F1
Fraudulent completes — direct cost
Every fraudulent respondent who passes QC is paid for at the agreed CPI. The most direct, most quantifiable fraud cost.
SurveyGuard · Fraud Cost Calculator
What are bad respondents
actually costing you?
Six fraud-cost levers, priced against your own numbers. See what fraud costs your agency today — before, during, and after fieldwork — and what SurveyGuard recovers.
Fraud cost dimensions
6 levers
False positive rate
< 1%
Per-respondent verdict
< 200ms
Inputs & results
What fraud costs you. What SurveyGuard recovers.
Unlike the FieldworkOS calculator (operational time and CPI), this focuses entirely on the data-quality cost dimension. Tune the inputs — the six levers recompute live.
A
Section A
Your sample economics
Spend, CPI, fraud rate, and what your current QC catches. These drive every fraud-cost lever.
$400K
$50K$5M
Median cluster $250K–$500K for mid-size agency PMs.
$4.50
$2.00$25.00
62% of PMs reported $3–5. Default $4.50.
22%
5%50%
~22% with basic speed + attention checks; ~45% unprotected.
45%
0%95%
75% of PMs use basic QC only — catches ~40–50%.
B
Section B
Your team & study volume
Headcount and how fast studies turn over — sets cleaning labour and re-field volume.
3 PMs
Everyone who spends time on fieldwork QC and reconciliation.
$65,000
$40,000$120,000
Drives the post-field cleaning labour cost (F4).
2 studies
1 study8 studies
Combined with field duration to derive annual study volume.
3 weeks
1 week12 weeks
Shorter fields → more studies/year → more exposure.
C
Section C
Re-fields & reconciliation
How often fraud forces a re-field, and how often a mid-study CPI change quietly inflates billing.
12%
0%40%
75% of PMs reported re-fields. ‘2–3/year’ most common ≈ 12%.
$8K
$2K$30K
38% of PMs quantified at $5K–$10K. Default $7,500.
20%
0%50%
Archit reported 10–25%. Conservative default 20%.
D
Section D
Reputational risk
The most variable lever — client-facing quality events that reach delivered data.
1 / yr
Set to 0 if you’ve had no recent client quality events.
$25K
$5K$100K
Sample + PM + reporting + margin for a mid-size study.
SurveyGuard · fraud cost
Six fraud-cost levers. Set your inputs on the left, then run the numbers — results stay hidden until you calculate.
Your full ROI breakdown appears here once you calculate.
Calibrated from 8 primary PM responses
The six fraud-cost levers
What bad respondents cost before, during & after fieldwork.
F2
Re-field cost from quality events
When fraud contaminates a dataset beyond repair, the study is re-run. 75% of PMs reported re-fields; 62% quantified them at $5K–$10K each.
F3
Quota contamination
Fraudulent respondents fill quota cells and turn genuine respondents away. The hidden cost post-field cleaning can never recover — prevention only.
F4
Post-field cleaning labour
75% of PMs spend hours per study reviewing open-ends, removing speeders, and matching IDs. Salaried time SurveyGuard eliminates at entry.
F5
CPI reconciliation trap
Mid-study CPI changes plus fraud-inflated completion counts mean agencies overpay. 75% reconcile in manual Excel — a low catch rate.
F6
Reputational risk events
When fraud reaches delivered data and a client raises a concern: re-work, credits, and renewal risk. The most variable lever — but the insurance value is real.
Primary-data calibration
Every default has a source.
Every default is backed by real answers from the 100+ project managers — across small agencies to enterprise firms — who completed the SoftSight questionnaire. When a prospect challenges a number, every assumption has a source.
- Calibrated from 100+ project managers, from small agencies to enterprise firms
- All numbers in USD
- Conservatively biased — we’d rather under-promise
- Directional, not a guarantee — every agency is different, so treat the defaults as a starting point and tune each lever to your own numbers
| Calibration input | Value |
|---|---|
Fraud rate with basic QC 87% of PMs identified fraud types · industry ~22% with speed + attention checks | 22% |
Current QC catch rate 75% use basic QC only · speed + attention catches ~40–50% of fraud | 45% |
Average CPI 62% of PMs reported $3–5 · validated default | $4.50 |
Re-fields driven by quality/fraud All quantified re-fields were quality-driven | 60% |
Re-field cost per event 38% of PMs quantified at $5K–$10K · midpoint | $7,500 |
SurveyGuard re-field prevention Real-time detection prevents quota contamination before re-field | 75% |
Quota contamination rate Conservative — hard-to-reach cells contaminate more | 35% |
Cleaning hours per study 75% of PMs spend 2–5 hrs post-field cleaning | 3.5 hrs |
Cleaning reduction with SurveyGuard Fraud caught at entry needs no cleaning; 30% non-fraud remains | 70% |
Mid-study CPI drift rate Archit 10–25% · conservative default | 20% |
Manual reconciliation catch rate 75% manual Excel · ~12% trusted supplier blindly | 15% |
SurveyGuard Protect $18,000 / yr — most-popular tier modelled in this calculator | $1,500 / mo |
The number you just calculated is your number.
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