Practical guidance for mitigating fraud in online research: The Configure, Assess, Triage, Corroborate, and Hone (CATCH) framework.

ABSTRACT: Fraudulent participation is a growing challenge in digital health research, particularly in online studies where duplicate identities, automated responses, and coordinated sign-ups can distort recruitment, compromise validity, and divert resources. Safeguards intended to prevent fraud might also risk excluding legitimate participants, raising concerns about sample representativeness and study generalizability. Although a wide range of technical and behavioral strategies exists, guidance is lacking on how to organize these methods and report outcomes consistently across studies. To address this gap, we introduce the Configure, Assess, Triage, Corroborate, and Hone (CATCH) framework, a hybrid fraud detection-mitigation model with actionable recommendations for investigators. CATCH begins wit

SUBMITTER: Stemmer M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12847683 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature