Fraud Policy

Last Updated: May 6, 2026  ·  Effective immediately

Kointent operates a performance-based advertising and creator marketplace where payment is tied to real engagement. Fraudulent activity undermines every participant on the platform. This policy defines what constitutes fraud, how we detect and act on it, and the rights and obligations of all parties.

1. Scope

This policy applies to all registered users of Kointent, including Advertisers, Publishers, Creators, and any third parties acting on their behalf. It covers fraud related to:

• Ad impressions, clicks, and conversions generated through the Kointent ad network
• Creator content deliverables and engagement metrics submitted for payment
• Payout requests, wallet top-ups, and escrow transactions
• Account creation, identity representation, and platform access

2. Prohibited Activities

The following activities are strictly prohibited and will result in immediate enforcement action:

2.1 Invalid Traffic (IVT)

• Bot-generated traffic: Using automated scripts, bots, crawlers, or non-human traffic to generate impressions, clicks, or conversions.
• Click fraud: Artificially inflating click counts on ads — whether self-clicking, coordinating with others, or using third-party click farms.
• Impression stuffing: Loading ads in hidden iframes, zero-pixel placements, or stacked ad units to generate false impression counts.
• Traffic sourcing fraud: Purchasing traffic from prohibited sources known to generate non-human visits (e.g., pop-under traffic, incentivized-to-click networks).

2.2 Account & Identity Fraud

• Creating multiple accounts to circumvent bans, earn duplicate bonuses, or manipulate payout thresholds.
• Impersonating another person, brand, or business entity during registration or in communications.
• Providing false business registration numbers, tax identifiers, or payout details.

2.3 Creator & Campaign Fraud

• Submitting fabricated or manipulated engagement metrics (views, followers, likes) to qualify for higher campaign rates.
• Using purchased followers or engagement pods to inflate reported reach.
• Delivering content that does not match agreed deliverables while claiming milestone completion.
• Colluding with an Advertiser to generate fake campaigns purely to extract platform funds.

2.4 Payment Fraud

• Using stolen, fraudulent, or unauthorised payment methods to fund Advertiser accounts.
• Initiating chargebacks fraudulently after receiving ad delivery.
• Exploiting referral, bonus, or promotion mechanics in bad faith.

3. How We Detect Fraud

Kointent employs a multi-layer fraud detection system that runs continuously across all traffic and transactions:

3.1 Technical Signals

• IP reputation checks: Traffic is evaluated against known datacenter IP ranges, VPN exit nodes, and blacklisted proxies.
• Device fingerprinting: Browser and device fingerprints are hashed and monitored for anomalous repetition patterns.
• Behavioural analysis: Click timing, mouse movement absence, and session duration are analysed for bot-like signatures.
• Honeypot traps: Hidden tracking endpoints are embedded in ad delivery. Requests to these endpoints indicate non-human traffic.
• Viewability monitoring: Ads must enter the browser viewport for a minimum duration. Impressions that never become viewable are automatically discarded.

3.2 Statistical Anomaly Detection

• Unusual click-through rates (CTR) relative to publisher category benchmarks trigger automated review flags.
• Sudden traffic spikes from a single publisher or geographic region are investigated before payouts are processed.
• Conversion rates that deviate significantly from campaign norms are held for manual review.

3.3 Manual Review

Our Trust & Safety team manually reviews flagged accounts, disputed campaigns, and payout requests above defined thresholds. Accounts under review may experience temporary holds on withdrawals.

4. Enforcement Actions

Kointent applies enforcement proportional to the severity and intent of the violation:

4.1 Earnings Clawback

Any earnings credited to a Publisher or Creator account as a result of fraudulent activity are subject to full clawback. Where funds have already been withdrawn, Kointent reserves the right to pursue recovery through legal channels and to offset future earnings from any reinstated account.

4.2 Advertiser Credits

When fraud is detected on Publisher inventory, affected Advertisers receive account credits equivalent to the fraudulent spend within 5 business days of the fraud determination. Campaign data associated with fraudulent traffic is excluded from performance reporting retroactively.

5. Appeals Process

If you believe your account has been suspended or penalised in error, you may submit an appeal within 14 days of the enforcement action.

• Email trust@kointent.com with the subject line "Fraud Appeal – [Your Account ID]".
• Include any evidence that supports your case: traffic source documentation, third-party analytics screenshots, or correspondence relevant to the dispute.
• Appeals are reviewed within 10 business days. You will receive a written determination.
• The decision following appeal review is final.

6. Advertiser Protections

Advertisers are protected by the following platform guarantees:

• Filtered billing: Only verified, non-fraudulent impressions and clicks are billed. Invalid traffic is discarded in real time.
• Fraud score transparency: Each campaign's fraud score is visible in the Analytics dashboard.
• Automatic credit: If post-campaign analysis identifies fraud that passed initial filters, affected spend is credited automatically.
• Publisher blacklisting: Publishers confirmed for fraud are permanently removed from the ad network and cannot serve your campaigns.

7. Publisher Obligations

Publishers bear responsibility for all traffic originating from their registered sites. Specifically:

• You must not purchase traffic from incentivised, bot, or pop-under networks to boost ad revenue.
• You are responsible for securing your site against third-party scripts that may generate fraudulent clicks.
• You must not place Kointent ad tags on sites other than those registered and approved in your Publisher dashboard.
• You agree to cooperate with any investigation, including providing server logs, analytics exports, or traffic source documentation upon request.

8. Reporting Suspected Fraud

All platform participants are encouraged to report suspected fraud. Reports can be made through:

• Email: trust@kointent.com
• In-dashboard: Use the "Report" flag on any Publisher site, ad campaign, or Creator profile.
• Anonymous reports: Accepted — include as much detail as possible for investigation to proceed.

Kointent maintains strict confidentiality for all fraud reporters. Retaliatory action against a reporting user is itself a policy violation subject to enforcement.