Authors’ contributions
This paper recounts our experience of discovering and managing an attempted fraud incident during the conduct of an online trial. TW was programme manager and drafted the manuscript; AWH was the trial statistician and led the identification of suspect data; CS was the Head of Research Integrity and Governance in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Leeds, represented the sponsor, and advised on responding to the incident; AJF and RW were the supervising statisticians; SH supported operational delivery of the trial; AW and MA completed the programming and subsequent redesign of the trial website, under the supervision of SW; CG advised on national audit involvement and contributed to study management; RF was the principal investigator for the wider research programme. All authors contributed to our management of the incident and provided critical review and final approval of the manuscript. TW is the guarantor of the paper.