Black-hat offers — are offers that violate the law or are based on deliberately deceiving people. A person loses money, data or account access and doesn't receive what was promised: a product, payout or result. That's why most black-hat offers involve fraud.
In terms of «colors», black-hat offers are the last category: white-hat offers are permitted by both the law and advertising platforms, gray-hat offers are legal but restricted by platform rules, while black-hat offers violate the law.
What counts as black-hat offers
Such offers are most commonly found in finance, sweepstakes and physical product marketing. Examples of black-hat offers include:
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scam investments and Ponzi schemes — projects promising «guaranteed» returns that never intend to pay anything out;
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physical product offers where customers receive packages containing junk instead of the products they paid for;
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«miracle cures» that supposedly treat serious illnesses;
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phishing websites that steal passwords and bank card information;
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malware disguised as useful software: antivirus programs, performance boosters and cracked applications.
The line between gray-hat and black-hat often depends on the approach. An online casino itself is considered a gray-hat offer. But fake «guaranteed winning signals» or a casino that accepts deposits but doesn't pay out winnings — are already black-hat.
Where black-hat offers are found
They are provided by questionable, often private affiliate networks or directly by advertisers themselves. Payouts for such offers can be very high, competition is low, and there are no strict advertising requirements: the advertiser wants to get money quickly and doesn't care about their reputation.
What risks do affiliate marketers face?
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participating in fraud can lead to legal liability, including criminal charges;
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a fraudulent advertiser may also scam the affiliate marketer by refusing to pay for traffic and disappearing;
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advertising platforms permanently ban accounts that promote such offers.
Important: not only offers but also traffic generation methods can be black-hat. Fraud, incentivized traffic disguised as regular traffic, first-bill fraud and hijacking other people's ad accounts are considered black-hat methods, even if the offer itself is legal. Legitimate affiliate networks don't approve leads generated through such traffic and block the webmaster.
