ARS stats hacking investigation
 

According to ARS' messageboard, they're looking into the possibility of hackers planting trojans in their system to skim signups from other webmasters. ARS is probably the biggest player out there and this wouldn't be a surprise that hackers may target their tracking system. How else can you explain weekly disruptions going from 1:200 to 0:100000? Can't blame ARS cuz they've always been above board and one of the most trusted names in the industry. Can't blame the webmaster, if they're skilled enough to convert at 1:200 one week using the same materials, it's not their fault when ratio tanks to 0:100000 the next.

Every large sponsor should definitely hire a security expert to monitor, prevent, and catch skimming cheaters.

I believe big companies like that have a few security experts.
Problem is that there are always guys that are smarter then them.
Plus when a site gets hacked you should format and reinstall everything to do it the best way since hackers usualy leave an opening for them to get back in easily but it's a kinda pain to format and reinstall everything I would say:)

They have to blame the shave on something or someone.

..or it could just be their shitty shaving schemes mashed into the slow summer conversion months.. either way, i'll bet they blame a "russian hacker" for it.

its a known fact - ARS shaves more than an olympic swim team.

Listen, if ARS shaves as you claim, they would not have made it this far and this big. I truly believe its more of a technical [read: hacking/security] issue than anything else.

for stats to do that it means 100% of people on the net jsut got infected with a trojan in a week, right.... shaving on the other hand makes a lot more sense

Hmmm, not really. Another way to do it would be to hide the skim code in a gallery, submit the gallery to the top TGPs, link lists, etc etc. User checks out the page, does not buy, then moves on to other pages. If at some later point they decide to click on and buy via ARS link, the traffic is tracked to the honest webmaster but the sponsor code is swapped at the transaction/submit transmission phase.

Besides, even if we assume that your shaving theory is true, why would ARS be stupid enough to shave off 1/2 to ALL of some of their top affiliates' sales? Wouldn't you think if they used a razor that they would shave uniformly across their whole affiliate database so that no one gets socked with a heavy Sign Up decrease?

Skimming on the other hand, does not care what webmasters' prior conversion rate, it only depends on the pages the users go to. Naturally, the top webmasters get listed in the top TGPs more so they get skimmed more.

There's 2 ways to combat this skimming problem, assuming it exists:

1) ARS plugs the security leak -- does an audit, etc.

2) submit only to lesser known but higher traffic sites. I doubt this is much of an option since there are massive autosubmitters out there that submit to 80000000+ sites, etc.

ars is for newbies anyways! flame away

A webmaster suggested we do this to help make them feel better, so we will. Running a system audit is not that difficult. We didn't make this statement as an assumption that we felt something was wrong but just to make those that suggested feel better :)

We like to take care of our webmasters.

For those of you who 'suggest' we shave, show proof or STFU :) Thank you!

do a test signup, I did and the s/u was there instantly

every year it's the same story on ARS
stop saying they shave, right in the middle of last shave dilema last year, I was converting 1:50 with my AVS sites... I really doubt they shave...

ARS may be under attack and thanks god they are looking into it...

maybe hackers uses perm cookie to falsifiate who generates the signups? I have no clue, but seen that on referback, a gambling sponsor...

Jimbo

As you hug your servers.

Would you allow a third party audit of your program?

If not... STFU.

You know damn well nobody will be able to prove shaving unless they have unrestricted access to your leeto admin.

Always the dumbass eh pipsqueak?

ARS will be the last to shave. Big Players, Sex-hit supercharge shave however

where are you working this week again?

oh believe me, if there was 'proof' then not only would you be out of business within a few months, and also, it is most likely that there would be lawsuits flying all over the place.

so anyway ---- are you saying that i could have ten friends sign up for one of your sites, and ten signups would show in my stats?

great.

(of course, when it is all over, i will let your guys know not to pay me for these signups) ---- i'm thinking of having some people test this system and i will reimburse them for the cost of a trial.

People do test signups fairly regularly on ARS boards - I have yet to see anyone say they were not credited. I think check signups are delayed - so make sure you do credit card signups.

You continue to prove my point.

can we get a link to that ARS thread?

http://stats.adultrevenueservice.com...t=6158&start=0

Is the link - and it is just what MarcDe said - not some investigation started for some reason other than people that REFUSE to ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY for their marketing to blame their lack of sales on just about everything BUT THEMSELVES.