Online Worker Fraud and Evolving Threats to the Integrity of MTurk Data: A Discussion of Virtual Private Servers and the Limitations of IP-Based Screening Procedures

We identify a pervasive, yet previously undocumented threat to the reliability of MTurk data—and discuss how this issue is symptomatic of opportunities and incentives that facilitate fraudulent behavior within online recruitment platforms. In doing so, we explain how IP addresses were never intended to identify individuals and are likely insufficient to identify and mitigate emergent risks around data integrity. We discuss MTurk samples for two...