Key Takeaway:
Increasingly, scammers exploit Linktree to run counterfeit affiliate networks, routing traffic through a trusted platform to push consumers toward fake goods. Brands need to know how this works, what to look for, and how to stop it.
When delegates gathered at the Anti-Counterfeiting Group conference in Cardiff, one platform came up repeatedly in conversations about the evolving shape of online infringement: Linktree. Not because of anything the company had done wrong, but because cybercriminals figured out how to abuse it. That conversation reflects a broader shift in how counterfeit networks operate online, and brand managers and IP counsel need to pay close attention.
Linktree offers one of the most widely used link-in-bio tools on the internet. For most users, it does exactly what it promises: a clean, simple page that gathers multiple links in one place. A musician directs fans to streaming platforms, ticket sales, and merchandise. A brand ambassador aggregates affiliate links across a dozen retailers. The platform now serves tens of millions of users worldwide. For scammers, though, all of that legitimate scale creates an opportunity. They exploit Linktree’s trusted reputation as cover, incorporating it into counterfeit operations specifically because consumers recognize and trust it.
What Linktree Does, and Why Scammers Exploit It
Linktree launched in 2016 to solve a specific problem. Social media platforms typically allow one link in a profile bio. Linktree lets users point that single link to a hosted page containing as many links as they want.
That scale, and the legitimate reputation that comes with it, attracts infringers. A link hosted on linktr.ee carries an implied credibility that a link to an unfamiliar domain does not. Consumers encounter Linktree pages constantly. They do not automatically raise suspicion. For a counterfeit operation built on social media reach, a Linktree page provides a layer of apparent legitimacy between the social profile and the infringing product listing.
The mechanics are straightforward. A social media account, often impersonating a brand or operating as an affiliate-style influencer page, directs followers to a Linktree page. That page then routes traffic to counterfeit product listings hosted elsewhere: a fake storefront, a marketplace listing, a direct messaging channel. The Linktree page itself may contain no infringing content at all, which makes detection harder and creates jurisdictional ambiguity between the social platform, Linktree, and the ultimate destination.
The Infringements Brands Face on the Platform
The types of infringement that flow through link-in-bio tools vary, but they share a common structure. Scammers use Linktree as a relay point rather than a source, which creates real challenges for enforcement.
Affiliate-driven counterfeit networks represent the most common pattern. These operations mirror the structure of legitimate influencer marketing. An account builds or buys a following, posts content that mimics authentic brand marketing, and drives purchases through affiliate-style links. The Linktree page serves as the hub, collecting links to multiple infringing listings across different platforms and rotating them as takedowns occur. When one link goes down, the scammer simply updates the Linktree page with a new one. The social account and its following stay intact.
Impersonation pages present a related risk. Malicious actors create Linktree profiles that mimic official brand accounts, complete with logos and brand language, then use them to route consumers toward phishing pages, fraudulent ticketing sites, or counterfeit storefronts. Fans or customers who search for a brand on social media may encounter a convincing impersonation before they find the real thing.
Brands in fashion, luxury goods, footwear, and consumer electronics face the highest volume of this activity, but the model keeps spreading. Any brand with a recognizable identity and a consumer-facing social presence makes a potential target.
Recent Cases and Why the Industry Is Paying Attention
Right now, scammers are using Linktree to sell counterfeits and trick customers online. It’s not just an idea, as it affects real people and real retail organizations. For example, a large luxury jewelry brand recently joined forces with a major ecommerce platform to file suit against a Chinese social media influencer and eight associated businesses. The defendants stood accused of advertising, promoting, and selling counterfeit jewelry through Instagram, Linktree, and other websites. The lawsuit alleged that the group used Linktree as part of a deliberate architecture to move consumers from social content toward fake product listings, including a replica of one of the jewelry brand’s most iconic pieces, disguised through product photography that carefully concealed the original’s design details.
That case illustrates the coordination involved. Scammers did not use Linktree incidentally, or by accident, but instead, they exploited its usability as a key part of their campaign’s architecture. They built it into their operation because it worked, giving them a credible-looking relay point between social discovery and fraudulent purchase.
At the ACG conference in Cardiff, brand protection professionals identified link-in-bio tools as a growing vector for affiliate-driven counterfeit sales. The discussion reflected a clear industry consensus: the problem keeps scaling, and monitoring marketplaces and filing individual takedowns does not address it on its own.
What Brands Can Do for Themselves
Brands must act if they want to address infringements on Linktree.
Fortunately, the platform provides a reporting mechanism for violations. Any Linktree profile hosting fraudulent, spammy, or infringing content can be reported directly through the platform’s Report a Violation form, which the support team reviews and uses to deactivate accounts that breach Linktree’s terms of service. You can access that form here.
On social platforms, brands can file trademark infringement and impersonation reports against accounts that use brand assets without authorization. Most major platforms run dedicated IP reporting workflows, and a well-documented complaint from a brand owner typically moves faster than a report from an individual user.
DMCA takedown notices apply where the infringing Linktree page or its linked destinations reproduce copyrighted content, such as brand imagery, product photography, or marketing copy. Notices go to Linktree as the hosting platform, as well as to the downstream platforms where infringing listings live.
Brands can also monitor for early signals manually, at limited scale. Unusual spikes in follower counts on accounts using brand hashtags, posting patterns that mimic affiliate marketing, and repeated linktr.ee URLs appearing in brand-adjacent social content all warrant attention. The challenge is that manual monitoring cannot keep pace with the volume of accounts operating across dozens of platforms simultaneously. Scammers count on that gap.
Tackling the Problem at Scale with Brand Protection
Brands cannot police the entire internet themselves. The affiliate counterfeit networks operating through Linktree are built to scale and to outlast individual takedowns. Brand protection platforms close that gap through continuous automated monitoring and a structured enforcement pipeline.
At the detection stage, monitoring tools crawl social media platforms, open web content, and known counterfeit-adjacent communities for signals of brand infringement. This includes scanning bio links for linktr.ee URLs appearing alongside brand terms, tracking hashtags and keywords associated with counterfeit affiliate behavior, and flagging accounts whose posting patterns match known infringement networks. Detection runs continuously, not in response to individual complaints.
Once the platform identifies a suspected infringement, it logs and categorizes it. Linktree pages linked from suspicious accounts get captured, including the destinations they route to. This builds a network map of the infringing operation, connecting social accounts, Linktree pages, and downstream listings. That map transforms individual takedown actions into a coordinated enforcement response, rather than an endless game of whack-a-mole.
Enforcement then executes at scale. Automated workflows generate DMCA notices, platform reports, and registrar complaints in bulk, with tracking to confirm resolution. Where a scammer updates a Linktree page with new destination links after a takedown, the monitoring system flags the change and triggers a new enforcement action. The rotation tactic that defeats manual monitoring stops working.
Domain monitoring adds another layer. Counterfeit operations that exploit Linktree as a relay often register lookalike domains for their final storefronts. Brand protection platforms watch domain registration activity for variations on a brand’s name and flag new registrations matching infringement patterns, often before a fake site even goes live.
Intelligence and Investigations
Not every infringement resolves with a takedown notice. Coordinated affiliate networks, repeat offenders, and operations showing signs of organized criminal involvement require a different response. Intelligence and investigations work builds the evidence base needed to escalate to civil or criminal enforcement action.
This means identifying the individuals or organizations behind infringing operations rather than simply removing their content. It means tracing financial flows, mapping relationships between accounts, and preserving evidence in a format suitable for legal proceedings. The luxury jewelry lawsuit mentioned earlier succeeded in part because the plaintiffs demonstrated coordinated activity across multiple accounts and platforms, not just the presence of infringing listings. That level of documentation does not happen by accident.
EBRAND’s intelligence and investigations services support brands at this level. For more information on how investigations work and when they are the right tool, visit our investigations page.
Conclusions: Linking and Eliminating Infringements on Linktree
Linktree serves tens of millions of legitimate users every day. The platform itself is not the problem. The problem is that scammers actively exploit its scale and trusted reputation, incorporating it into counterfeit operations that move consumers from social discovery to fraudulent purchase. From the coordinated lawsuits to the industry discussions happening right now at brand protection conferences, the evidence of this trend keeps growing.
Brands that rely on manual monitoring and reactive reporting will keep removing individual links while the networks generating them continue operating. The brands that get ahead of this monitor continuously, map infringement networks rather than chasing individual instances, and enforce at scale.
If you want to see what scammers are doing with your brand name on Linktree and across the broader social web, a demo of EBRAND’s ARGOS platform will deliver the answers you need. You can get a free demo right here.
