Cookie dropping
The cookie stuffing is a scam within the affiliate marketing that the cookie - Tracking attaches and is not apparent to the ordinary Internet users. The method involves the targeted placement of cookies from affiliate networks that are relevant for tracking.
procedure
Normally, in the context of affiliate marketing, cookies are only stored in the browser of an Internet user when the user actively clicks on a corresponding advertising medium and is thus forwarded to the merchant's website via the web server of the affiliate network.
With cookie dropping, however, these clicks are generated artificially without the visitor taking any active action. If an Internet user receives a certain cookie from an affiliate network via such an imposed click and he carries out a transaction on the website of this merchant in the further course of his Internet activities, the fraudulent affiliate would be unjustifiably identified as an intermediary and receive a commission .
How cookie tracking works
Cookie dropping is to be rated as internet fraud, as it was generated by simulating a click by a malicious program or by an HTML tag on an infected website. This means that the user's browser is given one or more cookies from certain partner programs without the user having clicked on the affiliate's advertising material. Should the user now execute an order, the affiliate who slipped the cookie on him receives a commission for the sale without providing an independent advertising service. The prerequisite is that the HTTP cookies are not deactivated in your own web browser . Since practically all programs only work with cookies, this fraud method is wide open.
Last cookie wins
When it comes to pay per lead and pay per sale, merchants and affiliate networks apply the principle of “last cookie wins” , which means that only the affiliate who made the last transaction before a purchase is paid. Assuming that an internet user is regularly referred to by clicking on an advertisement and is given a cookie. Affiliates with fraudulent intent could overwrite this cookie. In the case of a later transaction on a merchant's website, it would not be the honest affiliate who originally referred the visitor, but the fraudulent affiliate who would receive the commission. Cookie dropping not only harms merchants, but also honest affiliates.