The process of identifying fraudulent affiliate activity — cookie stuffing, forced clicks, transaction fraud, brand term bidding — through systematic monitoring of click quality, conversion patterns, and publisher behavior anomalies. Key detection signals: click quality (unusually high or low click-to-conversion ratios; time-to-conversion distribution; device/browser diversity); conversion quality (abnormal return rates above 15-20%; new customer percentage below 30%; order value clustering at specific price points); publisher behavior (sudden unexplained click volume increases; geographic concentration anomalies; IP matches between publisher and purchaser data). Tools: affiliate network fraud detection (Impact's Forensiq integration, Awin compliance monitoring); third-party click fraud detection (HUMAN Security, DoubleVerify); brand-side conversion quality monitoring (return rate analysis, new customer identification, IP analysis). Prevention is more cost-effective than detection: rigorous publisher application review, server-side tracking implementation, and commission hold periods (30-45 days) reduce fraud exposure before it accumulates.
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