might attempt to manipulate political surveys using poll bots, creating a misleading impression of substantial support for a particular stance that may not actually exist.

For these motivations, fraudsters modify form bot programs into poll bots all the time.

How can you tell if there’s poll bot activity in your surveys and polls?

Warning Signs of Poll Bot Activity

Some of the common warning signs of poll bot activity against a poll or survey include:

A Sudden Influx of Activity on a Poll

Many consumers are not eagerly enthusiastic about participating in polls or surveys unless there's a tangible benefit involved, like a gift card or a discount. However, some fraudsters exploit these incentives for their personal gain.

Once an incentive is introduced, the fraudster swiftly sets up a poll bot program. Their objective is to complete numerous polls before other fraudsters. The poll bot simply uses email addresses under the fraudster's control to claim the offered gift card or coupon.

This leads to a sudden and significant surge in activity on the poll or survey, making it highly noticeable. If you've had minimal responses to a poll or survey for days, weeks, or even months, and then decide to incentivize it, observing an overwhelming response might make you believe that the incentive was effective. However, it could very well be that a fraudster is targeting your polls using their bots for personal gain.

A High Percentage of Identical Survey Replies

While there will always be limitations on the variety of responses to a poll or survey—especially one that sticks to a multiple-choice format for simplicity’s sake—if 90% of your poll respondents give the exact same answers to every poll question, then your poll accuracy may be in jeopardy due to bot activity.

Fraudsters who care more about getting things done fast instead of making their fraud more believable may use cheap or poorly optimized bots that simply answer every question the same way every time.

While the answers would be incredibly consistent, they?wouldn’t be accurate.

Inconsistent Replies to Polls

On the other extreme, every reply to every question being the same is getting completely inconsistent replies to a poll. For example, say you run a customer satisfaction survey where numerous respondents give low ratings for metrics like quality of service, but then rate the overall experience as “exceptional” or “great.”

If this happens on one or two isolated polls/surveys, it could just be a data entry error or because of a specific issue the customer had with service but may have been salvaged by management. However, if most survey responses fail to follow any sort of rhyme or reason, it could be a poll bot using a random number generator to answer survey questions.

How to Stop Poll Bots

So, what can you do to stop poll bots in their tracks?

To protect your polls from fraud, there are a few things that you should do:

CAREFULLY VET POLL/SURVEY PARTNERS.?

If you work with a third-party poll/survey company, be sure to carefully vet them to ensure that they are both legitimate and have sufficient protection in place against bot-based attacks.

ADD HONEYPOT FORM FIELDS.?

Honeypots are hidden form fields that only exist in a form’s code and aren’t visible to human users. Because bots directly read page code, they may try to answer the honeypot form field. So, you know that any polls where these fields have been filled out are bogus.

AVOID INCENTIVIZING FRAUD.

Many fraudsters are motivated by money. They’ll go where they can make a quick buck and move on as fast as possible to avoid getting caught. Avoid making it easy to make money from your polls by limiting any “gifts” offered for completing the poll.

USE A PROVEN AD FRAUD SOLUTION TO CHECK YOUR POLL DATA.

Ad fraud solutions can help you detect bot activity in your online forms and alert you when a bot completes a website form. With the?right ad fraud solution , you can track where the bot came from and get all the data you need to confront the fraudster.

Ready to protect your polls from fraudsters, pranksters, political hacktivists, and more??Reach out to Anura ?today to get started!

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