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Open sign-up pages attract bots. If your portal lets anyone apply, you can end up with a list full of fake accounts made by automated scripts — junk to sort through, and sometimes an attempt to game your program. Bot protection adds an “I’m not a robot” check to your affiliate portal’s login and sign-up pages to filter those out. To find it, open Settings from the left sidebar, go to Affiliate Portal, then select Security.

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Turn on bot protection

The reCAPTCHA protection card has one switch: Enable reCAPTCHA verification. Turn it on and it takes effect immediately — there’s no separate save button.
When the “reCAPTCHA settings updated successfully” message appears and the bottom of the card reads reCAPTCHA protection is active in green, your portal is protected.
There’s nothing to sign up for and no keys to copy in. Referly provides the bot protection, and it covers both your Referly address and any custom domain you’ve added. To switch it off later, turn the same switch off. The card then reads reCAPTCHA protection is disabled, and affiliates sign in and sign up without any check.

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What your affiliates see

With bot protection on, an I’m not a robot checkbox appears on your portal’s sign-up page and login page, above the button that submits the form. The button stays greyed out until the box is ticked. For a real person this is one click and usually nothing more. Occasionally it shows a short picture puzzle when something looks unusual, such as an affiliate on a shared network. The check applies whenever an affiliate signs in, not only when they first join.
Affiliates who use social login go through their Google account instead, which already confirms they’re a real person.

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Should you turn it on?

Bot protection costs your genuine affiliates one extra click, so it’s a trade-off worth thinking about. Turn it on when:
  • Your sign-up page is open to anyone and you’ve started seeing accounts that don’t look real.
  • You’re getting sign-ups in bursts, or with addresses that follow an obvious pattern.
  • You promote your program publicly, where the page is easy for automated tools to find.
You may not need it when: Since it’s a single switch, turning it on for a while and seeing whether the fake sign-ups stop is a reasonable way to decide.

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If fake sign-ups still get through

Bot protection stops automated tools, not people who sign up in bad faith by hand. If unwanted accounts keep appearing, combine it with your other controls:
  • Review applications yourself instead of approving automatically, so nobody becomes active without your say-so. See approve or decline affiliates.
  • Ask custom questions during onboarding. Fake applicants rarely bother answering them properly, which makes them easy to spot.
  • Ban or deactivate accounts you don’t want.
  • Check your fraud prevention settings for self-referrals and suspicious activity.

Fraud prevention

Catch self-referrals and suspicious conversions.

Approve or decline affiliates

Review every application before anyone becomes active.

Login and sign up

Customize the pages where the check appears.

Ban or deactivate affiliates

Remove accounts you don’t want in your program.
Last modified on July 21, 2026