Fraud detection for lead generation forms ensures you receive only high-quality leads. It protects your marketing and sales teams from wasting their time on low-intent leads and prevents fraudulent users from accessing your valuable customer data.

Whether you’re buying web leads for your outbound sales team or collecting opt-in subscribers for your email newsletter, fraudsters can infiltrate your lead generation processes with fake or stolen data. Depending on the type of fraud, this could include a number of different techniques such as bots, device spoofing and even stolen personal information from data breaches.

The Ultimate Guide to Detecting Botnets

Malicious publishers buy stolen data from the black market, then use it to fill in fake information on a form to generate a fraudulent lead. When this happens, the malicious publisher gets credited for the lead and is paid a commission. This is a common form of CPL fraud, also known as affiliate fraud.

To combat this, it’s important to use fraud detection tools that can distinguish between human and non-human form submissions using challenge-response technologies. For example, incorporating CAPTCHA and ReCAPTCHA into your web forms can help distinguish genuine data from bots and other bad actors.

Additionally, you can set up geographic filters that flag or block submissions from regions irrelevant to your business. For instance, if you’re a plumbing company in Los Angeles, noticing that your leads are coming from Moscow or Delhi is a red flag that may indicate fraud. Adding verification services that validate data like phone numbers, country codes and line types can reduce false or invalid leads as well.