Affiliate Fraud (Click Fraud)
Affiliate fraud is any attempt to earn commissions illegitimately, such as fake clicks, forced cookies, self-referrals, or fabricated conversions.
Common tactics include click fraud (generating fake or bot clicks), cookie stuffing (dropping tracking cookies without a genuine referral), self-referrals, and creating fraudulent orders that are later cancelled. Each inflates a fraudster's earnings at the merchant's expense.
Programs defend against fraud with conversion validation, refund/clearing windows before payout, anomaly detection on click and conversion patterns, and clear terms that allow clawing back commissions tied to fraudulent activity.
See also
- Clawback (Chargeback)
A clawback is the reversal of a previously credited affiliate commission when the underlying sale is refunded, cancelled, or charged back.
- S2S / Postback Tracking
Server-to-server (S2S) postback tracking records conversions by sending an event directly from the merchant's backend to the affiliate platform, without relying on browser cookies.
- Conversion
A conversion is the qualifying action — such as a sale, signup, lead, or subscription — that triggers an affiliate commission.
- Attribution
Attribution is the process of determining which affiliate or marketing touchpoint should receive credit — and the commission — for a conversion.
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