How do you avoid getting scammers acting as collaborators who place orders to get their commission then dispute their purchase charge? Apparently it’s common in Shopify collabs as it is on other platforms. How to better scan affiliates? How do you set stricter requirements ?
Topic summary
A merchant raised concerns about scammers posing as affiliates who place orders to earn commission, then dispute the charges—a known issue across affiliate platforms.
Platform Safeguards:
- Shopify Collabs has community guidelines that creators must follow, with consequences for violations
- Merchants can dispute commission payments on orders they believe weren’t driven authentically
Vetting Recommendations:
When evaluating potential affiliates, look beyond follower counts:
- Check if they regularly promote products in their content
- Review whether they share affiliate links (in bio or posts)
- Assess engagement metrics: likes, views, and comments matter more than raw follower numbers
- Use application survey questions to gauge creators’ familiarity with your brand
Status: The discussion remains open with no reported resolution to the original concern about preventing fraudulent affiliate activity.
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Great questions!
Shopify Collabs has created community guidelines all creators need to follow to foster trust with the brands that they promote. You can learn more about our community guidelines and consequences for not following our guidelines here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/collabs/creators/community-guidelines
As a brand on Collabs, if you feel as though commission was made on an order it should not have, you can dispute commission payments on orders you believe were not driven authentically. You can learn more about disputing commission here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/collabs/merchants/payments
When accepting affiliates into your program it’s important to take a look at their social platforms. Don’t just look at their follower counts but look to see if they are speaking about products in their content, if they share links, if they have affiliate links in their link in bio, as these are all signs they promote products often. Also look at their post engagement, look to see if they are getting likes, views, and comments. A creator with an engaged audience no matter how many followers they have will be more effective as an affiliate than those with little to no engagement.
If you are using Collabs application pages to recruit creators you can also use the survey questions to ask creators questions about themselves and their relationship to your brand so you can better filter through those who may not be a brand fit.
Here is also quick getting started guide for Collabs which may be helpful if you are using or looking to use the platform.