Spyware still cheating Merchants and Legitimate Affiliates

[RawAlex]

Interesting article, I would recommend that that the people from sexsearch and AFF take the time to read this one... particularly the issue of "popping over yourself".

http://www.benedelman.org/news/052107-1.html

When will you guys learn that the only people making money off this is the thieves installing the spyware?

[RawAlex]

I particularly like this:

In Netflix's 2007 Q1 earnings call, CFO Barry McCarthy noted that Netflix's recent "word-of-mouth subscriber growth was weak." There are multiple plausible explanations for that change, but advertising fraud is an important additional factor to consider: In the examples set out above, Netflix would mistakenly pay Look2me, Vomba, Web Nexus, and Zango even if a consumer in fact signed up thanks to a word-of-mouth recommendation rather than as a result of those vendors' advertising. With marketing costs already consuming more than 23% of Netflix's revenues, any reduction seems both overdue and welcome.

What will Netflix, Blockbuster, and other affiliate merchants do in response to these examples? One immediate action item is to sever their ties with the specific affiliates I have identified. Merchants could also demand repayment of any commissions previously paid out -- a challenging task with small affiliates, but probably possible for large affiliates like Experian's Roundads. (With Experian's $12 billion market capitalization, Experian's subsidiaries are far from judgment proof.)

How much money have companies like AFF spent to retain traffic they were getting for free?