Why a partner was flagged. Each flagged partner now shows the reasons behind the flag, including fraud signals checked in your program. You can also mark several partners as trustworthy at once. See Reviewing flagged partners below, and How is fraud detected? for what each signal means.
Who is this article for? Program managers on PartnerStack who want to use the Fraud Management tab to review, remove, or approve flagged partners.
PartnerStack has partnered with Sift, an industry-leading fraud detection network, to provide channel managers and their compliance teams strong protection against fraudulent partner activity.
To review your suspicious cases, click the Fraud Management in the left-hand menu.
Review flagged partners
The Active cases tab lists all new fraud cases. You can search by partner name or email, filter by risk level, and sort by flagged date, hold amount, or risk level. Each case shows the partner name, partner group, flag reasons, held commissions, risk level, and flagged date.
Click a partner's name to see their details: flag reasons, group, team, revenue, segments, tags, sign-up dates, and held commissions.
Why they're flagged
Open a partner and look for Why they're flagged. Each row shows a reason and the team members it applies to.
- You see these reasons for partners in Active cases, Marked as trustworthy, and Removed partners.
- You only see signals that fired in your own program. Signals from other programs aren't shown.
- Reasons from Sift.
Remove a flagged partner
- Click the partner's name to open their details.
- Review their flag reasons and held commissions.
- Click Remove partner and choose a reason. PartnerStack records who removed the partner and why.
- If you want to, deactivate the partner's links.
Blocking the partner from reapplying is on by default. It also catches them on a new team, or with a variant of the same email (such as plus-tags and dots).
Removed partners move to the Removed partners tab, which shows the flag reason, flag date, and removal date. Select a partner to see which teammate removed them.
Mark a flagged partner as trustworthy
- Click the partner's name to open their details.
- Review their flag reasons and held commissions.
- Click Mark as trustworthy, enter your reason, and confirm. Your teammates can see the reason in the Marked as trustworthy tab.
The flag is removed for your program only. Held commissions change to Pending and are pulled onto your next invoice.
Trust covers the whole team. The partner and their current team members aren't flagged again, but anyone who joins the team later can still be flagged.
The Marked as trustworthy tab shows the flag reason, your reason, who trusted the partner, and when.
Act on several partners at once
In Active cases, filter for the partners you want and select them. Then choose Mark partners as trustworthy, or Remove partners.
Commissions and invoices
Flagged partners' commissions are placed on hold automatically, and show a hold status in Commissions & Invoices. Held commissions are never pulled onto an invoice.
Your invoice is generated on the last day of each month, so timing matters:
- Trusted before the invoice is generated: held commissions change to Pending and are included in that month's invoice.
- Trusted after the invoice is generated: commissions go on the next month's invoice.
Review flagged partners with held commissions before the end of the month.
To pay a flagged partner while you investigate, go to Commissions & Invoices > Review commissions, filter for held commissions, and set their status to Approved. Check your internal systems for warning signs first.
Warning signs of fraud
Check your own systems for:
- Many customers created in a very short period
- Customers who cancel in under a month, or issue chargebacks
- Commissions that don't match real sales under your offer rules
- A partner website with no social links, or without JavaScript snippets or link tracking
Flag a partner for PartnerStack security to review
If a partner isn't flagged but you suspect fraud:
- Go to All Partners and click the partner.
- Click the three stacked dots next to Message, then Flag partner for potential fraud.
- Enter your reason and click Submit & flag partner.
A banner shows your teammates that the flag is pending review. To withdraw it, click the dots again, then Unflag partner, and provide a reason.
The partner doesn't appear in Fraud Management until our security team marks them as fraudulent. If the risk isn't high, you can still remove them from All Partners. To keep their commissions from being paid in the meantime, set their pending commissions to Hold in Review commissions.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Will a sudden spike in a partner's signups be flagged?
A: Not by itself. A spike that comes with other signals, such as self-referrals, shared IP addresses, or unusually fast conversions, can lead to a flag.
Q: Can a new teammate on a trusted partner's team still be flagged?
A: Yes. Trust covers current team members only.
Q: How does fraud affect commissions created with the API?
A: They start as New. Every 15 minutes, PartnerStack puts commissions for flagged partners on hold.
Q: A partner was flagged by mistake. How do I get their commissions invoiced?
A: Mark the partner as trustworthy. Their commissions are generated as if the flag never happened. To pay sooner, set the held commissions to Approved.
Q: Can I change how fraud is detected for my program?
A: No. The PartnerStack fraud team controls detection.
Q: Do I need to mark a flagged partner as trustworthy if I approve their application?
A: Yes.