What is pre-attribution fraud rejection?
Pre-attribution fraud rejection is a fraud control that rejects a suspected fake click or install before attribution credits it to any source. The fraud check runs first, and only traffic that passes is considered for credit.
It is one of two broad timings for fraud handling, and the difference matters for how your reports behave.
Pre-attribution rejection versus post-attribution flagging
The two approaches differ in when the decision is made and what happens to the attribution record.
- Pre-attribution rejection: the install is evaluated before credit is assigned. If it fails, the fraudulent source is not credited, and the install may be credited to another valid touchpoint or counted as organic.
- Post-attribution flagging: the install is attributed as normal, then labelled as suspicious. Attribution stays as it was, and the flag is used for reporting, payout disputes or suppressing signals.
In short, rejection changes who gets credit, while flagging changes what you know about the credit already given.
Trade-offs to weigh
Neither timing is universally better.
- Cleaner credit: rejection can stop a fraudulent source from stealing an organic or legitimate paid install, such as with click flooding or install hijacking.
- Risk of false positives: a rejected genuine install disappears from the channel that earned it, and the correction is harder to see and reverse.
- Auditability: flagging keeps one consistent attribution record, so you can see every decision, adjust rules and compare reports before and after.
- Reconciliation: if a partner sees different install counts from yours, you need to know which installs were rejected and why.
What to check in any setup
- Which signals can trigger rejection or a flag, for example click-to-install timing or IP patterns.
- Whether credit is reassigned after a rejection, and to whom.
- Whether rejected or flagged installs can be exported with a reason.
- What happens to the postbacks sent to ad networks for those installs. See rejection postback.
For the broader detection side, see install fraud detection and attribution fraud.
How Linkrunner handles it
Linkrunner flags installs after attribution and does not reject them before it. Fraud Control offers two responses on each rule, Tag only, or Tag and withhold postbacks, and attribution is never changed, so your report totals stay consistent. Fraud Control is included on every plan.