Fraud (from the English fraud — deception, dishonesty) — fraudulent or dishonest activities in the digital environment aimed at illegally obtaining money, data, or other benefits through deception or abuse of rules and systems.
Where fraud occurs in a broader sense
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In banking and payments: theft of bank card details, payments using stolen credentials, unauthorized transfers from accounts.
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In e-commerce: fake product returns, placing orders using someone else's information, abusing promo codes through multiple accounts.
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In cybersecurity: phishing, account theft, fake websites, and other methods of deceiving users.
Fraud in traffic arbitrage and online marketing
In affiliate marketing, fraud involves deceptive methods of generating or claiming clicks, app installs, registrations, deposits, leads, and other target actions to dishonestly receive payouts from an advertiser or affiliate network.
Main types of traffic arbitrage fraud:
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Click fraud (Click Fraud): generating fake clicks using bots or scripts to drain someone else's budget or artificially inflate CTR.
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Fake leads (Lead Fraud): generating leads with nonexistent or fake information to earn money from a CPA offer.
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Incentivized traffic (Incentive Fraud): attracting users with rewards or other incentives so they complete the required actions for compensation rather than out of genuine interest in the offer.
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Click injection and attribution hijacking (Click Injection / Click Hijacking): artificially adding or intercepting clicks to claim someone else's conversion and receive a payout for a user brought in by another source.
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Multi-accounting: creating multiple accounts to bypass affiliate program restrictions and repeatedly receive payouts for the same user or target action.
How advertisers fight fraud
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Anti-fraud systems: automated algorithms that analyze user behavior, IP addresses, device fingerprints, and abnormal spikes in activity.
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Hold (Hold): delaying an affiliate marketer's payout for a specific period, usually 7–30 days, so the advertiser or affiliate network can verify the quality and validity of traffic and conversions.
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Payout cuts and bans: cancellation of some or all earnings for invalid traffic and account suspension when fraud is confirmed.
Important: Fraud can lead to canceled conversions, withheld earnings, and account suspension by an affiliate network. During verification, advertisers and affiliate programs analyze traffic quality, audience retention, repeat payments, and user behavior, so suspicious activity can be detected both during the hold and after a payout.
