Prevent fraud in referral campaigns

Last reviewed: 2026-09-23

Review the campaign’s fraud policy before a prize or reward has material value. No single signal proves abuse. Combine signup checks with lead review and clear eligibility rules.

Set the policy

In Leads → Protection, choose a duplicate-IP policy, approved shared IPs, invisible CAPTCHA, likely-bot rejection, referral and email-domain blocklists, and whether flagged leads appear in public counts or are sent to integrations. Shared offices and households may use one public IP, so test your chosen policy with normal visitors. See lead protection settings.

In Scoring & actions, decide whether Require verification before scoring fits the campaign. This makes verification part of the scoring path. Review the verification email under Emails, including sender and compliance settings, and test it with a fresh lead. Do not award a reward based only on an unverified referral count when your rules require verified entries.

Review before awarding

Use the Flagged audience under Leads and open individual lead profiles. Check signup source, referral chain, IP context, verification, and recent activity. Use Manually approve for a legitimate lead or Mark as fraud for one you decide should be excluded. The latter keeps the record but removes leaderboard and reward eligibility. See the manual review checklist.

If you use Pick a winner, review the eligibility criteria before the draw. The tool excludes fraudulent and jumpstart leads; it can also require verified leads. Winner notification and an audit record are separate tasks. Read the winner guide.

Need help? Email support@kickofflabs.com with your campaign URL, eligibility rule, and example lead emails.