Suspect friends are cheating on weekly zoom quiz

[thefourgp]

I’m a bit sceptical because I host a weekly quiz with friends online which we all really enjoy. There’s no prize so I suppose it doesn’t really matter but the same couple win every week and I suspect they’re cheating. The husband is a clever guy but they get a near perfect score every week and others have started making comments to me in private. I don’t think I’ll say anything because they’ll just take offence and it’ll spoil the good atmosphere we have. I just think it’s a bit of a shame that others don’t get to feel good about themselves for a change. Have any of you cheated during online quizzes?

Swap to something like Bingo?

Maybe they're just very competitive. Why not shake things up a bit and the winners have to set the next week's quiz with a set number of rounds, etc?

I wouldn’t cheat because what’s the point! It does seem hard on you to host every week though, have you considered rotating (with the cheaters going first of course!)?

No I have never cheated at games, but I have friends who cheat at every game, except they are very open about it. And say of course we are cheating. In every other aspect they are fab but they seem to think it’s just a bit of fun and harmless so we all kinda awkwardly shrug it off whilst giving them the side eye.

Try something different. Our friends did a jackbox tv evening. It was really fun.

Make it cheat-proof - ask questions about your own collective memories or something they can’t google.

If it's on zoom can't you see them? So you'd see if they were typing on their phones for answers

Well you said yourself that they are smart so I'd think surely yes, they are more likely to win without cheating.

As PP say, switch to something else. Plenty of other games that rely more on chance.

Change the game or play Would I Lie To You

Change the games up a bit, so no more quiz questions, but instead things like “first person to get back with a different pair of socks on” or “show me your most embarrassing item. Funniest back story wins” so no cheating possible.

This has cracked me up. Such a lockdown problem. 🤣

Change the style of questions - more lateral thinking stuff that they can't Google, shows like House of Games have more abstract rounds on.
Speed rounds so someone has to ring their bell and answer first

I assume if you're quiz master you're not playing. So you think you'd beat them on brains?

Get them to host this time, someone else will win and then they host, even if they're winning every other week they'll be hosting every other week and they might want to win less

Are they googling or just saying they got the answers right?

If the first, then you could put together ‘ungooglable quiz questions’, so what comes next in this sequence etc (google will suggest lots more).
If you think they’re just flat out lying about the score, you could switch to an interactive format where you tick multiple choice questions.
Or you could put in a couple of ‘wrong’ answers, so what is the longest legged beetle? The Chico beetle (made up). If you have three ‘wrong’ answers in a set of ten, and he gets eight right then you can properly take the piss that he’s cheating.

She’s very competitive and he usually sits just off camera so you can’t see if he’s using his phone. I’m quite happy to continue hosting but I like the idea of changing it from a quiz to bingo or something else where they can’t possibly cheat.

If hes clever why would it be a surprise? My dh is really good at quiz shows. He even won a trip to Rome with tickets to a footie match, a soundbar, new gro pro 7 camera. Some people are just good at quiz show questions.

Change it up - ask about something that doesn't reward cleverness. Or that 'clever people' don't tend to know.

What are they like at sport? Soaps? Kids TV? The collected works of Ariana Grande?

If nothing else may make the cheating more obvious as no-one knows all of this stuff.

Easy solution if you think they are cheating is put a time limit on

Sitting just off camera would make me suspicious.

Cheating at quizzes is totally defeating the whole point of the game. I don't know why people do it, it wouldn't even be satisfying to win because you'd know that all you did was Google stuff. Weirdos.

Perhaps do I picture quiz so that they can't google the answers. For instance, for the film round show a picture of a scene from a film and ask a question that can only be answered if you recognise the film, or for a geography round show a picture of a landmark and ask them to identify the country or city.

Yeah do ungoogleable things. We do a guess the celebrity voices round (record 10 second clips from YouTube or similar)

We had a good quiz it was done on letters of words.
FLUTS.... forty leagues under the sea.
TCWOWAP. The collective works of War and Peace.
If you make your own set up, no one can cheat as an original quiz.

New rule: players have to be on screen ?

Pick a subject you believe isn't in their subject interest

Have a round where they have to run around the house looking for things and pick some things you think they might not have

Pick questions that are difficult to google quickly

I also do a weekly Zoom quiz, and I suspect that a few people cheat, especially when it is one sole player. But to me honest I think they are only cheating themselves. Is that you C.A?

Yes do an ungoogleable quiz with picture rounds and then make sure you comment if their score is lower than normal.