Affiliate Program Fraud Detection
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Affiliate Programs must defend against
credit card fraud.
The scam works like this: an affiliate joins your program and
he makes a lot of sales. So after a month or so you cut him a check
for his share of the money. You might even cut him a check for a
couple of months before the chargebacks start to roll in. He's been
charging your product on stolen credit card numbers, and now he
has half the money and all you have is chargebacks and fees. The
worst part is that even after you identify this guy and get rid
of him, he's probably still on your network, using another URL,
another name, another address, running up chargebacks.
Defense against credit card fraud involves
looking for patterns.
- They tend to charge larger items. If they're gonna steal,
why steal something small?
- IP address, email address, ship address, etc. often associated
with former eastern block countries, such as Russia, Ukraine,
China, Poland, etc.
- Invalid email addresses. Always send an email confirmation.
If it bounces that's bad.
- Compare with known database of stolen credit cards
- Ship address different than the billing address.
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