Automatically Block Self-Referral Fraud

Self-referrals happen when affiliates use their own referral links or coupon codes to make purchases, earning commissions on sales that should not count. This common form of affiliate fraud can drain your program budget and undermine legitimate partners.

How Self-Referral Blocking Works

When enabled, Affonso automatically compares the email address of each new customer against the email addresses of your affiliates. If they match, the referral is blocked and no commission is generated.

This happens instantly and silently - the purchase still goes through for the customer, but the affiliate doesn't receive credit for the sale.

Enable Self-Referral Blocking

1. Navigate to your Affiliate Program Settings
2. Scroll to Tracking Settings
3. Find Block Self-Referrals and toggle the switch to On
4. Save your changes

What Gets Blocked

When a customer's email matches an affiliate's email:

• The referral is not created or is automatically rejected
• No commission is generated for that sale
• The purchase completes normally for the customer
• The affiliate can still earn commissions on legitimate referrals

Limitations to Consider

Self-referral blocking compares email addresses only. Affiliates using different email addresses for their affiliate account and personal purchases can still slip through. For comprehensive fraud prevention, combine this feature with:

• Manual review: Regularly audit referrals for suspicious patterns
• IP monitoring: Look for referrals where affiliate and customer IPs match
• Domain blocking: Block referrals from your own domain or internal networks

Handling Existing Self-Referrals

If you discover self-referrals that occurred before enabling this feature:

1. Go to your Referrals dashboard
2. Find the suspicious referral
3. Click the action menu and select Change Status
4. Set the status to Rejected
5. Decline any associated commissions

Learn more about manually rejecting self-referrals.

Best Practices

Enable early: Turn on self-referral blocking when you launch your affiliate program to prevent issues from day one.

Set clear terms: Include a self-referral prohibition in your affiliate agreement so partners understand the rules upfront.

Communicate consequences: Let affiliates know that self-referral attempts may result in partnership termination.

Dealing with sophisticated fraud? Contact support for advanced fraud prevention strategies.