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Fraudulent Merchant - Should I out him? VOTE!

Should I expose this fraudulent merchant?

  • Who cares

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    12

Linda Buquet

New Member
affiliate
This sucks!!! There are many things I could blog about today, but there has been a blog topic stuck in my mind that I can't get rid of. I feel like it's blocking my ability to cover anything else today, yet I can't quite bring myself to do it. I want to 'out' a merchant that's been screwing affiliates. Not only are they not paying but they aren't tracking period. Yet they are still recruiting affiliates and taking all the free advertising they get from them.

<img src="http://static.flickr.com/22/32717685_39487dd2a2_m.jpg" alt="money fraud" align="left" hspace="10" width="240" />I have screenshots of their internal stats I could show. Thousands of impressions and clicks and big round 0 GOOSE eggs for sales and commissions. I used to promote this company and helped get them hundreds of affiliates. Now I feel responsible.

I want to make an example out of this company and blast their name all over the blogoshere. I want to show proof that their screwing affiliates with the screenshots. Boy are they ever dumb not to change their affiliate stats log-in and password after letting a do-gooder like me in... But I can't quite make myself do it.

Affiliates here in the forum always tell me I'm too nice and easy going. I guess thats the problem. I keep thinking what if it's an oops, what if somethings broken and they can't figure out how to fix it? I keep wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt. But it's all bullshit! They have not been tracking for at least a couple months. I've emailed 2-3 times and never got a reply. In the last email I even threatened them and said "answer me or I will blog about this and expose you!" No answer.

Affiliates often get screwed by merchants. What good is outing one little merchant going to do??? Could they take any legal action against me for telling the truth and showing the stats? I guess I'm just talking out loud today and hoping for a little push. Should I "out" them or forget about it and let it go???

<strong>Vote in the poll in the forum and let me know what you think.</strong> If no one really cares much and hardly anyone votes, I'm inclined to just let it go. After all if you guys don't care, why should I stick my neck out?

Should I "out" them or forget about it and let it go??? You guys decide!
 
Linda,
I say you're too nice - you need to out them and help to protect others who may sign up for their affiliate program.

Not only are they screwing their affiliates, they're giving legitimate affiliate merchants a bad name.

IANAL, however, I don't think they could pursue legal action (successfully) simply because you posted your opinion and stats to prove what they were doing.

Seeing stuff like this definitely burns me - grr...

~ Teli

P.S. I'm sorry I've been so quiet around here lately, I've been working on themes for my upcoming free theme project, I also attended Affiliate Summit (I saw the folks at Partner Centric and said hello), I'm also doing an update to my current OptiNiche ebook and a few other projects.

Hopefully I'll get all caught up within the next month so I can start floating around the forum a lot more...I'm really starting to miss the 5 star family.
 
We miss you too Teli! I know how busy you can get. Wondered if you made it to the Summit.

Will welome you back with open arms once you get caught up!
 
Linda, I say OUT them! That's horrible and people need to know about the rotten way they do business. :(
 
who?

It sounds like they are using an affiliate program (cj, clixgalore, etc)
Outing them publically could be dangerous in our litigious society - could you notify the program?

~ first post, hi guys :)
 
Hi leadegroot,

Welcome to 5 star and thanks for weighing in.

"could you notify the program?"

Well I guess that's one of the reservations I have about outing them. I did email the affiliate support email address a couple times, but didn't try to contact the owner of the company to talk to him directly. I don't really know him but could probably get to him. Feel like maybe I owe him a call before outing, but also feel like he's a pretty savvy marketer that knows or at least SHOULD know his site is not tracking.
 
I say to out them but don't know what the ramifications would be if you do. So...... psssssst if you don't out them could you at least tell me who they are:)
 
You should probably get some legal advice before you do that.

But I would certainly go with "out them" if you aren't going to get into trouble and a sure of your position.
 
Out them Linda.....they have no recourse to legal action against you because you have the proof that it's true and have also contacted them with no response.

I am pissed at the number of programs that are doing this.
I have ended my assoication with a lot of programs when I don't get credited for sales that I know have gone through. It's unbelievable how much of this goes on.
Coincidentily I just bought a program that should give me much better stats on what happens with the affiliate programs I am involved with. Haven't even had time to set it up yet but I will report back when I have sussed it out properly.

I am an affiliate to NCS for one of my sites and although my click through rate has remained the same for two years the number of approvals has dropped to one or two a month. I was receiving around 2k per month, now the checks aren't enough to bother cashing.. They blame the banks for not reporting back to them but thats crap as this has been getting worse for months now and their is never any catch up.
I also run some of the same affiliate products on another site but from a different Affiliate company and although the number of clicks through that site is much lower I receive quite a lot of approvala.
From the emails I have received from other affiliates it looks like all the NCS affiliates are in the same boat.
 
Out the bastards. I am a firm believer that anyone who is taking advantage of others in this fashion should be publicly exposed among their peers. We should be protecting those who are trying to work hard and play on the straight and level. We should not protect those who either through incompetence or fraud are cheating everyone else.
 
Linda Buquet said:
This sucks!!!

<img src="http://static.flickr.com/22/32717685_39487dd2a2_m.jpg" alt="money fraud" align="left" hspace="10" width="240" />I have screenshots of their internal stats I could show. Thousands of impressions and clicks and big round 0 GOOSE eggs for sales and commissions.


Affiliates here in the forum always tell me I'm too nice and easy going. I guess thats the problem.

Should I "out" them or forget about it and let it go??? You guys decide!
[/B]
Yup, you should out them , dirty rotten bastards , I will show my friends this post from the 3 other forums I belong, they are all domain related, also that big round 0 GOOSE eggs can be shoved up their squeaky tight cheatin ASSES , There I feel wonderful. Good luck and if you decide not to out them I ask PLEASE let me know who they are so I do not fall victim also. Thanks, God Bless and have a great weekend. ;)
 
Out 'em quick. I've literally lost thousands to jerks like that...

Plus, they won't even answer your emails to defend themselves, so, that speaks volumes by itself.
 
Awhhhhh now I thought for sure by the time I got back to this post you'd have given the name by now. Those of us curious minded people can't take the suspense. Come on.....out with it????? Pretty please:)
 
Sorry, I've been meaning to post it. Was going to give the owner the benefit of the doubt and call him 1st have not had time. Plus but its been months and so if they didn't disable tracking on purpose, then it's just negligence that they didn't notice it's not working.
 
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