What does the data actually prove?
The Verification Files explores the data we use to decide who and what we can trust: verification, identity, fraud, KYC, lead generation and data quality.
Latest · TVF-005 · 16 Oct 2026 · 35 min
Affiliate Fraud: Hiding in Plain Sight
In affiliate marketing, familiarity can pass for legitimacy. Simon is joined by Andy Cooney, co-founder of Marcode, to explore affiliate fraud from two perspectives: fabricated leads and stolen data, ad hijacking and undeserved commissions.
Case index
All files
Formerly B2C Lead Generation: 119 episodes, 2021–2023. Browse the archive
Evidence log
The evidence behind the episodes
Exhibit 017%of mobile numbers returning “absent subscriber” on three HLR checks were later reachable. Sample of ~1M UK numbers.Provero HLR study ↗Exhibit 0297%breach rate found in a dataset that would have passed as a million clean records on spine data alone.The KYC Data Problem ↗Exhibit 03OpenDataset and methodology behind The Verification Dividend customer verification study.Zenodo ↗
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