Lead fraud

Lead fraud (also called fake leads) is form submissions or calls recorded as prospects that do not come from real people with real interest: they are filled in by bots, by people paid or rewarded to do it, or built from made-up or recycled data. Advertisers who pay per lead (CPL) or optimize for form submissions take the loss.

What is lead fraud?

Lead fraud is not the same as junk leads. A junk lead is a real person with little interest who mistypes a number or submits just for fun. Lead fraud is the deliberate creation of fake leads to make money or drain a budget. The two need different fixes.

Common sources of fake leads:

1. Form-filling bots: scripts that submit forms in bulk with random names and phone numbers. The MRC includes conversions in the scope of invalid traffic and classifies bots posing as users as the harder-to-detect kind (SIVT) (MRC, IVT Standards Addendum, June 2020).
2. People rewarded to fill in forms: task groups that pay per submission, close to incentivized traffic.
3. Lead vendors: affiliates or lead gen partners that send invented leads, resold leads, or one lead sold to several buyers.
4. Competitors: submitting forms to waste your budget and tie up your sales team.

Why fake leads get through when platforms filter clicks

Google filters invalid clicks after the ad has served. Those filters cannot block anyone from your website, and leads live in your own forms and CRM. Google states plainly that bots or users can still submit forms even when the click was flagged as invalid, and that some real people deliberately enter fake details (Google Ads Help, About invalid traffic, accessed October 2026).

For instant forms (forms that open inside the ad) on Facebook and Instagram, the default “More volume” type is built for quick submission on mobile. The “Higher intent” type adds a line saying the business may follow up and an extra review screen where people confirm their details, to cut down on marginally interested submissions (Meta Business Help, About instant form types, accessed October 2026).

Warning signs

• Badly formatted phone numbers, numbers that cannot be reached, disposable email addresses.
• Many leads from the same IP or device, submitted seconds apart.
• Nonsense or repeating names, submissions at odd hours.
• CPL drops sharply while answer rates and close rates drop with it.

Illustrative example (hypothetical)

An English language center spends VND 30 million a month at a CPL of VND 60,000 and receives 500 leads. When sales calls back, 150 numbers are wrong or never answer. That leaves 350 usable leads, so the real CPL is 30,000,000 / 350 = VND 85,714. If the campaign optimizes for form submissions, the algorithm will go looking for more people like those 150 fake leads.

How to filter out fake leads

1. Block them at the form. Google recommends reCAPTCHA, server-side validation, and double opt-in (confirmation by email).
2. Optimize for qualified leads. Choose goals such as “qualified lead” or “converted lead”. According to Google, lead-specific goals automatically trigger invalid traffic protections built for lead generation campaigns (Google Ads Help, Best practices for generating high-quality leads, accessed October 2026).
3. Send CRM outcomes back to the platform. Use enhanced conversions for leads or the Conversions API to report which leads became customers.
4. Use Higher intent forms on Meta when every lead needs a sales call.
5. Reconcile with partners. Pay for verified leads, not raw submissions.

Frequently asked questions

Does Google refund fake leads?

Google only issues credits when it identifies invalid traffic that its automated filters missed. You can request an investigation covering the last 60 days and attach a spreadsheet with the GCLID of each lead and the result of your follow-up calls.

Do extra form questions reduce fake leads?

Yes, at the cost of fewer leads. Test it on one ad group and compare the real CPL, not the CPL in the report.

Lead fraud is one branch of ad fraud. If you want to build lead measurement from the ad through to your CRM, see Adtek’s Lead Generation page.