Фрод-трафик
Traffic Fraud
Traffic fraud is traffic obtained through dishonest methods: bots, data spoofing or imitation of target actions in order to get paid for conversions that never happened.
Traffic fraud (fraudulent traffic) is visitors, clicks, installs and conversions that look real but do not bring the advertiser a target audience. The main goal is to earn a payout for an action that either was never completed or was completed without any interest in the product. In high-risk verticals this is especially visible where payment is made for registration, deposit or first purchase, for example in CPA models and with revshare.
## How it works
Typical schemes: bots and emulators imitating clicks and form filling; cookie stuffing, when a partner sets cookies without any user action; clickjacking and hidden iframes; geo and device spoofing via proxies and antidetect browsers; account farming and mass fake registrations; attribution hijacking, when someone else's organic or paid traffic is credited to the fraudster.
## Where it occurs
Fraud most often appears in pay-per-action affiliate programs, in push and popunder networks, in mobile install media buying, and in partner flows for online casinos, bookmakers, crypto projects, fintech services, dating and nutra. The higher the payout per conversion, the more profitable fraud becomes.
## Impact
The advertiser pays for empty actions, the share of rejected payouts and holds grows, and unit economics and campaign ROI deteriorate. Fraud distorts analytics: A/B tests and optimization run on dirty data, and the affiliate network may block or downgrade the webmaster. In fintech and payments, fraud is also linked to the risk of fraud in the transactions themselves.
## How to detect it
Teams use anti-fraud systems and comparison against a baseline: an abnormally high share of conversions from a single ASN, identical user agents, zero deposits despite a high number of registrations, too short time on site, matching fingerprints across different accounts. It is important to look not only at CR but also at retention and LTV by cohort, and to verify postbacks and subids.
## Common mistakes
FAQ
How is traffic fraud different from low-quality traffic?
Fraud is deliberate deception: imitated actions, spoofed data or bots. Low-quality traffic can be real people who are simply far from the target audience, with no attempt to deceive.
How can an advertiser protect itself from fraud?
Use an anti-fraud system, verify postbacks and subids, compare metrics against a baseline, and check retention and deposits by cohort rather than just the number of conversions. It is better to put payouts on hold until traffic quality is verified.
Can a webmaster be blocked because of fraud?
Yes. Under the rules of most affiliate programs and networks, if fraud is detected, the hold may be frozen, the payout withheld, or the account closed. The conditions are usually set out in the agreement.