scam in arbitration, how to protect yourself
The field of CPA marketing is rapidly developing, attracting the interest not only of specialists who want to earn money from traffic arbitration, but also scammers. Scammers use various methods of deception, which creates significant risks for both beginners and experienced webmasters, as well as for partner networks, especially those that show loyalty when checking incoming user streams
Types of scam in arbitration
Scammers use various schemes to deceive naive beginners and constantly invent new ways of cheating. Arbitrators face risks at every stage of their activities, especially when it comes to new directions, offers and consumables that need to be purchased from third parties and third-party companies. To avoid the traps of scammers, it is important to carefully study the most common scam schemes and always be on your guard.
Direct deception of webmasters
The types of fraudulent schemes aimed at arbitrators include any fraudulent actions that cause financial and moral damage to specialists who directly attract client flows. Most often, spammers use thematic chats and forums, Telegram channels for their work.
Sale of fake consumables
The standard deception scheme related to consumables looks like this:
1. Scammers create collections of chats and forums where arbitrators communicate, collecting contact details of participants.
2. After that, scammers begin to send out private messages en masse to the collected databases, as well as post their offers on channels and in chat rooms. The first messages are usually created according to a standard attractive template, aimed at attracting potentially interested specialists.
3. After receiving a response from the victim, the scammers begin to "warm up" them in correspondence, trying to bring the webmaster to the moment of making the payment.
4. As soon as money transfers are made by a group of interested arbitrators, the crooks block their accounts and stop communicating.
This scam scheme is a classic one and has already claimed many victims among specialists working in the field of traffic arbitration. Experienced webmasters are well aware of it, whereas for beginners it poses a serious threat.
Providing access to private offers
Private offers are profitable offers that require an individual approach to the conditions of promotion and provide webmasters with payment at increased rates. Access to such offers is usually obtained by arbitrators with a good reputation or teams of media buyers.
1. They promise newcomers to arbitration access to attractive high-stakes offers for a small fee, presenting it as a commission of the partner platform.
2. Scammers pose as employees of partner platforms and demand a deposit for access to private offers, ostensibly to confirm the seriousness of the webmaster's intentions and his ability to work with large volumes of traffic. They promise to return the deposit later.
3. After receiving funds from the arbitrageur's account, scammers delete correspondence and block access to accounts used for fraud.
The situation is complicated by the fact that there are indeed CPA networks on the market that provide webmasters with access to selected offers for a fee, but there are very few such organizations. The owners of such affiliate programs explain the need for paid services by the fact that traffic specialists get access to proven products, while saving their time.
Sale of training courses
Scammers, seeking to distribute offers for the sale of training courses for arbitrators, actively select contacts of newcomers who seek support and advice from experienced colleagues on specialized forums and channels. As soon as they have a new database, they take action:
1. Scammers massively send attractive course descriptions through personal messaging services, supplementing them with fake income statistics that anyone who has completed training can allegedly receive. The messages contain direct offers to pay for the course.
2. They begin to "warm up" each potential client during correspondence or telephone conversations, creating the illusion of caring and interest.
3. After receiving the money, the scammers disappear: they delete correspondence, block access to accounts and can give the user an outdated course with copied content from the Internet.
Most often, scammers try to sell a full-fledged paid course, whereas basic information and test lessons can be found online absolutely for free. After studying the demonstration materials, access to the full course may be closed, and the student will need to make an additional payment to resume it. Promises of access to up-to-date schemes and ready-made consumables packages in the full version of the course are often used as bait.
Another option for fraud is the sale of paid services by "verified" sellers, such as the supply of consumables. At the same time, the educational course itself is given to the user for free in a quick start format. However, after mastering the materials or completing the short program, new fraudulent offers begin to pour in on the arbitrageur.
Invitation to the arbitration team
This fraud scheme is one of the most sophisticated, as scammers are well versed in the subject. They present themselves as an experienced media buying team with impressive results, while they, of course, make up statistical data in a hurry to back up their words.
The strategy of the scammers is as follows:
1. Attracting novice webmasters is carried out through private chats in Telegram. They are found through commercial advertising and dissemination of information in thematic groups and comments. For beginners, access is provided free of charge so as not to scare off potential victims in the early stages of interaction.
2. New participants undergo a "warming up" conversation, where they are told that not all webmasters get the opportunity to become part of the "best team". To get this chance, they need to complete a test task, which usually consists of running an advertising campaign from one of the popular traffic sources.
3. Arbitrators who decide to take the test receive details about the planned advertising campaign and the necessary instructions. They usually contain links to specific consumables that are difficult to find and buy on their own, although no one is prohibited from doing so.
4. As soon as beginners face difficulties in finding the necessary supplies, they are offered help. The organizer shares the necessary links directly or through a fake account, encouraging them to buy specific products.
5. When the deception is obvious and the first complaints begin to appear in the chat, the channel is deleted and the profiles of its creators are blocked.
In some cases, such fraudulent chats can exist for quite a long time, only the accounts of failed applicants for participation in an allegedly successful team are blocked. This allows scammers to continue to collect profits as long as there are people among the subscribers who are willing to take risks, despite the obvious signs of deception.
shave
A shave is a special type of deception in the field of arbitration, which is carried out not by third—party scammers, but by the partner networks themselves. This type of fraud consists in deliberately underestimating the actual number of leads that the webmaster provides in order to save the company money.
The motives for this behavior are quite obvious. An affiliate network can easily earn up to $500 per lead as part of an offer in the gambling vertical, if they can deceive an arbitrageur. Therefore, such situations are becoming quite common.
The most common seam techniques include:
1. Reduction of real statistical indicators for straits, for example, ignoring deposits placed when accepting registrations, while the details of the offer and indications of shortcomings are not shown.
2. Misappropriation of a part of the status leads sent to trash or rejected.
3. Unfounded accusations of fraud by webmasters.
4. The use of redirects, when part of the links promoted by arbitrageurs redirects customers to third-party offers that bring profit only to the partner network.
5. Reducing the parameters of the application due to the confusion that arose when additional specialists, for example, employees of call centers, are engaged in the final processing of traffic for a particular offer.
The shift associated with the manipulation of approove data is the most common. Since the confirmation of each order has been transferred to the hands of other specialists, webmasters who have placed leads are deprived of the opportunity to influence the probability of successful completion of the transaction, which is what unscrupulous affiliate programs achieve.
Bot traffic
Bots are an inexpensive substitute for motivated users. They effectively simulate user activity by completing registrations and downloading applications. Modern programs have functionality that allows you to easily bypass captchas and use artificially generated email addresses and phone numbers to perform various actions.
The definition of bot traffic is possible only with the help of a deep analysis of client flows provided by webmasters. To do this, it is enough to set the verification period to 10-14 days.
If there are only 10 sales or less per 10,000 leads, the verification is done manually. If fraud is detected, payments to the arbitration are completely canceled due to traffic disability, and further cooperation with him is recognized as impossible.
Methods of deception of partner networks
This category includes all actions that cause losses to partner platforms and advertisers. It is important for the arbitrageur to be aware of such actions so as not to accidentally or intentionally become a fraudster. Otherwise, he risks tarnishing his reputation, losing lucrative offers and even an entire career.
The main method of fraud that is used to deceive CPA networks is the supply of low-quality traffic that disguises itself as first-class. This type of activity is prohibited by all partner platforms and is detected using anti-fraud systems operating in automatic mode, as well as through manual checks.
TOP 10 Security Rules in Traffic Arbitration
Experts in the field of arbitration regularly publish lists of safety rules for both beginners and experienced professionals. The most effective ones are listed below:
1. When buying consumables, you need to contact only trusted sellers. It will not be difficult to find them — it is enough to study the reviews of the markets on specialized channels, forums and publications devoted to arbitration.
2. Cooperation agreements should be concluded only with reliable partner platforms. Lists of such platforms can be found on forums and in special sections of thematic sites. You should not deceive your managers, since the level of trust is important in arbitration. In pursuit of a quick profit, you can lose all accounts and lose career prospects.
3. To receive educational services, it is better to contact only trusted services. Most of the materials for getting started are available for free, and partner platform managers can provide useful data as needed.
4. If you decide to buy an educational course, be sure to read reviews about it in advance, and look for opinions on independent sites. Before paying, you should ask the supplier for detailed course content, information about additional materials and practical classes.
5. Trust only official resources when choosing a partner for cooperation. When analyzing new contractors, carefully check their contact details, site parameters, IDs and nicknames. It is important to remember that representatives of large and reliable companies are rarely the first to contact newcomers in arbitration.
6. One should not hope that any successful media buying team will hire a specialist without experience and knowledge only for money. The investments that scammers promise in such schemes are not able to compensate for the risks that the company will face with this approach.
7. Every webmaster needs to follow the active events in the industry and stay on trend. Scammers usually start their activity during periods of instability on popular traffic sources and with sudden changes in the rules in the industry.
8. An experienced arbitrageur always remains independent. Regardless of the suggestions, he must prepare the tools for work on his own, without succumbing to provocations. It is also important to analyze the results of your own campaigns in order to minimize the risks of manipulation by partners.
9. It is not necessary to transfer money to strangers under the influence of an instant impulse. This simple rule, universal for fraud protection, is often ignored by people. If there are even minor doubts about the reality and quality of the services offered, you should abandon the deal.
10. Deception often starts from the inside. It is important not to succumb to the temptation to earn big money quickly without much effort. It is this kind of motivation, especially characteristic of novice specialists, that is often used by scammers to catch their victim.
Unfortunately, any arbitrageur can become a victim of a fraudster. To minimize the likelihood of such an outcome, care must be taken when performing any actions, especially those related to paying for services or purchasing important software to launch advertising campaigns.
Conclusion
Vigilance is the middle name of every successful webmaster. The industry attracts many people who seek to earn money easily, so caution becomes an immutable rule not only for survival, but also for success. Protection against fraud in the field of traffic arbitration is not so difficult if you keep a cool mind and avoid the temptation to quickly cash in on questionable offers.