Affiliate Fraud Detection

Stop Paying Affiliates for Customers You Already Own.

The average mid-market brand bleeds $40K–$180K a year to affiliates bidding on its own brand name in Google. First evidence in 24 hours. If we find nothing, you don’t pay.

No credit card requiredResults in 24 hours30-day full refund · Evidence yours either way

Best fit for programs with 50+ active affiliates or $10K+ in monthly commissions.

Built by an independent team in the EU. No VC funding. No sales calls. Just evidence.

Real Case File

CONFIRMED HIJACK

Singapore · 2026

Affiliate brand-bid hijack on coupon query

query
coupon
network
Awin
publisher id
#941621
violator
barakatalan.com

Redirect chain

Google Adbarakatalan.comawin1.com·brand

Forward-ready for network compliance

Live
suspicious bidders surfaced
Field Ledger

The numbers from the floor.

Every affiliate program we've ever scanned has had unauthorized bidders on its brand name. These are the numbers, pulled live from the scanner fleet.

400Brands ScannedPre-launch & early-access programs
3,200Bidders SurfacedConfirmed + likely unauthorized
9Scan Regions LiveNorth America, Europe, Asia, Oceania
6Networks IdentifiedPublisher IDs extracted from every hop

Updated hourly · numbers rounded down

Network Coverage

The six networks we decode.

Every tracking parameter in your fraud redirect chain — parsed, labelled, and traced back to the publisher account. The number your affiliate manager needs to file a dispute.

Live

Awin

awinaffid=

Publisher ID

Live

Impact

irclickid=

Click Tracking

Live

CJ Affiliate

cjevent=

Click Tracking

Live

ShareASale

u=

Publisher ID

Live

Webgains

siteid=

Publisher ID

Live

PaidOnResults

porc=

Click Tracking

If your brand is being bid on through any of these networks, we pull the publisher ID out of the redirect chain and hand it to you with the screenshot, the ad copy, and the timestamp. No network relationship required.

The Problem

You're Paying Affiliates to Steal Your Own Customers

01

A customer searches for your brand.

A real user types your brand plus a buying modifier — coupon, deal, promo, discount.

02

An affiliate intercepts the click.

A sponsored ad sits above your own result and routes the visitor through tracked links first.

03

You still pay for the sale.

The customer converts anyway, but now the order carries a commission for traffic that was already yours.

10–30% of affiliate payouts go to unauthorized brand bidding, especially when coupon and promo keywords go unmonitored.
Free Scan

Scan Your Brand for Free

Three keywords. Nine regions. Full PDF report in 24 hours. No credit card.

Free scans are reviewed manually. Company-domain email required so we can verify you represent the brand. Need an exception? mario@adcrime.com.

Approval policy

Use your company-domain email to request a free scan.

Requests from Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and other personal inboxes are not approved.

Need an exception? Email mario@adcrime.com.

The brand name we'll search for on Google.

We'll exclude this domain from fraud results.

Use your work email so we can verify you represent the brand.

0 / 3 keywords

🔍 We'll search Google for:

Enter a brand name to see search queries

9 selected (up to active fleet regions)

Your free scan includes

  • Violating domains + ad screenshots
  • Affiliate IDs + redirect chains
  • 5-tier classification per detection
  • Coupon codes + network details

We never share your data. Results sent only to your email.

The Next 24 Hours

Here's What Happens Next.

From the moment you submit your domain to the moment the evidence lands in your inbox. That's the free scan. Once you're monitoring, the loop is faster.

01

You tell us the brand.

One short form. No credit card, no sales call, no demo booking. Takes thirty seconds.

02

We scan from nine countries.

Our detection network hits Google Ads from the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, Romania, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia, looking for affiliates bidding on your brand terms. We document every violator with screenshots, publisher IDs, ad copy, and redirect chains.

03

Your case file lands in 24 hours.

You receive a PDF with every fraudster we found, ready to forward to your affiliate network for clawback. Then you decide whether to subscribe and keep the detection running. No pressure, no follow-up sales sequence, no awkward “checking in” emails.

After Signup

Every scan runs on the live fleet in ~15 minutes. Reports generate instantly.

The 24-hour promise is the free first scan — we review it manually before it ships. Once you're monitoring, new keywords, new regions, and fresh case files turn around in minutes, not days.

Not ready to hand us your domain?

Read the 15,000-word Affiliate Brand-Bidding Fraud Playbook.

Twelve sections on detection, recovery, and prevention. Free. Ungated. No email required. Take it and run your own audit if you'd rather not hand us your domain yet.

Open the playbook
Exhibit A · Real Case

One Case File. One Hundred Percent Confirmed.

Pulled directly from our live detection database. Brand name shown exactly as the violator displayed it publicly — that's the violation. Violator domain, network, publisher ID, coupon codes, and redirect chain preserved as captured. This is what lands in a customer's inbox within 24 hours.

Classification

CONFIRMED FRAUD

Confidence

100%

Region scanned

🇸🇬 Singapore

Detected

2026-04-23 · 12:08 UTC

The search

query: [brand name] coupon

Target: a mid-market VPN brand. Free scan requested by the brand.

The ad we caught

Sponsored · www.barakatalan.com/fastestvpn/coupons

www.barakatalan.com/fastestvpn/coupons — FastestVPN Coupon Code | Upto 93% Discount & Offers

The redirect chain

  1. Google Ad — sponsored slot
  2. barakatalan.com (coupon site)
  3. awin1.com/cread.php — tracking redirect
  4. [brand].com — landing

The publisher (smoking gun)

networkAwin

publisher id#941621

merchant id#90211

A static publisher ID — not a click hash. The exact account number the brand forwards to Awin compliance to get the affiliate terminated.

Unauthorized coupon codes

AR26CM24

Exploiting codes never issued to this publisher. Commissions on these conversions are recoverable.

Detection signals

  • Landing page contains known affiliate network links
  • Strong affiliate params: awinaffid present
  • Known affiliate network: Awin
  • Coupon codes found: AR26, CM24
  • Multi-domain redirect chain (3 domains)
  • Coupon/deal site detected: barakatalan.com
  • Coupon site bidding on coupon/discount keyword
  • COMBO: Coupon site + affiliate params + coupon codes
  • FLOOR: Coupon site + coupon keyword + coupon codes visible
  • Publisher accounts detected: Awin #941621

Verdict

Unauthorized coupon positioning — confirmed

This is one report from one scan. In unmonitored programs, this is rarely the only case — first scans often surface multiple violators across coupon, promo, and review queries.

Evidence to Action

Detection is step one. Here's the rest of the workflow.

A case file is only useful if it converts to terminated affiliates and recovered commissions. We hand off ready-to-forward evidence; your team and the affiliate networks do the enforcement. Here's the actual sequence after the PDF lands in your inbox.

01

Forward the dossier to network compliance.

Each case file is forwarding-ready: screenshot, redirect chain, publisher ID, ad copy, timestamp, region. You attach it to a one-line email to Awin, Impact, CJ, or whichever network the violator is registered with. The static publisher ID is the unique key compliance teams need to act.

You — about 5 minutes per case.

02

Dispute the commissions paid on hijacked traffic.

Many networks and programs have locking or reversal windows, often around 30–90 days depending on the platform and contract. The publisher ID and timestamped evidence are exactly what their commission-dispute process needs. We include the Pro-tier C&D template language for the cases that escalate.

Network compliance — same day to several business days once evidence is accepted.

03

Affiliate gets actioned.

Networks vary, but the dossier gives them what they need to review, reverse, remove, or escalate the publisher account. In repeat-offender cases (cross-brand violations, typosquats, cloaking), the network can block the publisher network-wide. The operational outcome: you stop paying that affiliate, and so does every other brand on the network.

Network — outcome and timing vary by platform and severity.

AdCrime produces the dossier. Your affiliate manager forwards it. The network does the termination and the clawback. We don't replace your network compliance team — we hand them the one thing they can't produce on their own: the static publisher ID, with evidence, in 24 hours.

This is what brand protection sounds like.

90 seconds. You'll understand everything we do.

Yes, it's a rap song. No, we're not sorry.

0:00--:--
The Perimeter

You Don't Have A Fraud Problem. You Have A Perimeter Problem.

Affiliate fraud isn't a leak you plug once. It's a probe. Fraudsters test your brand keywords every week — new domains, new networks, new cloaks. The moment they see you've stopped watching, they're back inside two weeks.

We've watched it happen.

Month 1 — with AdCrime

We surface 20–100 violators.

You send the dossiers to Awin, Impact, CJ. Commissions killed. Offenders booted. Your first real look at the damage.

Month 2–3 — with AdCrime

The smart ones stop trying.

Your scans come back cleaner. Your CAC drops. Your commission line stops bleeding. The perimeter is doing its job.

Month 4 — without AdCrime

Old offenders test new domains.

New geos, new networks, new cloaks. Affiliate fraud is a probe, not a one-off — once the watch ends, the cheap attempts come back.

Month 4 — with AdCrime

The cheap attempts drop off.

Because the brand is visibly watched. Sophisticated fraudsters still try sometimes, but the volume falls when the perimeter is obvious.

That's not a product failing because it found nothing. That's a product working because it found nothing. You don't rip the cameras out of your warehouse the month no one robbed it.

Fraudsters usually test the brands that look unwatched.

Cost of Inaction

Run your own numbers.

Drop your numbers in. Pick the leak scenario that fits your program. See what that costs you, today, every month.

Your inputs

12%

Common exposure · BrandVerity 2025 baseline

3,500

How many sales come through your affiliate channel each month?

$80

Mean basket size in USD.

25%

Average affiliate commission, % of sale value.

Monthly affiliate spend$70,000

Estimated leak — 12% of commission spend

$8,400per month
$100,800per year

AdCrime Pro · $449 / mo

Pays for itself in 2 days on a single caught fraudster.

Your free scan replaces this estimate with evidence.

Default scenario: 12% commission leakage (BrandVerity, 2025). Adjust up or down based on your program's coupon exposure, network mix, and monitoring history. Real programs we've scanned have leaked between 5% and 25%.

The Deal

Free First Scan. 30-Day Full Refund. Evidence Is Yours Either Way.

In our pre-launch and early-access scans of active affiliate programs, every qualifying program surfaced unauthorized or likely-unauthorized bidders. The first scan is free — if we find nothing, you walk away with nothing lost.

If the evidence is worth paying for, you keep the monitoring on. And if in the next 30 days you want out — didn't find enough, don't like the reports, changed your mind, whatever — reply with the word refund. Every dollar back. No call. No form. No “let's hop on a quick sync.”

You keep every piece of evidence we surfaced. Forever. Even if you refund.

All I'm Asking Is That You Look.

Look — I'm not going to ask you to decide if this is worth it from a landing page. That would be insane. The whole point of AdCrime is that the fraud is invisible until somebody looks. So all I'm asking is that you let me look. Sign up, let us scan your program, and read the evidence we send you. If it's worth what we're charging, you keep it. If it isn't, you walk away — no questions, no card charge, no hard feelings.

“Day one or day thirty — if you're not happy, I'm not happy.”

That's the whole deal.

I Guarantee It.

— Mario Vaher
  Founder, AdCrime
  Rural Estonia

Pricing

One Confirmed Violator Can Cover the Plan.

The first scan is always free. If we find fraud and you subscribe, you have 30 days to walk for any reason. Keep the evidence either way.

Entry

Your First Look at the Damage

$149/mo

100 credits / month

Best for: Your first branded-search audit.

What you get

  • Affiliate IDs, networks, coupon codes
  • Screenshots + redirect chains
  • AI-assisted fraud classification
  • 100 scan credits / month
  • 9-region scout network coverage
  • Unlimited domains
  • Daily / weekly email reports

One confirmed violator, with the evidence to act on it, can pay for the plan.

≈ Monitor 1 brand, 3 keywords, 1 region, daily.

Free first scan + 30-day full refund
Start Monitoring →

Pro

Most popular

The Commission Recovery System

$449/mo

500 credits / month

Best for: Ongoing multi-region enforcement.

What you get

  • Everything in Entry
  • C&D letter templates (lawyer-reviewed)
  • 500 scan credits / month (5×)
  • Priority scanning queue
  • CSV exports
  • Slack real-time alerts

Built to catch repeat offenders across regions — where most leaked commissions hide.

≈ Monitor 2 brands, 5 keywords, 3 regions, daily.

Free first scan + 30-day full refund
Start Monitoring →

Enterprise

The Full Perimeter

$999/mo

1,500 credits / month

Best for: Always-on coverage at scale.

What you get

  • Everything in Pro
  • Auto-generated dispute packs per network
  • API access (FastAPI)
  • 1,500 scan credits / month (3×)
  • Dedicated AI fraud classifierBETA
  • Telegram priority support
  • Personalized scan regions on demand

At portfolio scale, leaked commissions compound — continuous coverage is the cheaper line item.

≈ Monitor 5+ brands across all regions, daily.

Free first scan + 30-day full refund
Start Monitoring →

Comparable tools often start around $500+/mo, add crawling fees, require trials or demos, or bundle affiliate compliance into broader enterprise suites.

Agency

Running Multiple Brands? White-Label the Whole Thing.

Starts at

$2,499/mo

Built for agencies, holding companies, and ecommerce groups monitoring several brands at once. Custom quote, custom workflows, white-label everything.

Talk to us
  • Everything in Enterprise
  • Multi-brand dashboard (manage unlimited client brands)
  • White-label PDF reports (your logo on every dossier)
  • Unlimited team seats + role-based access
  • Dedicated account rep
  • Custom integrations and workflows
  • Quarterly executive reviews
How Credits Work

1 credit = 1 keyword in 1 region before any automatic volume discount.

Larger configurations get cheaper per-unit pricing, but cost always increases when you add more keywords or regions.

Unused subscription credits roll forward for one billing cycle.

Example workload

3 keywords × 3 regions × daily cadence fits comfortably inside Entry.

Multi-brand daily monitoring across multiple regions usually pushes teams into Pro.

Enterprise exists for programs that want broad, always-on coverage without rationing usage.

Honest Filter

Who AdCrime Isn't For.

If any of these describe you, don't sign up. We'll save you a refund email and we'll save us a disappointed customer.

You don't run an affiliate program.

AdCrime only detects affiliates bidding on your brand. No affiliates, no fraud to detect. We're the wrong tool.

You have fewer than 20 active affiliates.

At that size you can audit your program manually in an afternoon. We become worth it around 20–30 active publishers.

Your monthly affiliate commissions are under $10K.

The exposure is real even at this scale, but the operational overhead of paid monitoring rarely justifies itself yet. Run manual spot checks until the program grows, then come back.

You want a demo call, a discovery session, and a 6-week procurement cycle.

Every tool on this page except ours offers that. We optimize for the affiliate manager who wants evidence in 24 hours, not a pipeline meeting.

Everyone else: run your free scan →

FAQ

Common Questions

Final Check

Ready to find out if affiliates are bidding on your brand?

Free scan. No credit card. Results in 24 hours. If the problem is real, you'll have proof worth acting on.