ReferralCandy has automated mechanisms that protect your referral program from fraudulent referrals. Some referrals are blocked outright before they're counted; others are flagged in Fraud Center for your review. This article covers what those mechanisms catch, and the tools that work alongside them.
Referrals blocked automatically
A referral program's purpose is to bring you new customers — so ReferralCandy only counts referrals that result in a first-time purchase by someone new. Three automatic checks enforce this. When a referral matches any of them, it's rejected outright: it's never counted, never appears in Fraud Center, and never earns a reward — you don't need to do anything about it. A referral is blocked when:
The referred friend is already an existing customer. Repeat customers don't count as referrals, no matter who sent them the link. For example, if John refers Mary and Mary makes her first purchase, John gets the reward. If Tim later sends his referral link to Mary, her next purchase doesn't count because Mary is already a customer.
The referral is a clear self-referral. If the referred friend's details exactly match the advocate's — the same name, the same email address, or the advocate's own referral code — the purchase isn't treated as a referral.
The friend was already referred by someone else. A new customer can only be linked to one advocate — the original referrer keeps the credit, even if the customer later receives another advocate's referral link.
Note: Customers who already existed before you installed ReferralCandy are recognized as first-time customers by the system, so they can still be referred.
Referrals flagged as suspicious
Other referrals aren't blocked, but show patterns that might point to fraud. ReferralCandy flags these as suspicious in Fraud Center and notifies you so you can review them. These are automatic threshold checks — a flag means a referral crossed one of these lines, nothing more. A referral is flagged as suspicious when:
The advocate and the referred friend have similar — but not identical — names or email addresses.
More than 3 referred purchases come from the same IP address.
An advocate generates a high volume of referrals in a short time — for example, more than 5 referrals within a week.
A "suspicious" flag is a heads-up, not a verdict. It doesn't mean ReferralCandy has decided the referral is fraudulent — only that a pattern is worth your attention. ReferralCandy never disqualifies a referral or withholds a reward on its own; the decision is always yours. To give you time to review, the purchase review period for a suspicious referral is automatically extended to 14 days (if your review period is already longer than 14 days, it stays the same).
Some advocates will trip these thresholds simply because they have a large audience — for example, an influencer who easily makes more than five referrals in a week. Once you've reviewed and confirmed an advocate's activity is legitimate, you can mark them as trusted in Fraud Center, and ReferralCandy will stop flagging their future referrals.
For how to investigate a flagged referral, mark an advocate as trusted, or take action in Fraud Center, see How to handle fraud.
Coupon-site posting
If an advocate posts their friend offer code on a coupon-sharing site, the resulting burst of redemptions may surface in Fraud Center — most commonly as a high referral volume in a short time flag. The same pattern can also come from genuinely high-performing advocates (such as influencers), so a flag here is a prompt to review, not a determination.
When you have a signal that something might be off — a flagged entry in Fraud Center, the weekly suspicious-activity report (sent only when there's something to report), or an advocate showing unusually high numbers in Top Referrers — look up that specific advocate's friend offer code and search for it online. If the code turns up on a coupon site, you can ban the advocate to disqualify any of their referrals still within the review period. A light routine of spot-checking Fraud Center every week or two helps cover anything not flagged by the weekly report.
Important: Banning a contact is irreversible. Once an advocate is banned, they won't be able to refer friends, and their pending rewards are disqualified. Learn about banning contacts on Shopify and other platforms.
Preventing coupon code misuse
You can also reduce the likelihood of coupon misuse from the start:
General tips
Set an expiry date for your discount coupons.
Ensure that your discount coupon amounts are set in a way that you still benefit from every purchase made.
For Other Platforms (Non-Shopify)
Periodically change the coupon codes used in your campaigns.
Use the promo link (Non-Shopify) as the friend offer to point referred friends to a URL that you host, in which you can:
Gate a unique, single-use coupon code tied to the email address customers entered. The code can be delivered via email or displayed on the page.
Show the same generated code to all referred friends from a single referral link, allowing you to deactivate it if fraud is detected.
If your eCommerce platform supports it, limit the use of referral coupons to new customers only. This can be done by crosschecking the email address or shipping address of the customer against your customer database.
Pro Tip: Clearly state any coupon usage restrictions in your referral invite emails, landing pages, and referral program terms & conditions.
Tools that work alongside automated detection
A few settings and actions support review and prevention beyond the automatic checks:
Purchase review period. Set how long ReferralCandy waits before rewarding a referral, giving you time to verify and disqualify suspicious cases. Learn how to set a review period on Shopify and other platforms.
Minimum purchase amount. Set a minimum spend a referred purchase must meet to count toward a reward, to discourage advocates from gaming the system with very low-value purchases. Learn how to set a minimum purchase amount on Shopify and other platforms.
Ban an advocate. Disqualify any of their referrals still within the review period and prevent them from referring again. Learn more on Shopify and other platforms.
Once a referral is flagged in Fraud Center, see How to handle fraud for how to investigate and choose an action.
Article FAQ
Can I exclude a specific advocate from suspicious-referral flagging?
Can I exclude a specific advocate from suspicious-referral flagging?
Yes. In Fraud Center, open the advocate's flagged entry and select It's not fraud to mark them as trusted. Trusted advocates are excluded from suspicious-referral detection going forward. This is the right option for legitimate high-volume referrers such as influencers. (The option isn't available for self-referral flags.)
Why didn't my customer's referral count?
Why didn't my customer's referral count?
The most common reasons are listed under Referrals blocked automatically above — the referred friend may already be a customer, their details may exactly match the advocate's (treated as a self-referral), or the friend may already have been referred by someone else.
Can a referred customer also become an advocate?
Can a referred customer also become an advocate?
Yes — a customer can be both. Once someone is referred, they stay linked to the advocate who referred them. Becoming an advocate themselves doesn't change that, so their later purchases are still tracked under their original advocate.
(It only works one way: someone who's already an advocate can't then be referred by someone else.)