Affiliate Fraud Detection

It’s a bummer if any leads convert to sales, but then later turn into a dispute. If it happens regularly, though, or if multiple buyers are filing disputes within a few days of a sale…it’s very likely a scam.

The most common timeframe for customers to file a chargeback is 45-60 days after the original transaction. If you notice multiple buyers file chargebacks within a few days after the sale, this could be a clear sign of bad affiliate activity.

Tricky conversion rates can indicate that something nefarious is going on. If one of your affiliates has a substantially above-average conversion rate compared to other partners, it warrants immediate investigation.

Typosquatting, cookie stuffing, or URL hijacking could generate massive spikes in conversion, but these will be temporary. This activity will ultimately lead to substantial revenue loss, disputes, and chargebacks.

Say you're an advertiser, and your average affiliate has a conversion rate of about 10%. Yet one of your affiliates, for no explicable reason, has a conversion rate of over 50%. This could be the result of fraudulent practices.

If you carry a range of items in different product categories, some will likely present a greater fraud risk than others. An affiliate who’s relatively new to your program but pushing these riskier products to market could be dangerous. The affiliate may plan to use illegal tactics like incentivizing buyers or account takeover to land sales.

Paying for leads is the “bread and butter” of many marketing and advertising agencies. But, if your leads have no idea who you are or what you sell… you’ve probably been caught up in an affiliate marketing scam. This type of affiliate scam is relatively ‘easy’ for fraudsters to pull off by posing as a third-party affiliate in a lead-gen program or agency.

Another way this sometimes works is that the customer will contact you for more information. Since they spoke with a scammer, you will have no idea who they are.

If you get similar customer complaints from the same traffic source, it could signify that the affiliate is using deceptive marketing tactics or incentives to inflate sales.

You have to judge all complaints and negative reviews carefully in order to detect affiliate fraud. Keep an eye out for emerging patterns and recurring, similar problems.

eCommerce is a global phenomenon. That said, you probably have certain countries and regions that make up the bulk of your customers, depending on your product and clientele.

If you notice an uptick in traffic and sales from a part of the world outside your usual audience, it could be a sign of bad traffic. This is especially true of regions that are known as global fraud hot spots.

You can look up the IP address of your traffic to see its source.

You might find that a lot of traffic is coming from a known data center, which could be a sign of IP address fraud. It might also be that a scammer is running a click farm to send fake bot traffic to your site. This is one of the most direct ways to detect affiliate fraud resulting from click fraud.

Scammers might not be sending you active leads or sales, instead offering reams of clickbait traffic that never converts. This slows your response time and clogs your revenue chains.

As with the irregular conversion rates mentioned above, pay close attention to your conversion metrics for any inconsistencies. Investigating fishy data is never a waste of time or money. Keep in mind that you might not pick up on this affiliate fraud sign if you rely purely on vanity metrics.

Be wary of affiliates who either ignore your emails or are slow to respond when you reach out to them. This would be obvious after confronting an affiliate about fraud or other suspicious activity, but it’s a clear red flag if the person “goes dark” for any reason.

If your affiliates send you a ton of questionable links or are linking spammy ads and pop-ups on your site, this is a huge red flag. If any links on your site begin to look and behave like clickbait, odds are that one of your affiliates has been hacked, or are the hacker themselves.

Dropping affiliate cookies on active accounts is perhaps one of the most apparent affiliate fraud methods. In these cases, the scammer is betting on the number of clicks they might squeeze in before you or your affiliate notices, rather than hooking in for the long term.

Is one of your affiliates generating above-average sales, despite having a below-average web presence? If so, this might be a sign of fraud.

Watch for indicators like low-res or stock photography, or poorly-written page copy. Also, keep an eye out for multiple versions of one affiliate network’s site with similar content. This behavior is clearly not above-board for a high-earning affiliate.

A very common method of spoofing traffic numbers is to redirect users multiple times. For instance, an affiliate might direct one user to a site, but route them through ten different redirects on the way, making it appear that the user visited eleven pages, rather than just one.

You want your affiliates to talk up the benefits of your products. That said, you want them to be honest in their presentation.

Unrealistic promises made by the affiliate can mean that you end up with disappointed customers who were oversold on the benefits of your products.

What is the fraudster’s main objective? Are they trying to score a quick commission and disappear before discovering the fraud? Are they using affiliate practices to try and steal goods or launder money?

Are you noticing specific tactics being used over and over? If so, what are they, and do you see any fraud red flags or other traits that stand out about these transactions compared to legitimate ones?

Appearances can be misleading. Even if you suspect that an affiliate is engaged in fraud, there’s a genuine possibility that the individual simply doesn’t understand that they’re violating the rules of your program. They may have gotten bad advice from a black-hat actor or misinterpreted certain practices.

Let participants in your affiliate program know that you’ll be monitoring their behavior and traffic, utilizing both proactive and reactive surveying. This will scare away fraudsters, and honest affiliates will appreciate that you take an active role.

Make your affiliate program contract strong, enforceable, and clear in its stipulations. This will protect you against affiliate marketing scams while minimizing the possibility of innocent mistakes by honest affiliates.

This tool will help you pinpoint bad traffic by country, region, or even locality. With geolocation, you can block traffic from parts of the world where you experience heightened fraud or at least subject those sales to additional fraud screening.