Affiliate fraud is a leach on the back of the hard working affiliate. For years there was not much that could be done about these underhanded tactics. However things are changing, and new software applications are helping honest business people with affiliate fraud prevention. As the tactics of these internet scammers are becoming more known, people are claiming victory with their affiliate sales and cash flow problems. If you are already working as an affiliate, there are things you should be looking out for, if sales have started to take a drop and you can’t find a reason. It’s time to begin your homework.
Affiliate fraud impacts everyone involved in an affiliate linked purchase; the customer, the affiliate and the merchant. As an affiliate you should always follow your traffic to sales ratio. Only in this way will you know your conversion rates, and if things get suspicious you will know right away. The tactics that are used in affiliate fraud include but are not limited to the following:
Cost per Click Violations – Often affiliate agreements are set up to pay per each visitor’s visit or click. When the visitor clicks to your page you will be charged either by impression or by a set fee per click. Those who are scamming use software that imitates human activity. With this software they create a series of clicks. Of course there is no interested human behind the clicking so there are no sales and the fraudulent conditions bleed the honest businesses of hard earned money.
Spam – The violators will send spam messages to market an affiliate product. These spam messages build up a product and offer a description that is not valid in order to get the person to make a purchase. These fraudsters are simply looking to get the commission quickly and then often will change tactics. This is a negative for the customer because they didn’t get what they were paying for and now they will not trust the internet for their future purchases.
Traffic Theft – A scammer may create a site offering the same product and then steal or divert traffic. The customer who would have been originally going to your site is now going to the thief’s’ site. It is simple; the scammer who is essentially a hacker will change the code of a file to replace your affiliate link with their own links. In this way the customers will be unknowingly diverted to another site. You, the honest affiliate won’t receive your commission and there is a good chance that you will loose interest in the program.
Illegal Purchases – If the scammer can’t get people to buy from an affiliate link; if they can’t steal the customer they may simply use a stolen credit card to make purchases across a network of affiliate links. In this way they receive a large number of sales related commissions and the merchants are left holding the bag for any credit card chargeback’s. If you are a merchant and you see a large number of rapid affiliate purchases be very suspicious.
These tactics are intended to scam those who aren’t aware. If you are not on the top of your game, your business could wind up getting quietly robbed. One way to prevent this is to work with an Affiliate Network that has plenty of software countermeasures in place. This will protect not only your clients abut your business as well. By using a reputable affiliate network you can identify and reduce suspicious buying patterns and quickly validate all links.