What Does a Fraudulent Lead Look Like?

Bob Klee

Guru
100+ Post Club
Hello folks.
I've had several emails & conversations with agents in the last couple of weeks about bogus leads like the one I've attached here. We are constantly working, trying to stay ahead of these thief's, but the target constantly moves. I'm hoping I can shed a little light to make working leads more profitable for you, especially if I can save you a bit of time.

The scourge of the lead generation business these days is folks with no integrity trying to scam the rest of us. From re-cycled leads, aged leads, non-real time leads, fraud leads....it is a mess! And it costs both you & me time & money. If I can save you time when you see a lead like this, then you save money. Don't bother even checking out to see if the phone number is good! If you received the lead from my company, there is a link you can just click on, tell us the problem, & request credit.

Unfortunately, there are way, way too many leads like this these days.

I'm going to focus on the Fraud lead in this post. If there is any interest, I can post other data in a future post. Feel free to ask questions & make comments. [good or bad...open forum here thanks to Sam]

This type lead, once you know a few things I'll show you, should be easy to spot once I point out a few key points. I've highlighted the key points in GREEN in the below data.

Please look at the scoring data: you will see info here that I don't send to agents with the lead. This was developed using our metrics & data along with a vendor. We built our values into what a good lead is into this scoring system. [One of our competitors says their scoring system is "Patent Pending." I guess that looks good from a marketing standpoint & maybe I should consider that with ours:) ]

With the metrics we've developed, a score between 300-800 is good. We score lead data from 1-1000. Some leads between 200-300 are good sometimes, & we put a little effort in reviewing them before accepting/rejecting them. If a vendor scores consistently above 750 [good side of the curve] that is just as bad as being on the bad side. It means they've most likely got someone keying contact data in from a phone book! Having our scoring system means we turn down a TON of leads from folks but...unfortunately the bad stuff can still get through.

So this lead looks good as it scored 519. Below that you'll see comments that were part of making up the score. Too much to post all the fields here. Ron Miller is our QC lead, so I left his name here. If you buy leads from us you most likely will see his name now & then when he works your bogus leads.

Now look at the CONTACT INFO.
Notice how the name & address is all CAPS. That alone does not mean this is bad. Sometime we get all lower case too. [my wife does this & drives me nuts!]

This was a Real phone number in this case. I changed it so you all wouldn't bug the owner. I personally called this lead & talked to the guy. He had been looking online for a MORTGAGE the past couple of weeks & that is not his name on this lead.

2nd Contact Information field.
5 Year level Term is great but who buys $155,555 worth of Life insurance? Really, he did his own needs analysis & didn't even round up to $200,000! Seriously this NEVER happens.

Health Information

Male that is 5 feet 2 inches and 208 lbs! WOW.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So the 3 areas I pointed out here should save you time = $Money. Shouldn't take but a couple of seconds once you start looking at the data & understand what you are looking at. I wonder how many of you or your staff, would just mindlessly dial the number & if no one answered, keep working this lead for several days vs. just sending it in for credit? Hopefully this post saved someone here money the next time they look at a lead.

This is not rocket science folks. So I hope this little exercise helps you. If you had seen this lead, would you have suspected anything odd about it? How about if you received TWO leads like this in two days...both with the same Death Benefit, Birth Date & Height/weight?

An agent of ours had this happen, thus the comment to check out the other Lead #.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bogus lead we received:

Query String:
Scoring Data
Score/Action: 519 / Unspecified

Phone Number (day) score: 519, Verified: Yes
Phone Number (evening) score: 519, Verified: Yes
Phone1:FS02-Empty social field
phone2:FS02-Empty social field
Phone1:AA14-Street Address
Phone1:AP04-Phone is cellular or mobile
phone2:AA14-Street Address
phone2:AP04-Phone is cellular or mobile

Lead Comments (Add New Comment)

Agent IP: 65.46.197.54 01/19/2012 07:06:45PM
[Agent 12535] - Bogus lead and personal information. Please compare to lead 65989557 ------ Bogus lead and personal information. 1/30/12 15:56

Contact Information
Name: ALEXANDER CHERUBIN Email: [email protected]
Address: 2009 TULIP LN Daytime Phone: (402) 312-0000
BELLEVUE, NE 68005 Evening Phone:
Time to Contact : Anytime Fax:
Additional Comments:

Contact Information
Currently Insured? No Current Company:
Type of Policy Wanted: Term 5 Year Guaranteed Level Premium Amount: $155,555
Coverage for Spouse? No Coverage for Children? No

Health Information
Gender: Male Occupation: Other
Smoker? No Date of Birth: 06/06/1966
Height: 5 2 Weight: 208 lbs.
Rated/Declined last 5 yrs? No Hospitalized last 5 years? No
DUI/DWI last 5 years? No Resident of US/Canada for 5 years? Yes
Currently takes prescription meds? No Medications / Dosages
Major Medical Conditions:

Other Medical Conditions:


Additional Comments:

HERE
 

Attachments

  • Bogus Life Lead-Forum Sheet1.pdf
    75.2 KB · Views: 30
I was buying some leads from a vendor a few years ago and over a whole month there would be two or three leads come through that were so obviously pranksters that I couldn't believe I even had to request credit.

They were always someone's legit address and phone but always had the name Robert or Roberts or Robertson or Roberta and were always 2 feet tall and 600lbs.

Every time I dealt with the lead vendor they would start quizzing me like it might be legit.
 
Bob,
One thing from the agent's side it this. If a lead if bogus, it should be credited across the board. I have returned leads with other companies and the lead is credited instantly, while others take quite some time. To me, those instant ones have already been credited. You should also have an option to say if you sold it. If a lead was sold by one of your agents it should not be credited to anyone. I know this sounds nice on the chalk board, but may not happen in reality.

What really drives me nuts about leads is when you get a lead and work it, but after the return period has passed you get in touch with the lead and find out it was a bogus lead all along. The person was looking for "mortgage rates" instead of life insurance or got a phone call from some one about their car type. The person was flooded with calls and said they quit answering the phone after all the calls started coming in.

The problem really ends up being "affiliates gone wild." If you could stop the affiliates from generating crap, it would prevent both the lead vendor and the agent from wasting time.

Side note on affiliates: I had a coworker get a p/c lead from allwebleads. The lead was from a guy who was "the town drunk" who had also just rented an apartment from the agent. The agent called his tenant to ask about the lead and found out the tenant had only turned on his power. He has no land line, no internet, etc. But the lead address was right. This happened in a town of about 600 people. These are the theives you are dealing with.

Any way, I am looking forward to other's thoughts on this.
 

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