Anti-fraud
Anti-fraud is a system that protects affiliate programs and offers from low-quality or fraudulent traffic. It analyzes user behavior considering IP address, GEO, device, action speed, behavioral patterns, cookies, and other technical data.
When suspicious activity is detected, traffic is marked as fraud or bot. In some verticals, such as betting and finance, postbacks from advertisers are also used to verify the actual quality of leads. Anti-fraud can operate both in real-time and through manual lead checks.
Typical fraudulent methods in arbitrage traffic
Fraud includes any actions that distort real user interactions to obtain illegal rewards. Such methods undermine trust between advertisers and affiliate programs, lead to financial failures, and can result in account bans. "Gray" manipulations include:
- multi-accounts and repeated registrations;
- motivated (incentivized) traffic without approval;
- geo, IP, or user-agent swaps;
- automated bots and click fraud;
- use of stolen data;
- cookie stuffing and redirects to background pages.
Fraud causes severe damage to affiliate programs and advertisers. Hence, its detection and prevention are processes that require extra attention. If some leads are marked as fraudulent, bans can be applied.
Before resorting to such schemes, it is crucial to assess the risks and potential losses.
The connection between anti-fraud and falling approval rates
The impact is direct. The leads that the system considers suspicious are usually not paid. With a high share of fraud, the webmaster's reputation deteriorates, limits are reduced, and in some cases, access to the offer or the entire affiliate program can be blocked entirely. Even partial violations, such as incentivized traffic without approval, can negatively affect the bundle's statistics. Therefore, it is essential to constantly monitor traffic quality and separately track approval for each source.
Action plan if suspected of fraud
Contact your manager and request clarification about the grounds that led to this conclusion. On your end, ensure that the tracker markup and the bundle are functioning correctly. If there were no violations on your part, provide detailed arguments with evidence.
If there was an actual mistake on your part, remember that affiliate networks value open dialogue. It is always easier to admit a mistake and discuss further conditions.