Hot Fraud Summer: What 4 Billion Surveys Reveal About Data Risk

Survey fraud is having a moment—and not the good kind. Karen Lynch sits down with Steven Snell, PhD, Head of Research at Rep Data, to unpack findings from the forthcoming State of Fraud 2025 initiative, which analyzed 4.1B+ survey attempts.

Steven explains how Research Defender detects evolving tactics (from hyperactivity spikes to location spoofing and batch fraud), why inattentiveness isn’t the same as fraud, and what varies across B2C vs. B2B and by region.

Most importantly, he shares a pragmatic three-part playbook for researchers: better design, always-on fraud prevention, and principled data cleaning. If you care about data quality, respondent trust, and keeping your insights credible, this conversation will help you stay one step ahead—and a lot smarter than the fraudsters.

Key Discussion Points:

• Fraud vs. inattention: distinct problems that often get conflated
• “Hot fraud summer”: hyperactivity surges and what drove them
• Regional patterns: diverse, tech-enabled fraud in large markets vs. volume tactics elsewhere
• B2C vs. B2B: duplicate entries vs. compound/batch, and why incentives matter
• The playbook: user-friendly survey design, proactive fraud defense, and pre-defined cleaning rules

Resources & Links:

• Rep Data
• Research Defender — fraud prevention platform
• Webinar recap: “The State of Fraud” Q&A highlights
• Research on Research hub (methodology deep dives)

You can reach out to Steven Snell on LinkedIn.

Many thanks to Steven Snell for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.