This is an amazing thread. I can understand the thinking some of the bigger programs are involved, since they would be larger (and possibly easier) targets. A $1000 at 7-11 is extremely noticable. A $1000 at a casino doesn't bat an eye. Some follow up questions I would have on the issue are:
1. How is the traffic that is skimmed determined? It seems that the skim may be set to a percentage of overall traffic sent to a certain program(s). Or it could be to a certain range of referral information. Once more information is collected, there has to be some things they all have in common.
2. Let consider the possibility that the traffic is not being sent to the same sponsor as the original refferal, or even to a public program at all. Quite a few of the large programs have similar style names and sites that are easy to emulate. Hell, it may be a hidden tour designed to look like the original.
3. Programs give as many reasons to themselves why sales are down as they give to their affilliates. Some are valid, some aren't. There are many "X" factors and it is easier to blame things than to look for answers. It would seem that action on the part of programs would dictate whether the loss of funds is really occurring on their end. If it is "everything is rosy for us" then there would appear to be an issue and they are still receiving credit.
4. Sales are really down for many affilliates and programs due to the huge influx of competition in the market place. Yeah, this option sucks. Lets just look at the previous 3.
Accurate reporting of traffic stats by programs and comparing it with your own data seems like the one of the easier ways of determining if this is happening to you. I want this thread to be a sticky
