In our 3 part series, we will be talking about affiliate marketing fraud. Fraud is everywhere and when it comes to affiliate marketing, there is no exception. It is powerful and viral and eliminating it as quickly as possible is the main aim, however being able to detect it is where the difficulties lies.

Like with everything else, there are always rules to abide by. Affiliate marketing fraud is mainly a non-compliance of such said rules. Fraud not only refers to what a person does with their traffic, but also the strategies they use to draw the traffic, the creatives they use on their campaigns and even the documents they they upload to their affiliate network platform. Overall, it is any type of illegal activity designed with the intention to cheat users, buyers or even their affiliate network.

Types of Affiliate Marketing Fraud;

1. Fake leads/Fraud Traffic

One fraudulent activity would be generating fake leads. Using scripts or software that mimics the human behaviour and generate false clicks on the offer that will result in higher conversions based on the high volume of clicks on the offer.

2. Proxy Sale

This means that the affiliate is using a VPN to ‘send traffic’ from a country that pays better for their conversions. In this case, the affiliate is not actually promoting the link. Instead they try to trick their affiliate network into believing that these conversions are genuine.

3. Site Cloning

Copying other legit affiliate websites and content to mislead honest prospects and redirecting their traffic towards the wrong and fake website where conversion takes place.

Are you a publisher or advertiser who has been through such fraud? Share with us your experience! In the mean time, stay tuned for the second part of our fraud series which will talk about the consequences of such fraudulent actions.

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