What the Verisoul 2025 Report Reveals About Fraud in Market Research Panels
Nov 5, 2025
Fraud in market research has always been a quiet problem — one that researchers know exists, but often struggle to quantify. In 2025, that changed.
Verisoul, one of the leading providers of identity verification and fraud detection for digital research, released what it called “the most comprehensive fraud study ever conducted” — analyzing over 50 million survey sessions from 3,700+ mobile respondent sources across the globe.
The results revealed both progress and persistent risk: while most large panels maintain strong data integrity, a handful of “bad actors” still distort results, eroding trust across the ecosystem. For sample providers and researchers alike, this report serves as both a wake-up call and a roadmap.
Who is Verisoul — and why their report matters
Verisoul is a specialized fraud analytics firm that monitors real-time traffic from survey respondents, verifying identity, device, and behavioral signals. Their technology is widely used by market research aggregators, mobile panels, and ad verification platforms.
In their 2025 Market Research Quality Report, Verisoul examined the sources behind survey respondents — not just the data exchanges or aggregators, but the actual apps that people use to take surveys.
The study’s goal: to benchmark which mobile sources produce authentic data, and which ones attract bots, location spoofers, and professional respondents.
Their data now acts as the industry’s reference point for fraud rates, establishing clear benchmarks for what “good” looks like in 2025.
The State of Fraud in Market Research
According to Verisoul’s findings, 91% of mobile survey traffic is legitimate, but the remaining 9% is fraudulent — and concentrated among a small subset of low-quality sources.
The report found that:
74% of mobile survey sources have fraud rates under 15%, while 17% exceed 20% fraud rate.
The median fraud rate across all large mobile panels is ~9.6%, though high-performing apps operate well below that threshold.
Location spoofing is the single biggest driver of fraud — with many respondents using VPNs or proxies to appear in higher-paying geographies like the U.S. or U.K..
Bots account for a smaller share than expected; most fraud is human-driven, leveraging automation tools or device tampering to evade fingerprinting.
Mobile app traffic remains far cleaner than web or desktop sources — desktop respondents are 2–3× more likely to be fraudulent.
In short: fraud in research hasn’t disappeared — but it’s become more sophisticated, localized, and tied to how and where respondents are sourced.
Industry Benchmarks: How Bohemian Research Compares
Against this backdrop, Bohemian Research’s own ecosystem ranked among the industry’s best-performing panels in Verisoul’s competitive analysis of large survey apps.
MultiPolls
Ranked #3 overall in the Large Survey Apps category
Fraud rate well below the 8% median
85th percentile within its category
Over 1 million respondents analyzed (Mar–Jun 2025)
Golden Surveys
Ranked #6 in the same category
Fraud rate well below the 8% median
62nd percentile within category
Nearly 700,000 respondents analyzed during the same period
These results reinforce the integrity of Bohemian Research’s network — not as an isolated claim, but as an independently validated benchmark. Both products operate in the top quartile of fraud prevention, in a category where even a few percentage points can dramatically shift data reliability.Examples in Practice (Hypothetical Scenarios
What Drives This Performance
Fraud detection is not a single layer of defense — it’s a continuously learning ecosystem.
At Bohemian Research, we approach it through a multi-layered verification framework that combines device-level intelligence, behavioral analytics, and cross-platform integrity checks.
Our methodology includes:
Digital fingerprinting to detect duplicate and masked entries
Geo and device consistency tracking to validate user identity across sessions
Behavioral scoring to flag abnormal conversion rates, excessive survey entries, and more
Cross-app signal sharing between MultiPolls and Golden Surveys to prevent multi-account abuse while maintaining privacy
Dynamic scoring models that adapt as fraud patterns evolve globally
These systems are continuously retrained — not only to detect, but to anticipate new forms of fraud, informed by live monitoring and external benchmarks like Verisoul’s.
Why Fraud Detection Is Everyone’s Problem
The Verisoul study underscored a simple truth: fraud thrives in opacity.
When buyers can’t see which respondent sources their data comes from, quality assurance becomes impossible.
Researchers, aggregators, and platforms all share responsibility:
Buyers must prioritize transparent suppliers and demand verifiable traffic metrics.
Panels must invest in active monitoring rather than one-time audits.
Aggregators should support the sources that spend more to acquire real, verified users — not reward cheap, high-volume, fraud-prone sources.
Quality is not only a supplier challenge; it’s a buyer behavior problem too.
The Road Ahead
As AI tools and automation evolve, so will fraud tactics — from synthetic IDs to deepfake respondents. But the path forward is clear: fraud detection must evolve into fraud deterrence.
That means building transparency, cross-platform cooperation, and industry benchmarking into the DNA of every panel provider.
By aligning incentives between respondents, providers, and clients, the industry can finally move toward a future where quality is rewarded and trust is measurable.
Conclusion
Fraud detection isn’t a back-office process — it’s the foundation of credible research.
The Verisoul 2025 Report confirms that the best-performing sources are those that treat fraud prevention as an ongoing science.
At Bohemian Research, our mission is to stay ahead of that curve — combining adaptive systems, behavioral insights, and independent validation to ensure that every response reflects real human experience.
Because in research, truth begins at the source.
Further Reading & References
Verisoul Market Research Quality Report 2025
The industry’s largest-ever analysis of survey source integrity, covering 50M sessions across 3,700+ respondent apps.
Bohemian Research Custom Report by Verisoul
Independent performance benchmark for MultiPolls (#3) and Golden Surveys (#6) within the Large Survey Apps category.
Verisoul Rankings Portal
Explore the live leaderboard of verified respondent sources and survey platforms ranked by data integrity and fraud prevention performance.
