The intent and purpose of identity checks at clickworker

You may have stumbled across posts in social networks or review portals in which angry Clickworkers complain about blocked user accounts. In the course of the posts some very extraordinary theories are proposed that unfortunately unsettle other users.

To do away with rumors like “clickworker blocks Clickworker accounts at random whenever a certain amount X has been earned”, we want to provide some information about why accounts are blocked by hand in the first place. The answer is fairly straightforward: Opportunity makes a thief! Wherever money is involved, there are people with criminal energy who are ready to profit from the situation.

We generally differ between three types of Clickworker accounts, which we check and if necessary block, because they violate our general business terms and conditions:

1. Impersonators
   In this case we are dealing with a Clickworker account in which the user has deliberately registered with false personal data (name, address, country, etc.).
2. Doppelganger
   Some Clickworkers register with several accounts, in part because they do not immediately pass the tests or because they think that they will get more jobs if they have more accounts.
3. Swindler
   This group unfortunately causes the most damage. They hope to make fast money with frenzied clicks, nonsense input or even the theft of another person’s ideas. This group also includes the people who configurate Bots that will do the work for them.

We counteract attempted fraud with targeted quality assurance and fraud prevention measures. Many cheaters are traced and blocked immediately after registration – ideally, before they are able to work on the clickworker platform. However, we cannot always trace a false account, sometimes the accounts appear suspicious only after a certain amount of time.

If we find a suspicious Clickworker account, we block it and in general, we write the Clickworker and ask him/her to prove their identity and address with suitable documents. (This is obviously not necessary in the case of several accounts and traceable spam). If the data evidence proves to be legitimate, we reactivate the account, verify it and everything continues as before. However, this does not mean that every document we receive is authentic. Unfortunately, innumerable more or less well-forged IDs and documents have already found their way into our inbox. This makes the verification process unnecessarily time-consuming and difficult.

Here are a few examples of forged documents:

A deceptively authentic US drivers license – however it is never issued by the authorities in this way.

Document templates available on the Internet in which personal data can easily be entered are also very popular. Based on the “small faults” mirrored, it becomes clear that the same template has been used repeatedly.

This brings us to the pertinent question: Why do some Clickworkers complain about blocked accounts on the Internet?

There are innumerable reasons why for example, fake accounts are created. Not everyone who opens a suspicious Clickworker account intends to deliver poor work. According to our observations, some Clickworkers open fake accounts to be able to access jobs that are, for example, currently not available in their region due to customer specifications. In the Clickworker’s opinion they have, where applicable, done good work. However, for us, it means that the research, text and similar, which the Clickworker has delivered under false premises is not usable for the customer and has to be reentered.

When an account is blocked and the earnings are deducted, the threat of spreading bad publicity is a popular means of exerting pressure, i.e. a negative review will be given if the Clickworker account is not immediately reactivated. However, we cannot and are not willing to let ourselves into this: a suspicious Clickworker account can only be reactivated through the verification of the person involved. Whoever is not willing to, or cannot validate their identity and address on request, must unfortunately expect the Clickworker account to remain closed.

In the past few years we have expanded and optimized the checking mechanisms to prevent spam and false accounts. Nonetheless we want to be more effective in the future so that available jobs are accessed by the Clickworkers who are meant to get them. Our goal is to implement further high barrier safety measures so that fraud on clickworker is not really worthwhile.

8 Kommentare