On April 15, 2025, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment that should send a shockwave through the market research industry. Eight people working at companies you might know were charged with defrauding clients out of $10 million ! The way they did it? Manual fraud. Fake survey takers (ants) VPNs to hide locations Coaching scripts to beat screeners “Some of the defendants recruited ‘ants,’ who pretended to be legitimate survey takers but instead were paid a nominal fee for completing surve