Rule duplicate_account, from the product code
One person, many payouts
Why run one affiliate account when you can run five? Duplicate accounts multiply commissions on self-referral rings and spread fraud thin enough to hide.
Rule 2nd of 12Holds, never deletesEvidence in your queue
The fraud queue, running on demo data.
How the rule works
The exact mechanics, from the engine. No black box, no tuning required.
- 01Alias-normalized comparison
Every active affiliate's email is normalized: plus-tags stripped, Gmail dots removed. Two accounts landing on the same address trip the rule.
- 02Active accounts only
The check looks at active affiliates. A closed or frozen account doesn't fire it, so old history doesn't haunt a reformed affiliate.
- 03Hold, then your call
Both accounts' pending commissions can be held. You decide in the queue whether it's one person gaming payouts or two colleagues sharing an inbox.
The signals
- Same normalized email on 2+ active accounts
- Plus-tags and Gmail dots stripped
What lands in your queue
When duplicate accounts fires, this is what you see. Release or uphold is your call, not the engine's.
| Affiliate | What tripped | Commission | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliate 19 | Same normalized email as Affiliate 23 | $96.00 | Held |
| Affiliate 23 | Same normalized email as Affiliate 19 | $41.50 | Held |
heldWaits for youThe commission stays out of payouts until you decide.releasedPaid normallyReal pattern after all. It returns to the pipeline.upheldNot paidFraud confirmed. The clawback is journaled.In the wild
The multiplier nobody catches
- Pattern: Each extra account multiplies every per-account loophole: new-affiliate bonuses, coupon overrides, first-sale commissions.
- Case adjacent: Brian Dunning's ring used dozens of stuffed domains to spread $5.2M in eBay commissions across accounts; 15 months prison. Source
Cases and figures verified against court records and named reports, . Vendor estimates are labelled as such.
How attackers try to beat it
A fraudster registers jane@example.com and jane+2@example.com. Both normalize identically. The second registration is the signal, and it fires on the first sale either account makes.
Every rule is one layer. The twelve overlap on purpose: beating one cleanly usually means walking into another.
Related rules
Rule thresholds checked against the code . Windows are rolling.
Duplicate accounts questions
Can I change the threshold?
The thresholds ship fixed, tuned from the rule code and tested together. Tightening one in isolation breaks the overlap the twelve rules build as a set.
What does a hold cost me?
Nothing but time. A held commission is frozen, not deleted. If you release it, it flows to the next payout exactly as if the hold never happened.
Does this rule fire on my best affiliate?
Every rule is scoped to the commissions linked to what tripped it, weighted by conversions, and rate-limited on the click side. A rival can't aim it at your top earner.
This rule, on every sale,
before the payout.
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