Disposable email services (like 10minutemail, tempmail, or guerrillamail) allow anyone to create a temporary email address that expires after a short time. Affiliates can abuse these to fake signups and inflate their referral numbers.
How It Works
When a referral is created, Affonso checks the customer's email domain against a maintained list of known disposable email providers. If the domain matches, a fraud event is created.
Three Modes
Configure Disposable Email Detection in your Risk Center Settings:
Off — No detection. This is the default.
Detect — The referral stays active, but a pending event is created for your review.
Block — The referral is automatically rejected. Commissions are still calculated but created with a Declined status, so you have a full audit trail. You can manually change a Declined earning to Approved if the block was a false positive. Webhook events (transaction.created and transaction.rejected) are emitted so external systems stay in sync.
When to Enable This
Enable this if you see patterns of referrals from customers who never convert to paying users, or if you notice signups from unusual email domains. It's especially useful for programs that offer lead-based commissions where affiliates get paid per signup.
Things to Keep in Mind
- The disposable email list is regularly updated to cover new providers.
- Some legitimate users do use privacy-focused email services. Consider starting with Detect mode to check for false positives before switching to Block.
- Only the email domain is checked — not the full email address.
Questions? Contact support for help with email-based fraud patterns.
