Affiliate marketing is currently widely used in various sectors—from travel agencies to e-commerce giants like Amazon andShopify-like technology platforms. It's no surprise, because affiliate marketing is a win-win strategy, profitable for both brands and partners. Brands get improved results, and affiliates get fair commissions.
All parties benefit – but only when this system is used honestly.
Affiliate fraud refers to deceptive tactics used by dishonest affiliate partners to earn commissions they don't deserve. This threat is not going away in 2025 – instead, it has become more sophisticated.
Where fraud was previously limited to click farms or fake purchases, it has now taken the form of ad hijacking, cloaked sites, and smart redirects. These techniques are difficult to detect and are far more harmful.
According to Juniper Research, in 2023, more than 22% of global digital advertising spending was lost to ad fraud, resulting in financial losses of approximately $84 billion. Even more concerning is that fraudsters are now presenting themselves as high-performing affiliates. You might be seeing “great” results, while they are silently defrauding you, increasing costs using fraudulent affiliate tactics.
In this context1xbet AffiliateKnowing affiliate fraud prevention strategies is especially important for projects like this.
In this guide, we will explain common tactics of modern affiliate fraud, how they affect your business, and—most importantly—how you can detect and prevent them.
Modern Affiliate Scam Techniques and Their Secrecy
The following discusses how the most common techniques work today and how they evade detection:
Advertisement hijacking
Fraudulent affiliates run paid search ads using your brand name, which look identical to your official messaging. To the user, it appears to be your advertisement – but it redirects them to their affiliate link.
URL hijacking
Fraudsters register domains very similar to your brand (e.g., brandnmae.com) and thereby redirect visitors to affiliate links.
Website cloaking
This shows different content to the user and the tracking tool. What is seen during review is actually different for users, often misleading or misinformation.
Trademark misuse
Fraudsters hijack traffic using brand names and present themselves as official partners.
Coupon fraud and last-click theft
Fraudsters activate affiliate cookies right before purchase using fake coupon codes or browser extensions, even if the user came from a different source.
Hidden Business Losses of Affiliate Fraud
Losing commission is not the only problem – long-term economic and reputational damage to the brand is possible:
- Budget wastage
Scammers steal their own organic traffic, thus increasing CPA. - Distorted analytics
Reports become inaccurate using incorrect cookies or last-click attribution. - Brand reputation damage
Fake discount sites or deceptive advertisements create a misconception among customers. - Increased internal costs
Party members spend time solving problems—which affects efficiency.
Why even the best teams miss affiliate fraud
Modern scammers use techniques like geofencing, device filtering, language targeting, and rotating time-based ads that common review processes can't catch.
Therefore, smart tools are needed – such as Bluepear – which:
- Scanning search results
- Identifying suspicious advertisements
- Taking screenshots and data logs
- Provides automated reports
With this kind of technology, you can know within 1 minute who is harming your brand—there is no room for guesswork.