How to Spot Affiliate Marketing Scams Before They Spread

As the web evolved, brands needed smarter, scalable ways to reach people without burning through ad budgets. So, affiliate marketing was born. Independent marketers could now earn a commission for every sale, click, or lead they drove the businesses’ way. Initially, it was performance-based and easy to track, so it naturally gained popularity. But as with all good things, wherever there’s money and traffic, scams are bound to follow sooner or later. In this article, we’ll go over affiliate scams, how to spot them early using Bluepear, and why catching them in time is crucial for protecting your business.

Compliance Threats and the Rise of Affiliate Fraud

For years, affiliate marketing has been one of the internet’s most powerful growth engines. It drives sales, builds brand awareness, and has the power to create meaningful partnerships that benefit both parties. With this kind of growth came complexities. Today, it’s not just rogue affiliates playing the system for extra income. Now, entire operations are built around deceptive practices. These are not mistakes but instead calculated moves by affiliates who are either cutting corners — or deliberately exploiting brands. Below, we have outlined the most common affiliate marketing scams.

Misleading or False Advertising

Affiliates may promote false offers, bonuses, or exaggerated claims to boost conversions. For example: “Get $500 free – no deposit needed!” when the actual offer is far less generous. Offers like this not only mislead users but can lead to fines, chargebacks, and lost trust.

Brand Impersonation

Some affiliates use your logo, name, or near-identical URLs without permission to create confusion — and profit from it. It’s like counterfeit marketing. Your brand ends up associated with pages or products you never approved.

Cloaking and Traffic Laundering

These affiliates show you one thing — and the user something completely different. They might mask adult content, unapproved geos, or shady offers under the guise of a legitimate campaign. It’s a sneaky online swap that’s tough to catch without the right tools watching closely.

Violating Geo or Channel Restrictions

Running campaigns in restricted countries or on blocked platforms (like specific ad networks or social channels) can break both your company’s policies and local regulations. Many brands end up in hot water for something they never authorized.

Fake or Bot Traffic

Instead of real users, some affiliates send scripted bot traffic that inflates click and conversion numbers. It looks great on a dashboard — until you realize none of it was real. Worse, bots can skew analytics and trigger fraud flags from your ad partners.

Non-Disclosure of Sponsored Content

Affiliates are legally required (in most jurisdictions) to disclose paid promotions. When they skip that step, it’s not just unethical — it could land your brand in trouble with regulatory bodies like the FTC or GDPR watchdogs.

Compliance Evasion Techniques

Savvier fraudsters go to great lengths to avoid detection: rotating domains, using VPNs to spoof locations, and even showing compliant content only to monitoring tools (while regular users see the real, non-compliant stuff). Without round-the-clock monitoring, these can slip right through.

Biggest Affiliate Scam of 2024

Now that you are up to date with the various affiliate scams out there let’s discuss the biggest one that came to light in late December 2024 – the Honey affiliate scam. The spotlight turned on PayPal’s Honey extension after YouTuber MegaLag dropped a 23-minute exposé accusing Honey of hijacking affiliate commissions right at checkout.

Here’s what allegedly happened: when a shopper used an influencer’s affiliate link and then clicked Honey’s coupon pop-up, Honey would reportedly erase the original tracking cookie and insert its own—crediting itself for the sale, even if it provided no coupon. The backlash was swift: Honey lost around 3 million Chrome users in just two weeks—and has since lost about 4 million users total. The uproar even spurred Google to revise its Chrome extension policies in March 2025, prohibiting extensions from injecting affiliate links without delivering transparent, user-benefitting functionality.

How To Effectively Monitor Affiliates?

Affiliate fraud isn’t falling behind anytime soon – and neither should your monitoring strategy. Industry leaders are utilizing a combination of AI tools and cyber security professionals to identify potential red flags. That’s why Bluepear includes 24/7 monitoring of brand queries, ensuring no misuse slips through the cracks. With deep keyword insights and ad data, you can see exactly when and where your brand or offers are being misrepresented — whether it’s in a shady ad, unauthorized blog post, or suspicious paid search campaign.

And when violations do occur, you won’t be left guessing. You’ll get concrete proof — including links, affiliate IDs, and screenshots — all neatly packaged and ready to drop into your following report. Plus, with a dedicated account manager by your side, you’ll always have expert support to interpret the findings and act fast. In short, it’s a full compliance command center — without the chaos.

With the proper monitoring tools, clear policies, and a watchful eye (or, better yet, a compliance partner who never blinks), you can run profitable programs without worrying about brand impersonators or stealthy scammers slipping through. So before the next headline breaks or the next Honey-style scandal unfolds, ask yourself: who’s really watching your affiliates?