Fraud prevention

Every affiliate program attracts fraud. Some protection in RevRoute works automatically, some is switched on in settings, and some comes down to the rules of your program. Below is what actually exists and where to find it.

Types of fraud

Category	What it looks like
Bot traffic	Crawlers, uptime monitors, link previews in messengers, scripts without a real browser
Click inflation	The same visitor opening a link over and over
Self-referrals	A partner buys through their own link or a friend’s account
Banned sources	Traffic from sites or ads you don’t allow partners to use
Duplicate accounts	One person signing up as several partners
Refunds after payout	A customer gets a refund after the commission was already paid

What works automatically

Bot filtering

Visits from known bots (search and AI crawlers, monitors, link previews) are not counted as clicks — the redirect still works, but counters don’t move.

Repeat-click deduplication

Repeat visits by the same visitor to the same short link within 1 hour count as one click. A visitor is identified by IP address and browser. The window is fixed and the same for every account — there is no separate cooldown setting.

Link parameters. By default, parameters after the link are not part of deduplication: visits to domain.com/renew?token=abc and domain.com/renew?token=xyz from the same browser within an hour count as one click. If you give out one link with different parameters (for example, a personal token per user), turn on Settings → Analytics → “Count clicks per link parameters”. Visits with different parameters are then counted separately, while the same token from the same visitor within an hour still counts once.

Fraud rules

Partner program → Fraud Detection. Available on Advanced plans and above.

RevRoute checks program events and flags suspicious ones:

Rule	What it catches
Matching customer email	The partner’s email matches the customer’s — a possible self-referral
Suspicious customer email domain	The customer signed up with a disposable or temporary email
Banned referral source	A click or conversion came from a domain you banned
Paid traffic	A click or conversion came from paid ads
Duplicate payout method	The partner’s payout details are already linked to another partner account
Cross-program ban	The partner is banned in one or more other programs
Fraud report	Another program reported this partner

While an event is unresolved, the partner’s payouts are held — they show as “On Hold” in the payouts list. Review the event: if it’s fine, mark it resolved and payouts continue as usual; if it’s fraud, ban the partner.

What you configure

Payout holding period. A commission becomes payable only after a set number of days, which leaves time for refunds. Set per partner group: Groups → group → Settings → “Payout holding period”.
Minimum payout amount. Small amounts accumulate until they reach the threshold, which makes one-off inflated conversions less attractive.
Manual partner approval. Review applications before a partner gets a link.

Patterns worth watching

Even with the rules in place, review partner reports weekly:

a partner’s click-to-lead rate is many times the program average (often fake sign-ups);
lots of leads and no sales;
a partner’s conversions all come from the same device or network;
a sudden spike in clicks with no referrer.

Program hygiene

Make it easy for honest partners to stay honest:

Clear terms. State explicitly that self-referrals, bidding on brand keywords and hidden link loading are grounds for removal.
A clear holding period. “Commissions become payable 14 days after the sale, once the refund window closes” is fair and familiar to partners.
A reporting channel. Customers who see suspicious ads using your brand should know where to report them.

If something slips through

Collect evidence

Clicks, conversions, customers and fraud events for the partner. Save them before banning — you’ll need them if the partner disputes the decision.

Ban the partner

Banning disables the partner’s links and automatically cancels their unpaid commissions and payouts. If a ban is too much, you can mark a single commission as fraud in Commissions — it won’t be included in a payout.

Handle what's already paid

Paid commissions are not reversed automatically — recovering them is governed by your program terms.