Affiliate fraud
Affiliate fraud is a type of fraud within affiliate marketing in which affiliates manage to gain additional revenue by acting illegally. One form in which affiliates can commit this fraud is link fraud, clicking frequently on cpc ads themselves. Lead fraud, however, is also a possibility.
Lead fraud, for example, uses fake e-mail addresses or sock puppets to generate soft conversions, such as signing up for an advertiser's newsletter. A common method of defrauding sales is to use tricks to place affiliate cookies on as many computers as possible on a large scale, hoping that potential purchases will be assigned to the affiliate: cookie dropping.
Affiliate networks are keen to combat affiliate fraud. While it is true that fraud generates additional revenue for the network, fraud comes at the expense of the advertiser's budget and their trust in the network and the affiliate industry.
Possible indications of click fraud include many inbound clicks or leads through the same IP address or an unnaturally high conversion rate within traffic from a particular affiliate.
