RFI Update

In recent weeks we’ve seen bot and click-farm activity across our programs RFI, leading to invalid leads flowing into Slate. To mitigate this negatively intentioned activity the Baylor GPE Slate team has implemented a challenge question to the RFI form, which has seemingly improved the situation. 

­­In an effort to search for remedies and to understand what institutions across the country are doing to combat bots and click-farms, we did some exploration and summarized what we found below. 

Across multiple universities, we noticed two major trends in RFI configuration. The first was the defense of more questions; most commonly, anticipated start and what country you reside in. The second was the utilization of a dynamic RFI, which took you through several pages of questions before you were able to click submit. These additional steps slow down click-farms and thus deter them from filling out forms in mass. Additionally, these forms are harder for bots to work through due to their dynamic nature. 

As standard practice, Slate employs an invisible captcha, blocking most of the bot attempts on our site but unfortunately does not deter malicious humans paid to disrupt prospecting efforts. While the challenge question slows down and deters the click-farms, it is next to impossible to “defeat” all bot and click farms activity who deploy the constant evolution of technology for their benefit, but we are working to identify and provide solutions to support the enrollment teams focus their efforts on strong qualified candidates. The GPE Slate and marketing teams will continue to monitor slam activity and look to best practices to diminish the impact.