Catching cheating affiliate program owners.
 

Hi,

Does anyone know of any groups of people (affiliates) who buy memberships in order to trap suspected thieving affiliate program owners?

I'd like to get some dating site memberships purchased and take the findings to an appropriate legal representative.

If there isnt such a group - would anyone be interested in helping me start one up?

Cheers
Mr Chips.

I do this several hundred times per day :1orglaugh

It's called a test signup. The affiliates want you to tell them before you do it but - DUH - don't. Get a friend or family member to signup and test. Don't over do it especially on PPS.

Freebie pay per email? Ummm... if you can't figure that out you have bigger fish to fry :winkwink:

Not all programs require you to tell before you do a test signup, at RewardThem we actually encurage our affiliates to test for any cheating on our part by checking source codes for your refferal ID, and to do test signups.

No asking for us to know about it in advance since that would kinda blow the whole idea of doing a test signup imo.

Before starting anything like that, it would be best to talk to a really good lawyer and get specifics on what information would need to be gathered and how much of it in order to be able to provide rock solid proof of fraud in a court of law.

Well just some video taping and covering your ass with showing you removed all cookies etc, then staying in small claims would kill a shaving sponsor.

See I could sue up to 5k in CA for first case then 2500 for each case after that for the year. Rarely do I think any sponsor has shaved me for more than 2500 let alone 5k. Even if they did they would rarely meet superior court no max level where attornies are really needed.

Just make a website and expose them.

Thanks for the replies.

I get the impression that most affiliates wouldnt want to go the legal route. So maybe a website exposing them would be a good way to go.

If I did this, then I think it would be best to only show stats (not post comments like "this sponsor is shit") - so if I developed a site which allowed webmasters to post "suspect" stats of a sponsor - then if the sponsor is shaving or not - at least we would all know that the program is shit anyway.
Additionally the test signups results would be posted aswell.

The best kind of stats for this I think are the ones which show a sudden drop in conversions, even though the traffic volumes are the same (or greater) and the traffic sources are the same.

Would any affiliates here use such a site to determine who not to promote? As at the end of the day - ridding the industry of both shit performing sponsors AND shaving thieves is the overall objective.

More thoughts please?

Cheers
MrChips

I'm afraid you'll discover that not one program doesn't shave or cheat in some way. So, what's the point?

Who, not everyone cheats, thieves and shaves.

Affiliates may know already that many sponsors cheat - but the extent to which they cheat should be known.

I would rather a sponsor give me an honest 10% than a dishonest 30%.

I think affiliates have been kept in the dark too long now - and after 9 years in this business on the net, I think its time to try and change one or two things.

MrChips.

Well, it will be a very difficult project to undertake. Will you make any profit from it? As soon as you post your findings, they'll probably be out of date. The best thing you can probably do is maintain a blacklist of sorts.. Perhaps?

I don't advertise programs I suspect of shaving, but in general, yes, I'd go the legal route if they aren't located in some third world country with shitty legal system. We already had a site like this in the good old PPC times, Serge's GBU (The good, the bad and the ugly)

Yay, good idea, but be prepared for legal threats, the cheaters won't just sit and watch.

You'd need to reveal the traffic sources and track all traffic on your side as well to proof that it it's the same traffic, or they'd claim you sent SE traffic and are now sending 404 traffic.

Yes, I'd use a site like this, depending on the accuracy and ammount of the data.

Summary: Great idea, you'd certainly get support and data from affiliates, but be aware that reactions from the programs listed there won't be positive, so have a lawyer ready to avoid getting burned.

Since ive reading gfy, 6 years, people made posts like this. Every 6 months or so someone will "expose the truth".

Nothing ever happened. Nothing. Zero.

Franck - Im going to make it this time.

Im still working this through - the goal in mind may not be to take the thieves to court - but to spread the word about them through affiliate circles. Not publicly ruin them - but ruin them by letting webmasters know them.

There are plenty of ways of doing this.

A sponsor can be ruined quite simply by word of mouth - granted - I wont make cash from it - thats not what this is about.

Well, make it happen. I doubt you will but im interested in the results.

Indeed. Are you oblivious to the nature of almost every sponsor, Chips?

Are you sure about that?? :glugglug

Well DirtyF? Are you sure?
ARE YOU?

More comments please regarding a method of hunting down and catching out cheaters and thieves.

Are there no affiliates on this board?