Fake news might be wreaking havoc but it appears the direct marketing industry has its own issues with the fakers, with a new study claiming that up to a third of customer data captured via web forms and stored in customer databases could have been fabricated.
The report by data specialists Wilmington Millennium has revealed that 23% of Internet users regularly provide organisations with false information about themselves in order to curb any follow up marketing activity. This rises to almost one in three (32%) among people that use the Internet in a B2B capacity.
As increasing numbers of organisations demand personal data in exchange for free content or deals, Internet users are responding by using fake names, made up email addresses and bogus telephone numbers to ensure they are not contacted in the future.
The most common practices were found to be providing a dummy account, using an address that has been set up purely for signing up to organisations of little interest and giving the name of a friend, family member or colleague along with a made up email address relating to that name.
The study revealed that Internet users were most likely to provide a dummy address or fake name and email address. Postal addresses were the least likely to be falsified with only 3%admitting to purposefully providing incorrect postal information.
The most at risk sectors were revealed to be business to business organisations, media companies (e.g. newspapers, magazines, streaming services), voucher sites, travel companies, comparison sites, data providers (such as house price aggregators) and retailers. financial services, government and charities were the least affected sectors.
Wilmington Millennium product director Karen Pritchard said: “This research provides both good news and bad news. The bad news is that organisations are spending money on storing, maintaining and processing fake data. The even worse news is that the amount of fake data being captured online is likely to increase following the introduction of GDPR once the opt-in clause comes into force.
“On the other hand for the direct mail industry it provides further evidence of the effectiveness of the channel. Consumers are least likely to provide false information relating to their postal addresses suggesting that they are more trusting of organisations wanting to forge relationships through the mail.”
