Fraud

Fraud is any activity aimed at obtaining payouts through deception, using such tricks as generating fake leads, data substitution, using bots, or motivated traffic without approval.

For an affiliate program, fraud is a direct threat to traffic quality and the advertiser's business. That's why such actions are strictly monitored and punished. The affiliate network may cut payouts or completely ban an account.

Primary forms of fraud in traffic arbitrage

Fraud in traffic arbitrage can be of different kinds depending on the chosen vertical (gambling, nutra, sweepstakes, e-commerce, etc.) and traffic source. Each vertical and platform has its vulnerabilities, which can affect lead quality and cause payout losses.

The most common schemes include:

• multi-accounts and repeated registrations;
• using bots, scripts, and auto-fill forms;
• IP, user agent, geo, or device swapping;
• motivated traffic without permission (e.g., "register and get a bonus");
• injecting fake data (phones, emails, cards);
• event generation via click fraud or postback spoofing.

Even if the share of suspicious or low-quality leads is only 15–20% of the general scope, payouts can be entirely canceled for the whole campaign. The advertiser will classify the traffic as fraud and refuse to compensate it.

How does fraud affect affiliates?

Using fraudulent traffic in arbitrage almost inevitably leads to serious consequences: from ad account bans and massive payout cuts to a complete stop in payments. At the same time, an affiliate risks not only losing current profit but also damaging their professional reputation. Offers quickly get stopped, affiliate networks lose trust, and managers refuse to grant access to private offers and exclusive terms.

Many platforms maintain "blacklists" of affiliates and share them with other networks. And this makes work much more difficult. Even if fraud happened accidentally, without detailed analytics and logs, proving otherwise is almost impossible.

How to minimize fraud risks: step-by-step actions

The simplest way is not to use the schemes that cannot be defended when discussing the issue with an affiliate manager. Arbitrageurs should always check their sources and avoid running motivated traffic without approval. It's also crucial to exclude pre-landers and questionable audiences.

Utilizing anti-fraud systems (FraudScore, Keitaro, Opticks) will also be beneficial. One should analyze EPC, CR, time-based anomalies, and GEO inconsistencies.

Using fraud may bring quick results: a sharp increase in conversions, payout spikes, and apparent campaign efficiency. However, such schemes almost always lead to account bans, frozen payouts, and loss of trust from affiliate networks. For stable arbitrage work and long-term income, only clean, "whitehat" bundles with quality traffic and compliance with ad platform rules are effective.