Prolific Academic Survey Alerts

John1963

MollyR said:

I think it is clearly not legitimate.  The best interpretation is that it is a Prolific script gone wrong;  the worst is that it is a scammer trying to harvest data (e-mail, date of birth) for identity theft purposes.

My thinking exactly - they are arriving in my Prolific Messages inbox, not my personal e-mail address. I've reported the two approaches + the odd exchange now.

Update:  I have now received two further suspicious message, one supposedly from Harvard University and the other from Pew Research.

Slinky

I've had all these too, one of them 99 times apparently!

For those that received them, did you participate in that fake Prolific survey a few weeks ago? I did but refused to put my password in, I'm wondering if it's something to do with that.

Slinky

How do you report them to Prolific?

John1963

Slinky said:

I've had all these too, one of them 99 times apparently!

For those that received them, did you participate in that fake Prolific survey a few weeks ago? I did but refused to put my password in, I'm wondering if it's something to do with that.

In short "yes" I think that survey asked for my Prolific e-mail address.

Martico

I've never investigated my Prolific email - is it worthwhile? And if so, how would I?
I've always assumed that my message inbox on the site is sufficient

willowcat27

Is it me or are there more and more bad quality studies lately?  There's been fake studies asking for personal information and lots of low paying studies.  On my submissions page, out of the last 11 studies, I've had to return 5 of them because something didn't work or it wouldn't progress past a certain page or there were no spaces left.  I hardly ever return a study because I can no longer be bothered with it, but just lately it seems that for every one I complete another one needs to be returned.

John1963

Slinky said:

How do you report them to Prolific?

Use link below to report:

https://participant-help.prolific.co/hc/en-gb/requests/new

JGB1955

Sorry that some people are having problems with PA today.  After a bit of a 'drought' the storm has returned. £10.40 earned today with £5.05 bonuses due.  Some of them have been really interesting surveys too.   It's all swings and roundabouts isn't it?!

theonlywayisup

Yes also sorry that the dodgy study a few weeks ago appears to have resurfaced in a different guise.  Well done on being so alert.

I've had a couple of really easy £2 in 5 minute surveys and a zoom meeting for $22 dollars scheduled for tomorrow morning.   

Hope those having the spoof messages manage to get them blocked and sorted - perhaps ask Prolific if they can change your prolific email by a few digits?

Slinky

I've reported them to Prolific who say they are investigating.  They're pretty easy to spot, in that they are offering dollar amounts, and multiple emails saying the same thing.