Common Affiliate Marketing Scams and How to Avoid Them

WPBeginner has been involved in affiliate marketing for a long time – both as marketers and as businesses running our own referral programs. We’ve seen the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

And it doesn’t get any uglier than affiliate marketing scams! They’re costly, frustrating, and they can do serious damage to your reputation.

That’s why we’re sharing our hard-earned experience. In this article, we’re exposing the most common affiliate marketing scams out there and giving you practical, actionable advice to protect yourself.

Since this is such an important topic (we’re talking about money, after all) we’re covering this subject from both perspectives. Whether you’re a business owner or an affiliate marketer, you’ll find valuable tips to protect yourself.

How Do Affiliate Marketing Scams Affect Businesses?

To say that affiliate marketing is a huge industry is an understatement. In fact, according to our affiliate statistics, the industry is worth over $21 billion.

But there’s a catch.

There are scammers out there who try to steal from businesses by pretending to be affiliate marketers. Similarly, they may defraud unsuspecting affiliate marketers by pretending to be a legitimate business.

Unfortunately, there are all kinds of scams out there and the consequences can be huge:

• Financial loss – Affiliate marketing scams may use deceptive practices to hijack ads, change payment terms, or block payments, causing financial loss to marketers.
• Reputational Damage – Some scammers create fake websites, advertisements, and landing pages pretending to be a legitimate business. If someone impersonates your business, then it can do huge damage to your reputation.
• Legal Damages – Some affiliate marketing scams promote illegal products or fraudulent activities. This can lead to legal consequences and often damages the affiliate’s personal and professional standing.
• Increased Skepticism – Due to encountering scams, affiliate marketers may become more skeptical and hesitant to join new programs or promote certain products. This can make it difficult to form legitimate partnerships and generate revenue.

Thankfully, it’s not all bad news! You can avoid many of these scams by carefully researching an affiliate program’s terms and conditions. Before signing up, it’s important to look for the shady tactics that scammers commonly use.

But, how do you know what to look for? We’re going to cover some of the most common affiliate marketing scams to watch out for. Simply use the quick links below to jump to the section that’s relevant for you:

Common Affiliate Marketing Scams Targeting Affiliate Marketers

Scammers are sneaky, and they LOVE to target affiliate marketers. They’ll try to lure you in to promoting some shady product, promise you big payouts, and then disappear, leaving you with little or no return.

It’s a classic trick, and it’s something we’ve seen way too many times.

So, what kind of scams should you watch out for? Let’s take a look at some of the most common ones targeting affiliate marketers.

1. Get Rich Quick Schemes

Get-rich-quick schemes are perhaps the industry’s most common and longest-running affiliate marketing scam.

They promise affiliate marketers a much higher commission for promoting their products with big claims about earning potential.

It can be hard to identify these scams. Many niches in the affiliate industry offer higher incentives, and it is not uncommon for legitimate businesses to make big claims, in order to attract more affiliates.

Get-rich-quick scams differ because they often sell questionable products with little to no value.

How to Identify This Scam:

These businesses often make big promises of incredibly high earning potential. They are often selling dubious products with little to no value. Their affiliate program is not transparent, and terms and conditions are often vague or have hidden clauses to avoid making payments.

2. Fake Products

Fake products are another common scam targeting affiliate marketers. These scammers try to sell a cheap (and often illegally obtained) copy of a legitimate product by a recognized brand.

Sometimes, they don’t even bother delivering a cheap copy and simply steal money from customers.

Another variation of this scam involves digital products. Customers pay, but there’s no download, no access, and absolutely no customer support.

These scammers also often refuse to pay their affiliate marketers, meaning they get money for nothing – and everyone else loses.

How to Identify This Scam:

Fake products are often created by copying an existing brand or business. Their pricing is often lower than the actual products, which lures customers into believing they are getting a good deal.

Do your research about the product, search for real reviews, or look for some background information about the business to see if they have a good reputation.

3. Pyramid Schemes and Multi-level Marketing Programs

Pyramid schemes – you might also know them as multi-level marketing (MLM) – are an old scam, way older than the internet. But even though they’ve been around forever, they’re still surprisingly effective at tricking innocent people.

Pyramid schemes target affiliate marketers by asking them to recruit investors into often imaginary, fake, or shoddy products. Marketers are promised commissions not just on their own recruits, but also on the recruits those people bring in, creating a pyramid-like structure.

Eventually, it becomes impossible to find new recruits, and the whole scheme fails. These scammers then go ahead and launch the scheme again, under a different name.

Even if they’re selling a real product, an MLM company floods the market with affiliates, meaning no one makes any meaningful money, and the market gets completely saturated.

How to Identify This Scam:

These scams often ask you to promote a fake business or a product such as a get-rich-quick scheme, questionable dietary supplement, or cheaply-made fake products. They’ll promise higher payouts if your recruits bring in more recruits. They may also ask you to pay a joining fee, which they often present as an investment.

4. Pay to Join Affiliate Programs

Watch out for affiliate programs that ask you to pay a joining fee. These “pay-to-join” schemes often masquerade as exclusive partnerships, claiming the fee is to ensure only “serious” marketers join.

Such programs will pretend to sell high-value items and promise unrealistically high commissions.

All genuine affiliate programs are free to join. Occasionally, some affiliate programs may ask you to demonstrate product knowledge or industry expertise, but they should never ask you to pay in order to promote their products.

How to Identify This Scam:

The biggest, most obvious red flag? They’ll ask you for money. Some may even want you to pay with Bitcoin so the transaction can’t be reversed or traced back. If a business asks you to pay to join their affiliate program, then it’s most likely a scam.

5. Fake Gurus and Influencers

Fake gurus and social media influencers are another common scam you need to watch out for. These fake influencers or self-claimed gurus often pretend to be experts in something and typically sell courses and 1-on-1 training sessions.

They may ask you to bring in unsuspecting customers and will promise a lucrative commission when someone signs up for their course, follows them on social media, or joins their email list.

These scammers will then sell customers useless courses with little to no value. They may also refuse to pay affiliate marketers by not recognizing any leads or conversions they deliver.

To make matters worse, there are plenty of legitimate experts who sell online courses and mentorship programs. This makes it difficult for affiliate marketers to tell the difference between legitimate businesses and scammers.

How to Identify This Scam:

These scammers usually have no track record of their supposed expertise. Their testimonials may sound fake and unverifiable. They will often use pushy tactics to make sales, and most of their followers on social media profiles will be bot accounts.

6. Phishing Scams

Phishing is another common tactic scammers use to target affiliate marketers.

They’ll create fake websites or emails that look exactly like legitimate affiliate programs, tricking affiliates into providing login credentials or personal information.

Besides fake websites and emails, scammers may also target affiliate marketers on social media websites and messaging apps. They may use brand images of popular affiliate platforms to deceive victims into believing they’re talking to an official account.

How to Identify This Scam:

To avoid this common scam, always double-check that you’re on a legitimate website.

If you’re unsure, then close your browser window and try to reach the actual website manually. Be extra cautious with emails asking you to visit a link – scrutinize them carefully. And absolutely NEVER enter your login credentials on a website you’re not 100% sure is legitimate.

Common Affiliate Marketing Scams Targeting Businesses

If you are a business running an affiliate program to generate more sales, then you’re also a target for scammers.

So, what kind of scams should you be on the lookout for? Let’s dive in!

1. Fraudulent Transactions

Here’s a nasty one: scammers may target your business by generating fake sales using stolen credit cards, dummy payment accounts, and other fraudulent techniques.

They rack up fake sales, qualify for commissions, and then you’re stuck with refunds and chargebacks when those transactions get flagged.

More sophisticated scammers may even attempt to manipulate your conversion tracking data to credit themselves with even more sales.

How to Identify This Scam:

The easiest way to detect this scam is by monitoring your refund and chargeback requests.

Just remember that some refunds are legitimate – customers may just be unhappy with their purchase. The key is to look for patterns. If you see a sudden spike in refunds tied to specific affiliates, then that’s a huge red flag.

2. Cookie Stuffing

This one’s a real sneaky scam, and it targets businesses running affiliate programs.

Here is how it works: The scammers use phishing tactics, malware, and popups to install cookies with their affiliate tracking IDs on an unsuspecting user’s browser. When the user visits the website and make a purchase, these marketers get a commission.

These cookies are often set never to expire unless a user deletes all cookies in their browser. The customer had no interaction with the scammer’s content, no referral – nothing! And yet, the scammer still earns a commission.

How to Identify This Scam:

This sort of scam is difficult to spot unless your affiliate management program has built-in fraud detection. You also need to monitor your conversions in Google Analytics, looking for suspicious URLs and activity.

Many affiliate programs only allow marketers to send traffic from a pre-approved list of websites, and any conversions not originating from their approved websites are discredited.

Wherever possible, we recommend only allowing affiliates to send traffic from a pre-approved lists of websites. You can then flag and investigate any conversions from unapproved sources.

3. Google Ad Keyword Hijacking

This one’s a real pain for businesses: Google Ad Keyword Hijacking.

Basically, the scammers sign up for an affiliate program and run Google ads on brand keywords or keywords where your business may already be advertising.

This drives up your ad costs, and you end up paying them a commission for traffic you could have gotten yourself.

Even worse, these scammers might redirect users through their own website first before sending them to yours. This makes it harder to spot the fraud.

How to Identify This Scam:

To fight back, you’ll need to closely monitor your top keywords for PPC ads on Google. The easiest way to do this is by using a search marketing tool like Semrush.

We recommend monitoring your website traffic for unusual spikes or high-traffic sources. You can also carefully monitor affiliate activity to look out for unusually high conversions, sudden jumps in referral traffic, and anything else that doesn’t look right.

4. Fake Leads

Fake leads – this is a real headache for businesses paying affiliate marketers to bring in leads.

Scammers can generate fake leads using sophisticated techniques, such as stolen user data, unverified leads bought from third-party sources, or simply paying someone to create fake user accounts.

More sophisticated scammers may even send bot traffic from legitimate-looking websites. These bots will then fill out your lead forms with fake info.

How to Identify This Scam:

Double opt-in is your friend! Requiring leads to confirm their email address can filter out a lot of fake leads. You can also reach out to leads directly, to check that they’re legitimate.

If a bunch of leads turn out to be fake, then you can dig deeper and find the affiliate accounts that are sending those leads.

We also recommend examining your affiliate reports carefully. If you see a website sending the exact same number of leads every day, then that’s a strong sign that something’s wrong.

5. Click Frauds

If you’re running a pay-per-click affiliate program, then you’re a prime target for click fraud. Scammers can use all sorts of techniques to generate fake clicks and traffic.

Some scammers even use automated bots to click on links. Even worse, these bots may use IP spoofing and appear as legitimate traffic in your analytics or affiliate marketing reports.

And then there are click farms, which pay people pennies to manually click links from hacked computers all over the world.

How to Identify This Scam:

Google Analytics can help you identify click fraud. You can look for suspicious traffic sources, traffic coming from random places, and low conversion rates compared to the industry average.

We also recommend keeping track of IP addresses, to look for signs of click fraud. Wherever possible, it’s also smart to use affiliate management software that has built-in tools to detect and prevent click fraud.

6. URL Hijacking

Here’s another common scam that businesses need to watch out for: affiliate partners registering domain names that are nearly identical to theirs.

For instance, if a business’s website is a stargardeningtools.com, then scammers may register stargardiningtools.com or similar domains.

You can often catch this by checking your referral domains in Google Analytics. But, some of these scammers are sneaky – they’ll use redirects to hide the squatted domain from your analytics.

How to Identify This Scam:

When it comes to avoiding this scam, it’s important to regularly monitor your referral domains in Google Analytics. Also, keep an eye on your traffic sources. If you see traffic coming from a site that has absolutely no content related to your products, then you’ll want to investigate further.

Avoiding Affiliate Marketing Scams: Tips and Tricks

Following are some handy tips that will help you avoid common affiliate marketing scams both as a marketer and as a business.

1. Join Reputable Affiliate Platforms

Join the top affiliate networks and platforms to work with top businesses, the best products, and legitimate affiliate marketers.

Platforms like ShareASale, Impact, and Amazon offer a large number of products and businesses to promote. They also help businesses partner up with the best marketers, handle payouts, and prevent fraud.

The catch? They often charge fees, which will eat into your profits.

Luckily, there are platforms like AffiliateWP. It’s a fantastic affiliate tracking and management software that runs on top of WordPress, so you’re in complete control over your program. You can also avoid the middleman fees associated with using other platforms.

We use AffiliateWP to manage the referral programs across many of our partner brands including Easy Digital Downloads, Smash Balloon, and Duplicator. It’s helped us grow our brands, while avoiding the common affiliate marketing scams thanks to its advanced fraud detection features.

Another excellent alternative is Easy Affiliate. Similar to AffiliateWP, it runs on top of WordPress and lets you manage and run your own affiliate program. Similar to AffiliateWP, this plugin will notify you about suspicious activity so you can investigate, then flag or reject before you pay out.

2. Monitor Your Website Traffic

Whether you’re an affiliate marketer or an affiliate manager, monitoring your website traffic regularly helps you detect and prevent fraud and scams.

The easiest way to do this is by installing MonsterInsights. It’s a popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress that helps you track your website traffic. As you’ve seen throughout this post, monitoring your traffic is often the first step to spotting fraudulent activity.

MonsterInsights has features like eCommerce tracking, conversion tracking, outbound link tracking, and more. Plus, it helps you easily see where your traffic is coming from and what those users do while visiting your site. All of this can help you pinpoint scammers, before they hurt your bottom line.

3. Use Better Link Management Tools

Running an affiliate marketing business means managing a ton of links. You need tools that make it easy to insert those links, boost your earnings, and, crucially, track their performance to see what’s working and spot any suspicious clicks.

This is where ThirstyAffiliates comes in. It is the best affiliate link management tool for WordPress and allows you to easily manage and track all your affiliate links. At WPBeginner, we use ThirstyAffiliates to manage over 2000 affiliate URLs. That said, we’re confident that it can manage your link library – no matter how big it is!

ThristyAffiliates also helps you detect broken affiliate links, track link clicks, set up redirects, and cloak affiliate links.

Another option is PrettyLinks. It is a link management tool for WordPress that lets you shorten affiliate links, cloak URLs, manage all your links, and easily insert them into your website. Some of our partner brands use PrettyLinks, so we’re confident that it’s a good alternative to ThirstyAffiliates.

For more on this topic, see our complete affiliate marketing guide for beginners.

Frequently Asked Questions About Affiliate Marketing Scams

The following are some of the most commonly asked questions about affiliate marketing scams by our users.

1. Is affiliate marketing risky?

We’ve covered a lot of scams today, so you might be thinking: is affiliate marketing even worth the risk?

The truth is that most of these affiliate marketing scams can be easily avoided. Even with the risks, affiliate marketing is still a fantastic way for publishers to earn money online and for businesses to promote their products and services.

2. Is affiliate marketing similar to pyramid schemes?

No, affiliate marketing is not similar to pyramid schemes. Unlike pyramid schemes, affiliate programs are free to join, and affiliate marketers are paid to bring in customers. However, some pyramid schemes may present themselves as an affiliate program in order to appear legitimate – so stay vigilent!

3. Is it possible to avoid affiliate marketing scams altogether?

Yes, it is possible to avoid affiliate marketing scams by joining reputable affiliate platforms and carefully selecting affiliate marketers, products, and businesses that you work with. Do your research, trust your instincts, and don’t be afraid to walk away from anything that doesn’t seem right.

We hope this article helps you avoid common affiliate marketing scams. You may also want to explore these online business ideas or take a look at these additional ways to make money online.

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