How many of your lead providers police their own network?

Probably zero. Just to be clear, when I say police their own network I mean send dummy or fake data through their own forms or affiliates. I send data through the providers I buy from every now and then. This is the only true way to see what is happening behind the scenes and providers should being doing this as well.

A few weeks ago I filled out two forms from a single providers. The day I filled out the form I received calls from 4 brokers, but the next day I received an email from a company (I will get you the name of the company later) asking me to verify my mortgage inquiry information and of course I went ahead and filled out the form. Once I completed the form I received an email matching me up with another two brokers. After calling this company and speaking with the owner I found that he buys data from outside sources. As a matter of fact, what I actually asked him was if he would be interested in buying data from me and he confirmed that he does buy used data and stated that he would interested in discussing this further. To make a long story short and without getting into all the specifics it looks as though there is a person who is buying leads and then reselling the leads to this company. More than likely this person is buying from a number of different providers and reselling them on the open market.

I feel that on many levels the lead providers are dropping the ball on these issues. Similar to Leads360′s Lead Guardian and to what I do as well, lead providers should be implementing the same type of investigations. I would suggest sending dummy leads through the system on weekly bases to catch this type of theft. Not only through your own channel but also your affiliate channels as well. How else would you be able to have 100% confidence in your distribution channel or your affiliates? On the back end the lead providers could easily flag the lead for an instant credit request so that none of its buyers would be charged for the lead. Moreover, what an added value this could be for a provider. The ability to say, “Yes, our distribution channel is policed for theft and over sold leads on a weekly bases” or “Yes our affiliates are monitored and policed on a weekly bases and as a matter of fact here are the landing pages of all our affiliates. Why don’t you test them yourself.” I find that most lead providers, especially ones that are heavily weighted with affiliate traffic have no clue to what creative is being used to generate their traffic, let alone have ever sent a dummy lead through their channels.

It really too easy to set up multiple email addresses and voicemail recordings not to do this. What an impact this would make on the lead industry if many of the top providers began implementing these simple investigations. Heck, I would rather have a verified platform over a call verified lead.