Avoiding panel fraud

Survey scams – what to look out for

We know that criminals are impersonating Kantar employees as a form of phishing.

Unfortunately, scams can look very real, using the Kantar logo, branding, or even the names and photographs of real Kantar employees.

Scammers may contact you via email, WhatsApp, or SMS, and may ask you to sign up to a market research panel, apply for a job, verify your identity or otherwise provide information. To persuade you to respond, the scammer may offer payment or another financial incentive.

How do you know if a message is really from Kantar?

If you are unsure whether a message is from Kantar, do not open it, do not respond to it, and do not download any attachment or click on any link.

Remember:

- We will never ask you to pay to take part in our market research.

- Our panellists receive incentives to take part in our research studies. These are always issued through secure providers like PayPal or as ‘points’ which are redeemable via a rewards platform. Kantar will never offer cash directly and will never ask for your bank details.

- We only start to gather personal information and data about our research participants once they have registered onto one of our secure platforms. We will never ask for this personal information via WhatsApp, SMS, social media or email. We will never ask for your password.

- Our email addresses and website only end in kantar.com. Scammers can make links look like they come from us, but you can hover your mouse over the address to check if it’s real. Do not click it if you are unsure.

Our commitment

Kantar is committed to high standards of integrity and professional behaviour in our business. As part of our Corporate Governance, we comply with our Codes of Conduct including our Data Code of Conduct.

Kantar is also a member of ESOMAR, the global membership association for market research and insights. This means we subscribe to their International Code – a global standard of ethical and professional conduct for the market research industry.

This means we are committed to:

- Transparency: being clear about what information we are collecting, why it is collected, who it will be shared with, and in what form.

- Protection: protecting any personal data which we collect and used from unauthorised access or sharing.

- Duty of care: preventing harm to participants or reputational damage towards our partners.

If you think you have been the victim of a scam:

We recommend contacting your local law enforcement authorities and/or your bank for advice on how to recover any stolen funds, secure your bank accounts and protect your personal information and privacy.