Affiliate Fraud.

Affiliate fraud.
Affiliate Marketing which has been providing internet marketers with good incomes when promoted correctly has been around for the last decade but recently scams have been discovered and unfortunately affiliate fraud is a mega concern. So much so that when I spoke to my bank (in Spain) not only did they know all about it but they were in touch with various companies and Banks and were doing everything possible to alleviate this problem. Unfortunately though, where money is involved there will always be fraudsters who will find a way. Fraud is illegal and these fraudsters have no qualms about cheating individual merchants, buyers or even other affiliates.
Recognizing an affiliate fraud and what to do about it?
If your affiliate program seems to have changed and is not running as it was or as you had expected you will have to do some research and check out your logs. Look for any suspicious activity or unusual patterns.
Some fraudsters will even copy successful websites to trick potential targets and direct them to the wrong web site. This way the merchant will lose out on traffic and therefore lose out on potential income. This is a very major problem. If these fraudsters and there are many of them, each have just a couple of bogus sites, imagine the money that is ending up in the wrong pockets. It could easily amount to millions and that is no exaggeration and some of this could be yours.
Your traffic stats should show up in your logs and even if you don't think there has been changes, it is worth checking regularly just to be sure.
Kes.