Reducing Non-Institutional Fraud and Building Trust in a Digital Market Platform: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Nigeria

Last registered on August 10, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Reducing Non-Institutional Fraud and Building Trust in a Digital Market Platform: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Nigeria
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011872
Initial registration date
August 02, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
August 10, 2023, 12:55 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Nigeria
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Michael King
Affiliation
Trinity College Dublin
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Daniel Putman
PI Affiliation
University of Pennsylvania
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Chaning Jang
PI Affiliation
Busara Center
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-08-03
End date
2024-02-29
Keywords
Behavior, Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Education, Finance & Microfinance, Gender, Lab
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
D18, G41, G53, O12
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The high prevalence of digital financial fraud makes it difficult for businesses to distinguish between real communications from digital service providers and fraudulent communication. This could lead to a lack of trust in, and usage of digital financial services. Through a field experiment and a combination of administrative data and self-reported responses, we test two strategies for preventing non-institutional fraud: an anti-fraud campaign and a technical intervention – a unique communications code – which verifies the provenance of messages sent from a digital platform. First, we assess whether these anti-fraud interventions reduce susceptibility to fraudulent communications, and confidence in one’s ability to avoid fraud. Second, we test how these interventions affect trust in, and usage of financial services. We analyze how these impacts differ within key subgroups, including by demographic characteristics, socio-economic status, and risk preferences. Findings from this study will help improve consumer protection and support digital security in the financial and non-financial service sectors.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Jang, Chaning, Michael King and Daniel Putman. 2023. "Reducing Non-Institutional Fraud and Building Trust in a Digital Market Platform: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Nigeria." AEA RCT Registry. August 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11872-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Partner

Name
CoAmana
Type
URL
https://coamana.com
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
MSEs will be randomised into one of three groups; a control, a financial education arm, or the UCC arm.
Control - This group will receive the compliance calls as standard procedure.
Treatment 1 - T1 participants will receive three compliance calls (every two months) which will include information about the five key signs of potential fraud which is narrated in an audio file. Participants will listen to an audio recording presenting key warning signs to look out for to identify fraud. To test their understanding of the recording, participants will be presented with two fraudulent or genuine communication scenarios and are asked what they would do in each scenario. The call centre agent will explain the correct answers. Immediately after the call participants will receive a follow up SMS summarizing the key warning signs.
Treatment 2 - This group will receive the same basic compliance calls as the treatment and control groups and will be informed about their unique communication codes. They will:
● Be introduced to the UCC system.
● Be assigned a randomly generated and recorded centrally 5-digit UCC code to authenticate future communications with Amana Market.
● Immediately after the call participants will receive a follow up SMS with their unique code to look out for in all future communication from Amana Market.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2023-08-03
Intervention End Date
2023-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Compliance - An indicator variable equal to one for those who were contacted and complied with the scammer.
Losses - An indicator variable equal to one those who incurred losses. **Depending on the number of people who have lost money, we will choose losses or compliance as a primary outcome, the other relegated to secondary outcome.
Confidence - An Inverse Correlated Weighted Index of self-assessments of confidence in identifying the provenance of communications.
Detection - Score in five question quiz
Knowledge - Score in five question quiz
Amana Market Usage - An indicator variable equal to one if the participant transacted on the Amana Market platform in the last six months of the experimental period, and zero otherwise.
Amana Market Usage (Total Transacted) - A variable that will track the total amount transacted in the last six months of the experiment. This will equal zero if they have not transacted using the service.
Self-Reported Usage of DFS - Index of usage for six types of digital financial services.
Index of trust in DFS - Inverse Correlation Weighted Index of trust in DFS outcomes.
Index of trust in Amana Market - Inverse Correlation Weighted Index of trust in Amana Market.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Detection Confidence - Average self-reported confidence in ability to detect fraud in quiz.
Information - DFS Secondary Survey Self-reported agreement that their information is kept safe by a variety of DFS providers, on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree)-7 (strongly agree)
Money - DFS Secondary Survey Self-reported assessment money is kept safe from fraud when using a variety of DFS providers, on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree)-7 (strongly agree)
Information - Amana Market Secondary Survey Self-reported agreement that their information is kept safe by Amana Market, on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree)-7 (strongly agree)
Money - Amana Market Secondary Survey Self-reported assessment money is kept safe from fraud when using Amana Market, on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree)-7 (strongly agree)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
All participants are randomized into either a control group, an embedded anti-fraud focused financial literacy intervention or the unique communications code (UCC) group. The recruitment process involves two distinct groups: existing users and newly onboarded users within CoAmana. Each group initially aimed to achieve a target sample size of 1,800 individuals. The sampling pool was derived from three key states of operation: Kano, Kaduna, and Jigawa, which represent the primary regions of CoAmana's activities.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
3,612
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1,204 control, 1.204 fraud education, 1,204 unique code
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Trinity College Dublin
IRB Approval Date
2023-01-23
IRB Approval Number
N/A
IRB Name
National Health Research Ethics Committee (NHREC)
IRB Approval Date
2023-04-20
IRB Approval Number
NHREC/01/01/2007
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Amana Market Pre-Analysis Plan 2023

MD5: c52b60378c7800bf6bac18f0e7c36a00

SHA1: 6dc7d945d21cd42e217aab796000808caafdbd14

Uploaded At: August 02, 2023

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials