Affiliate fraud: the five patterns worth watching for

Affiliate is the one channel where you pay only for results, which is exactly why it attracts partners who are good at manufacturing results that were going to happen anyway. None of the patterns below are exotic. All five are visible in reporting you already have, if you look at the right cut.

1. Brand bidding

An affiliate bids on your brand name in search, intercepts a customer who was already coming to you, and claims the commission. It shows up as a partner with an unusually high conversion rate and very short time-to-conversion. Fix it in the terms, then monitor with a brand search report — not with trust.

2. Cookie stuffing

Tracking cookies dropped on visitors who never clicked anything, so the affiliate is credited for any purchase within the window. The signature is enormous click or impression volume with a tiny click-through rate and conversions spread evenly across your whole catalogue.

3. Coupon and last-click capture

• Sites that rank for 'yourbrand coupon' and capture the last click of a journey they contributed nothing to.
• Browser extensions that apply a code and claim attribution at the checkout step.
• The tell: conversion rates several times higher than any other partner and near-zero assisted conversions.

4. Fake leads on cost-per-lead programmes

Plausible names, valid-format phone numbers, addresses that resolve, submitted at a steady rate around the clock. Check for clustering by time of day, by IP range, and by how many convert past the first stage. A partner whose leads never reach stage two is not delivering leads.

5. Attribution window abuse

Long cookie windows mean an affiliate touch from 29 days ago can claim a purchase driven entirely by your own email. Shorten the window, and pay on a model that reflects contribution rather than pure last click.

The reporting that catches all five

• Conversion rate by partner, ranked — outliers in either direction are worth a look.
• Time from click to conversion by partner. Seconds means the click was not the cause.
• New versus returning customer split by partner. A partner delivering only returning customers is being paid for your own retention.
• Reversal and refund rate by partner, reviewed monthly rather than at year end.

Run those four reports every month and the programme stays honest. Skip them and you will find out at the annual review, after twelve months of paying for it.