Promotional T&Cs have been formulated and written based on the standards set out by the CAP codes. These codes focus on ensuring that each promotion is fair and legal, in both legal writing and how the promotion is conducted.
The terms are also partially in place due to entrants and participants who circumvent and go against a brand’s 'intentions' for the promotion.
Of course, lettered conditions are not always abided by. To prevent ‘bad actors’, many brands actively support their terms & conditions with technical measures to ensure the process is fair for legitimate participants and shoppers.
Proof of purchase is one such way that brands can ensure the integrity and validity of their promotion.
Brands may limit the number of entries to ensure that all entrants and participants have a fair chance.
Another way brands can protect a promotion and its participants is by identifying and preventing fraudulent entries from being considered possible winners. This is an essential precaution, especially in mechanics such as winning moments where a winner is immediately decided. Preventing false entrants is crucial to ensure all valid and genuine participants get an honest chance to win.
Whilst false entries have always been an issue within the brand promotions industry, there’s been a surge of promotional entrants using ‘bot script’ and ‘brute force’ to artificially inflate their chances of winning.
In the past, the primary issue was participants using different email addresses and different names to enter the promotion multiple times; it can be countered by seeing if there have been multiple entries from the same IP address. If so, it’s likely the actions of a ‘bad actor’.
Repeating IP addresses in entries could be explained to be several members of a household all entering the same promotion. This is why some promotions stipulate a ‘limited entry per household’ rule or limit the number of prizes a household can win in their terms to better prevent bad faith actors from fraudulently entering repeatedly.
However, bad actors have started to employ methods to circumvent the security measures brands have built for their promotions. Promoters now need more robust security measures that protect genuine participants without impeding their promotional experience.
Genuine participants who follow the terms and conditions of the promotion should always be prioritised and protected.
Part of this prioritisation, also seen in CAP Codes, is to conduct promotions in a way that is done so “equitably, promptly and efficiently” and to “avoid causing unnecessary disappointment.”
Failing to consider and react to the impact of fraudulent entrants on the likelihood of winning is an example.
If genuine customers and participants see that the promoter is not taking the necessary steps to protect the promotion from bad actors, entry and participation will not only decrease, but audiences will likely have a difficult time trusting a brand.
Similarly, brand partnerships may be harder to arrange since the risk of working with a brand who have no way of managing fraudulent entries is too high, the issue will also put the partner brand at risk. Overall, brands that fail to react appropriately to this issue will be under the scrutiny of all sorts of stakeholders.
Within promotions, brands will often pay a ‘fixed fee’ which is a single fee that should cover all the redemption costs of a sales promotion to the agency they’re working with. This fee protects against over-redemption and financially safeguards the brand from unexpected rises in redemption costs.
Fixed fees are commonly used within ‘money-back’ promotions where brands will let customers get a refund on their product if they dislike it. This type of promotion gives shoppers more purchasing confidence and allows them to try a product without the risk of losing money from buying something they potentially wouldn’t like.
The amount will depend on an estimated redemption rate. This is usually calculated by the agency and often relies on previous participation rates of the brand.
If a previous prize promotion had many participants, the fixed fee rate will naturally rise to match the expected participation rate. Therefore, if a previous promotion had several fraudulent entries, the participation rate would be overinflated, and the fixed fee rate for the next promotion wouldn’t reflect the actual number of genuine participants.
Without proper protection from bad actors, your brand could end up overpaying for fixed fees.
Within winning moments promotions, i.e. instant wins, the issue of fraudulent entries becomes more apparent and immediate.
When an entry made fraudulently becomes a winning entry, genuine participants in a promotion lose out on the chance to win.
Even though there’s sometimes an extra step to confirm a win via email, sms one-time-passcode, or the like, methods like that aren’t infallible and still have a likelihood of a bad actor walking away with a prize or perhaps, several, rather than genuine participants and customers.
Having live data that reports suspicious activities and behaviours within brand promotions to your team is precisely what makes PromoNow’s fraud prevention module, PromoProtect, so valuable in prize promotions with instant win mechanics as well as in prize draws and other promotional mechanics.
This module will work seamlessly with PromoNow’s ISO27001-certified ‘Security Operations
Center’ (SOC) which means it’s easily integrated into any promotional mechanic, including the aforementioned instant wins.
For each entry in a promotion, PromoProtect generates a ‘Trust Score’ which assigns a number that summarises its legitimacy. This score depends on several factors and all add up to a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ score.
Factors that impact the Trust Score include:
There are more factors which contribute to the Trust Score. For example, the score will degrade slightly if a VPN is being used; if the device size is suspicious; and if certain details like how information in form fields is filled out.
PromoProtect also considers small details like if an email address looks legitimate, what top-level domain in the email is being used, and what country an entry is being made from to weigh the legitimacy of an entry.
However, it does not definitively declare whether or not an entry is ‘fraudulent’, but instead, contextualises entries and informs users on entry behaviours. Ultimately, it empowers the module users with the final decision by quantifying suspicious patterns of behaviour into a tangible score in PromoProtect.
To prevent disruptions to promotional activations and defend against bad actors, the best way is to employ a fraud prevention system like PromoProtect.
Modules like this allow brands to evaluate entrants and to decide whether or not the entry is legitimate on a range of variables including participation behaviours.
PromoProtect is PromoNow’s fraud prevention solution and leverages real-time data, machine learning, and expert manual review to protect brand promotions from illegitimate entries into promotional activations.
To find out how your brand can protect your promotion and participants with an end-to-end platform. Speak to one of our experts at no cost. Consider using the PromoNow platform. Speak with a platform consultant at +44 (0)20 380 555 38 or email [email protected] to learn more.
PromoNow is a managed end-to-end cloud platform empowering brand owners with rapid, scalable and secure solutions for any promotional activation.
