Do Networks Over-Scrub Leads Just to Protect Their Margin?

Hey everyone,
I’m new to affiliate marketing and recently started running CPL campaigns.

Something I noticed: sometimes conversions show up in my tracker but then get scrubbed later by the network.
When I ask “why?”, the answer is usually vague: “quality issue” or “advertiser didn’t approve.”

So I’m curious:
Are networks over-scrubbing just to save margin?
How do you tell if it’s legit vs. unfair?
And which networks are more transparent about scrub rates?

Would love to hear your experiences.

Best defense = track everything yourself and compare multiple networks. Transparency varies a lot between them.

Scrubbing is normal to some extent, but if you see >20% scrub and no clear reason, that’s usually a red flag.