eCommerce Fraud Knowledge Guide

Affiliate Fraud

  1. Articles
  2. eCommerce Fraud
  3. Affiliate Fraud
  4. Common Affiliate Fraud Tactics
Affiliate Fraud

Knowledge Guide Chapters

  1. What is Affiliate Fraud?
  2. Common Affiliate Fraud Tactics
  3. Affiliate Fraud Statistics & Financial Impact
  4. Affiliate Fraud Examples
  5. How to Identify Affiliate Fraud Attacks
  6. How to Prevent Affiliate Fraud

Common Affiliate Fraud TacticsA Lengthy, In-Depth Fraud Playbook

Guy Harris | September 5, 2025 | 2 min read
Common Affiliate Fraud Tactics

Common Tactics That Scammers Can Use to Commit Affiliate Fraud

Affiliate fraudsters have deceptive strategies that target every stage of your conversion funnel. From malware that inflates traffic data to cookie stuffing, domain squatting, and other tactics, affiliate scammers can game the system in a number of ways.

In this article, we’ll break down the most common tactics so that you can protect your marketing budget from bad actors.

Affiliate Fraud

In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at affiliate fraud. We’ll examine common tactics used by fraudsters, talk about how it harms merchants, and explore how you can protect yourself from this type of scam.

Common Affiliate Marketing Fraud Tactics

Much of the affiliate marketing process is automated, saving time and effort for all parties. This lack of direct human oversight, however, gives fraudsters opportunities to hijack the operation and twist it to their own ends. They accomplish this through ad fraud, as well as a variety of specific tactics:

Malware

Customers unknowingly download spyware, pop-ups, or other adware programs that secretly install malicious code onto users’ devices, artificially inflating traffic figures reported to an advertiser.

Cookie Stuffing

With cookie stuffing, cookies are placed on all visitors’ computers, granting the affiliate a commission for potential future purchases, whether the user clicked the affiliate link or not.

Domain Squatting

Official-looking domains with URLs that are visually very similar to a successful online retailer like Amazon or Walmart. Users reach the fake site, but are immediately redirected to the true site… just with a cookie that snags a referral from the redirect.

IP Spoofing

Creating fake IP addresses to hide the sender’s identity. Affiliates secretly click links on their own sites to artificially inflate traffic driven to an advertiser’s site.

iFrame

A 1-pixel square iframe script — too small for users to see — is added to an online ad. The pixel is used to download a second (hidden) link, giving the affiliate credit for future sales.

Postback

Fraudsters obtain the transaction ID and address used for approval, then attempt to bypass the actual advertiser and claim commissions for conversions that never happened.

Discount Code Abuse

Sites provide coupons and discount codes for online shoppers … then attach a cookie to the user's browser, and take credit for the sale.

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This is not an exhaustive list. There are plenty of other tactics that fraudsters can use to commit affiliate fraud. Plus, the more time that goes by once you discover fraudulent tactics, the more you lose.

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Affiliate Fraud Statistics & Financial Impact

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