Manually Detecting Fraud
This guide walks through manually detecting fraud for campaign setup.
Strategy guide: Want the bigger campaign playbook behind this setup? Read Referral Programs.
Manual Detection Made Simpler with
Section titled “Manual Detection Made Simpler with”KickoffLabs Before awarding overall winners and top prizes we recommend someone do a human sanity check on the “winner”. We have a lot of data, that most platforms don’t, that makes this check extremely simple to do. There are generally obvious indicators to ANY person who handles the prize distribution. By simply looking at the list of referrals someone has generated you can a lot more than the IP address with KickoffLabs: A general checklist when looking at the list of people someone has referred to validate them. Here is an example of someones referral list with a bunch of fake data that’s easy to spot:
1. If the IP addresses are all the same This is an indication that they all used the…
Section titled “1. If the IP addresses are all the same This is an indication that they all used the…”same computer to sign up. If you see this repeatedly you may want to enable IP blocking from our campaign settings to block the bad IP addresses.
2. If the email address look fake… They probably are. We’ve seen people generate j…
Section titled “2. If the email address look fake… They probably are. We’ve seen people generate j…”osh1111@gmail.com, josh1112@gmail.com, etc. In most cases the dummy gmail accounts come with a pattern that’s easy to spot.
3. If there is no social data available For every email address we collect we also s…
Section titled “3. If there is no social data available For every email address we collect we also s…”earch the web for social data about the person. In the case of the dummy email addresses you would not see:
- A social media account like a Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter profile. It’s easy to generate a fake email. Much harder to generate social data for all of them. They would look like they are people that didn’t exist on the web.
- A profile picture. A lack of profile pictures in your lead or referral list is a quick visual indicator. You should see a good mix of people with profile pictures our solution is able to find.
4. Someone with ONLY direct referrals is suspicious if they have a lot of them Assum…
Section titled “4. Someone with ONLY direct referrals is suspicious if they have a lot of them Assum…”e you see someone with 100 direct referrals, but ZERO indirect referrals. Meaning that NONE of their referrals also referred anyone else. That generally doesn’t happen. It’s another indicator that something is being rigged. “Ghosts” don’t refer other people.
5. Time span that the referrals are generated If you see someone with 100 referrals…
Section titled “5. Time span that the referrals are generated If you see someone with 100 referrals…”that all came within 1 hour… that’s a dead giveaway someone automated them. Real referrals take time for the person to post/email their friends and for their friends to read and react.
6. Regular intervals for signups See one referral coming in every minute?
Section titled “6. Regular intervals for signups See one referral coming in every minute?”Great someone spaced out their automation. But did they randomize the times between sign-ups… like you’d see in real life? It’s VERY challenging to pass all of those checks. Would I give away one million dollars with a system like this in an automated way? No. Would I give away prizes at the hundred to thousand dollar level? Yes. Everyday customers do. You can assume that for anything higher than 10 referrals only 2-3% of entries will ever reach that count. It’s generally a small enough number you can check everyone personally and look at their referral list to see if it’s full of “Ghosts”.
For higher value prizes For higher value prizes I would enable our advanced fraud protec…
Section titled “For higher value prizes For higher value prizes I would enable our advanced fraud protec…”tion. This ensures that we never award scores or automatically distribute our viral emails without email addresses being confirmed. It also enables automated scoring so that you more easily scan for the issues above and more. Need help? Let us know at support@kickofflabs.com!
What to check after
Section titled “What to check after”- Confirm the setting, export, integration, or message changed where you expected in KickoffLabs.
- If this affects leads, forms, referrals, emails, or integrations, submit a fresh test lead and verify the result end-to-end.
- Save the campaign URL, test lead email, screenshots, and any error messages before contacting support.
Need help? Email support@kickofflabs.com with your campaign URL, the lead email you tested with, and a screenshot of what you expected to happen.