How We Detect Fraud in our Squarespace Referral Programs

Matthew Palmer Peach’s Technical Support

Why does fraud matter for a refer-a-friend program?

We’ve got some (cheap) friends. They’re good at figuring out loopholes. They’ve figured out how to scam a big coffee company’s referral program out of hundreds of dollars in free coffees.

But guess what.

They can’t beat Peach’s fraud protection. They’ve tried VPNs, multiple devices, proxies, Incognito browsers.

Hell, I think one of them tried to get us through Tor once.

Here’s the deal. Peach’s fraud detection is the best in the business. It’s as good as anyone’s.

When you use Peach’s referral programs for Squarespace, you–as the business owner–don’t need to worry about fraud.

But detecting fraud in your refer-a-friend program is absolutely essential. If someone’s gamed your system, referrals are not going to be a sustainable, profitable part of your marketing strategy.

We worry about fraud for you.

What types of fraud can Peach’s detect?

There are three main types of referral program fraud. (We beat them all.)

One – Self-Referral
A scammer tries to refer themselves to earn discounts without actually making a purchase.

Two – Referral Rings
This is where you grab a friend or two, and you refer eachother back-and-forth to rack up disscounts. (This is what our friends did to get free coffees, by the way.)

Three – Repeat Referrals
Depending on the business, once someone’s referred a friend and gotten a reward, it might not be appropriate for them to earn a second reward. Peach’s lets you configure whether this is OK or not for your store.

How does Peach’s detect fraud?

Peach’s uses a range of industry-standard techniques and tools for detecting, flagging, and filtering fraud.

We use cookies and device fingerprinting to prevent self-referrals.

We do IP address matching to detect self-referrals and referral rings based on the network people are using to access your store.

Finally, we use the same services as Fortune 500 companies to detect VPNs, proxies, and other fraudulent and suspicious ways of accessing online stores.

And if that’s not enough, each referral program gets assigned an Account Manager, who manually reviews each referral program for suspicious activity. If they notice anything, they’ll make the necessary changes and get in touch with you.

How does Peach’s fraud detection compare with ReferralCandy or other referral programs?

Peach’s fraud detection is on par with every referral program provider out there. We combine industry-standard fraud detection techniques with third-party providers who do provide services for the Fortune 500.

Where (we think) we’re better that ReferralCandy–or anyone else–is that our Account Managers know first-hand the difference between legitimate and fraudulent activity for Squarespace eCommerce stores.

This means you’ll spend less manually reviewing each referral for fraud, and more time growing your business and doing what you love.