# How to avoid gifting fraud and freeloaders

Source: https://www.seedinfluencers.com/help/how-to-avoid-gifting-fraud-and-freeloaders
Updated: 2026-09-24

The real controls Seed gives you against a leaked link, a repeat submission, or an over-scoped gift, and how to use them.

## The goal

Free product only works as a growth channel if it's actually reaching creators, not being forwarded around as a "free stuff" link or resubmitted by the same person under a slightly different email. The goal is to make gifting cost you what you planned for, no more, without turning the form itself into an interrogation that a genuine creator won't finish.

## How most brands do it

The common approach is no controls at all: one shared link, posted publicly or DMed to dozens of people, with no cap and no review step. It works fine until the link gets forwarded outside the list it was meant for, or the same address submits twice under two email addresses and nobody notices until the order's already shipped.

The overcorrection is the opposite problem. Requiring manual approval on every single campaign, forever, which turns a lightweight gifting flow into a queue you have to personally clear every day, even for creators you already trust.

## How experienced teams do it

Experienced teams match the control to the risk of the specific campaign, rather than applying one policy everywhere. A tightly-targeted campaign sent to a short, known list of creators rarely needs approval mode at all. The built-in protections (one order per email per campaign on a shared link, and a hold on a shipping address that's already received a gift from you recently) are usually enough. A wide-reach or public-facing campaign. The kind of link that could realistically get reposted. Is where they turn approval mode on, so nothing ships without a quick human glance first.

For anything where they want a hard guarantee that each recipient is a specific, known person. an influencer list they've already vetted. They use per-creator single-use links instead of one shared link. A link that only works once for one person removes the "forwarded link" risk entirely, because it simply won't work a second time or for anyone else.

They also treat the gift value cap and item limit as cost controls, not just UX, setting them to what the campaign can actually afford means there's no scenario where a form glitch or an edge case lets someone select more than was budgeted.

## Do it in Seed

1. For a broad or public-facing campaign, turn on **Require approval** on the campaign. Every submission (shared link or per-creator link), lands in your pending queue instead of becoming an order immediately, so you approve or reject before anything ships. See [what the creator sees while it's pending](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/help/creator-confirmation).
2. For a known, vetted list, use per-creator single-use links ((Seed+)) instead of one shared link. Each one works exactly once, for exactly one person, which is the strongest protection against a leaked or forwarded link.
3. Leave the built-in duplicate protections on. On a shared link, one order per email address per campaign is enforced automatically. A second submission with a different email but the same shipping address is held for your review instead of silently shipping a second gift, unless you've explicitly turned that protection off in your shop's settings.
4. Set **Items per order** and, if it matters for the campaign, a **gift value limit**. Both are enforced on the server, not just in the browser, so they hold even against a crafted request, not just a well-behaved creator clicking through the UI. See [step 1 · choose products](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/help/creator-gift-form#step-1-choose-products).
5. For a link you're only sharing with a specific group (a Discord, a private list), add a password to the campaign, nothing about the form, including product names, is visible without it. See [the password gate](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/help/creator-gift-form#password-gate).

## Expert checklist

- Approval mode is on for any campaign whose link could plausibly get reposted or forwarded beyond who you sent it to.
- A vetted, known list uses per-creator links, not a shared link.
- Duplicate-address protection is left on unless you have a specific reason to turn it off.
- Items-per-order and any value limit reflect what the campaign can actually afford, not a placeholder.
- A campaign meant for a closed group is password-protected, not just "unlisted."

## Common mistakes

- Treating a "private" shared link as safe from being forwarded. It isn't; anyone with the URL can use it.
- Turning off duplicate-address protection to "stop getting so many pending submissions" instead of checking why they're happening.
- Requiring approval on every campaign by default, which turns Seed into a manual review queue instead of a fast gifting flow.

> **Tip:** None of these controls can stop someone from using a real address they're entitled to use, or a friend's. They're built to stop a link from being reused past who you intended, not to vet someone's follower count or authenticity, which is a judgment call you're still making yourself.