PropFirmMatch Cookie Stuffing Allegations: What the Archived Code Shows

What did Kane’s video claim?

Kane’s claim is that a click on an internal PropFirmMatch link fires an affiliate link in the tab the trader leaves behind. In his post on X, a trader on PropFirmMatch clicks a firm’s profile page or the copy-code button. The intended page opens in a new tab. The original tab goes through PropFirmMatch’s affiliate link to the prop firm’s website, which credits PropFirmMatch with the visit.

Are we still on the "deceitful marketing algo"? Hey @PropFirmMatch, did you knowingly push an update that stuffs cookies when people aren’t clicking links advertised in the code as external websites?

Here’s what happens: someone clicks the profile page or copy code link that… pic.twitter.com/yhw9uWMsap

— kane🧪 (@traderkane) October 29, 2026

Kane used MyFundedFutures as his example. The archived code described below matches his description, and it also shows where each redirect was recorded: the browser’s localStorage, under a key named affiliate_redirects.

PropFirmMatch bans this kind of thing for its own affiliates. Its affiliate terms, issued by Prop Firm Match Global FZCO for people who promote PropFirmMatch, say that sending users away “through hidden iframe redirects, forced affiliate cookies, etc. is forbidden” (section 3). Section 6 adds that any attempt to divert referrals “through hidden iframes or software that overwrites cookies is strictly forbidden.”

For traders, the site’s terms and conditions, last revised on 27 October 2026, say PropFirmMatch may earn commission when a user buys “through an affiliate link or code provided on the Website.” They do not mention opening affiliate links in a background tab.

What does PropFirmMatch’s archived code show?

The code shows a function called useAffiliateRedirect wired to the copy-code button. The Internet Archive saves the JavaScript files that websites load. That means anyone can open the code PropFirmMatch served to visitors on a given date. In the version archived on 3 September 2026, a click on copy code ran these steps:

1. The promo code is copied to the clipboard, as the trader expects.
2. The script reads a record called affiliate_redirects from the browser’s localStorage. If this firm is already on today’s list, it stops and the click behaves normally.
3. If not, it adds the firm to today’s list and opens the page the trader was on in a new tab. Browsers normally switch to the new tab.
4. The original tab, now in the background, is sent to the firm’s affiliate URL.

The last step is one line of PropFirmMatch’s code. Here it is exactly as archived, unedited:

window.open(w.toString(),"_blank"),window.location.href=v,!0

window.open opens the new tab. window.location.href=v sends the current tab to v, which earlier in the same function is set to the firm’s affiliate URL.

The same function was also wired to PropFirmMatch’s internal firm links. From the April 2026 version on, links built with a component called AffiliateAppLink call it on click and cancel the normal navigation when it runs. That fits Kane’s description of profile links, for versions from April 2026.

How long was the redirect live?

The redirect appears in every archived version of PropFirmMatch’s code from 30 November 2025 to 24 October 2026. I checked 46 Internet Archive captures of the PropFirmMatch homepage from January 2025 onward, one for each day it was archived, plus two later file captures, and searched every JavaScript file each one loaded.

Where did the original tab go?

The original tab went to the affiliate URL stored for each firm in PropFirmMatch’s own page data. The archived homepages carry these URLs. For six of the listed firms:

A URL missing from a given day means it was not in that day’s homepage data, not that the firm had none. From June 2026, the code also added a session ID to the partners.propfirmmatch.com links before sending the tab.

Why did retests look normal?

Retests looked normal because the redirect only fired the first time a trader clicked a given firm each day. After that, the firm was on the day’s affiliate_redirects list and every click behaved as expected. The new tab also showed the same page the trader was already reading, so most people would not notice the tab behind it had changed.

I tested PropFirmMatch in Chrome on 30 October 2026 and recorded the network traffic. No click sent the original tab to a firm’s website, and no request reached one. That fits what the code served that day shows: the redirect was switched off.

Was the redirect switched off?

Yes, within hours of Kane’s post. His video, posted on X at 20:33 UTC on 29 October 2026, shows the redirect working. In the file the Internet Archive saved at 00:23 UTC on 30 October, less than four hours later, PropFirmMatch kept the function name, the data structure and the link component that calls it, but the body now reads its inputs and returns false. My own copy of that file, captured an hour later, matches the archived copy byte for byte.

Is a forced click the same as cookie stuffing?

Not quite, and the difference matters for how prop firms read their contracts. Classic cookie stuffing sets an affiliate cookie with no click at all, usually on page load. What the archived code does is closer to a forced click: the trader clicks one thing and a tracking link they never chose fires in another tab.

The affiliate industry has written standards for this. Rule 10 of Awin’s publisher code of conduct says publishers should only start click tracking “if the user voluntarily and intentionally interacted with the Ad Media or Tracking link.” A trader copying a discount code did not choose the tracking link.

The strongest defence for PropFirmMatch is purchase intent. A trader copying a firm’s code is already shopping for that firm, and the firm may have paid the same commission either way. That defence has limits. The redirect also fired for traders who were only copying a code, including any who later bought through another creator’s link. And the firm, not the affiliate, decides what counts as a referral. That is easier to say than to enforce when firms rely on comparison and review sites for traffic, which I covered in why review sites outrank prop firms for their own brand name.

Is cookie stuffing illegal?

Cookie stuffing has been prosecuted as wire fraud in the United States. Shawn Hogan, eBay’s largest affiliate, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced to five months in federal prison, according to the case summary on Wikipedia. Brian Dunning, eBay’s second-largest affiliate, received a 15-month prison term from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. Both cases involved cookies set with no click at all, at large scale.

Forced clicks on a prop firm comparison site have no court record. For prop firm operators, the near-term questions are contract terms and commission reviews.

What this evidence does not show

The archive proves what PropFirmMatch’s code did. It does not prove:

• How many traders the redirect fired for.
• Whether any firm paid commission because of it, or how much.
• Who wrote it, who approved it, or why.
• The exact day it went live, the exact minute it was switched off, or why. Kane’s video may have been recorded before he posted it, and earlier archive captures are days or weeks apart.

How can prop firm operators check their own affiliate data?

Prop firm operators can check the period from late November 2025 to late October 2026 in their own data. The redirect is now switched off, so a live test will show nothing. Your affiliate records are where the evidence is.

Check it yourself

You do not need to trust my screenshots. Open any of these Internet Archive links in a browser, press Ctrl+F and search for the text shown. Minified code renames its variables in every version, so the letter at the end changes.

What happens next?

The questions now sit with PropFirmMatch and the firms it lists. PropFirmMatch can say when the redirect went live, why it was switched off, and whether firms were told. Listed firms can check their own data for the period and decide whether past commissions need review. Traders lost nothing directly, since the challenge price and discount were the same, but they are the ones whose clicks were counted.

PropFirmMatch replied to Kane on X at 03:14 UTC on 30 October, about six and a half hours after his post: “Trust is at the heart of what we do. We’re looking into the questions raised and will share a full statement within 24 hours.” The Internet Archive’s copy of the code from 00:23 UTC that day already shows the redirect switched off. This page will be updated when the statement is published.

About a minute later, at 03:15 UTC, Apex Trader Funding said on X that it had “terminated its affiliate relationship with Prop Firm Match, effective immediately.” Apex said all its affiliate tracking codes for PropFirmMatch were disabled, and that the decision followed a review of referral tracking practices and compliance with its Affiliate Marketing Agreement. Apex did not say what the review found. Apex is one of the firms whose affiliate link appears in PropFirmMatch’s archived page data. This page will be updated if other listed firms respond.