Understanding Fraud Flags

The Fraud Center inside SATHI monitors ambassador activity for signs of unusual or suspicious behavior before it affects your program. Each flagged item is tagged with one of six fraud flags, explained below, so you can review and take action with confidence.

Code Leak

The ambassador's discount code appears to be publicly shared or used outside its intended audience or channel. This can happen when a code is posted on a coupon website, shared in a deal forum, or otherwise distributed beyond the ambassador's own audience.

This flag helps you protect margins and maintain accurate attribution.

High Risk Order

Shopify flagged this order as high-risk based on its own fraud analysis. SATHI relies directly on Shopify's fraud signals for this alert. Examples include suspicious payment activity or unusual checkout behavior.

Useful for reviewing potentially risky transactions before commissions are approved.

Geo Traffic Mismatch

Traffic is coming from unexpected or unusual locations compared to the ambassador's typical audience or target market — for example, a US-based ambassador suddenly driving large amounts of traffic from unrelated countries, or traffic patterns that don't align with the ambassador's audience demographics.

Can help identify suspicious traffic sources or low-quality traffic activity.

Identity Match

SATHI suspects the ambassador may have placed the order themselves, based on strong identity signals such as an email match, billing match, or IP match. This typically happens when customer details closely align with the ambassador's own information, which may suggest self-purchasing outside your program rules.

Useful for detecting possible self-attribution or personal-use orders.

Self Referral

The customer's email roughly matches the ambassador's own email address. SATHI flags not just exact matches, but also matches that aren't obvious to basic algorithms.

Helps prevent ambassadors from earning commission on their own purchases if self-referrals aren't allowed in your program.

Paid Ads Abuse

The ambassador's traffic contains paid ad identifiers from platforms like Google, Meta, or similar ad networks. This may suggest the ambassador is using paid advertising to drive traffic through their affiliate link or discount code, which may violate your brand's affiliate guidelines.

Helpful for brands that want to prevent unauthorized paid ad competition.

Why This Is Important

Fraud flags aren't meant to immediately accuse an ambassador of wrongdoing — they exist so you can review unusual activity and make informed payout decisions. Catching these patterns early helps you avoid paying invalid commissions, protect your affiliate budget, and keep rewards going to genuine, high-performing ambassadors.

Still need help?

Reach out anytime to our Support team using the button at the bottom-right corner of your dashboard, or email us at [email protected].