let's fight scammers!

[Lior MR]

hey guys,
after some sad stories, I've heard from colleagues of mine (and another personal unfortunate case) I wanted to hear your opinion about scammers and how we can detect them ahead.

there's a lot of scammers out there who get prepayment and disappear.
in a business that relies on trust, it's not always easy to avoid scammers of any kind.
but what we, as a community, can do about it? what can we do to protect each other?

I wonder, is there any forum for us to share with each other (both advertisers and publishers) stories and warnings about scammers?
is it legal from our side?
how can we do it without being dragged to shaming?

any ideas or other thoughts?

have a wonderful week and a safe 2021 for all!

 

[Honeybadger]

how can we do it without being dragged to shaming?

Why are you giving prepayments? Nobody ever gave me a prepayment, I had to earn every commission, simple answer is stop giving prepayments

Or if you offer prepayments make better security, more checks, ask for identification, perform credit search, ask for reference, schedule video call, give aptitude test, make it harder for people to get offers and you weed out scammers

Most people stop climbing a mountain when it gets difficult

 

[Strickland]

This is a never ending debate, there are always two sides to a coin.
Was it a scam? Did they read the T&C's properly, or even at all?

What business are you in that relies that heavily on trust to make a prepayment?

If there was an open forum where you could name scammers without a law suit every IM would be calling out their opposition just to discredit them.

Teaching people how to spot and avoid scammers would be helpfull. But naming and shaming people just because you feel like you got scammed is dangerous in my opinion.

 

[Lior MR]

This is a never ending debate, there are always two sides to a coin.
Was it a scam? Did they read the T&C's properly, or even at all?

What business are you in that relies that heavily on trust to make a prepayment?

If there was an open forum where you could name scammers without a law suit every IM would be calling out their opposition just to discredit them.

Teaching people how to spot and avoid scammers would be helpfull. But naming and shaming people just because you feel like you got scammed is dangerous in my opinion.

i get you.
to make things clearer: I'm talking about CPA in the finance vertical.
and yes, 'prepayment' model is kinda new but it became very popular.
affiliates don't send traffic if they don't get payment ahead. it's absurd, because as an advertiser i don't know what is the quality of their traffic.

and the forum mentioned - this kind of shaming happens a lot on Linkedin, usually the side that got hurt publish a warning in a group or as a general post.

 

[Graybeard]

'Hey , i'm looking for fx/crypto traffic and noticed you mention it. do you deliver in CPA? thx'

• You are operating in a very scammy industry in general.
• Why can't you buy ads on a Net 30 billing basis?
• Businesses use affiliates for free publicity and in return pay a *fair* compensatory commission for sales referred or some other CPA (CPL,CPI etc).

 

[azgold]

'prepayment' model is kinda new but it became very popular.

Naturally, the first thoughts that come to mind are to either stop doing prepayment or make it harder for them to get it so you can do some vetting before giving them money.

If there was an open forum where you could name scammers without a law suit every IM would be calling out their opposition just to discredit them.

Yup. It's been done many times on many sites, even when the complaints are not true.

 

[Tgenyah]

It is very difficult to fight with scammers.

 

[torazzo]

i was wondering, that any webiste make list of scammers name and company. with a full detail of information and everyone can contribute and get the data for free.

 

[Reveana]

i was wondering, that any webiste make list of scammers name and company. with a full detail of information and everyone can contribute and get the data for free.

It would be great, but no one will do it for free.

 

[planck]

This is a never ending debate, there are always two sides to a coin.
Was it a scam? Did they read the T&C's properly, or even at all?

What business are you in that relies that heavily on trust to make a prepayment?

If there was an open forum where you could name scammers without a law suit every IM would be calling out their opposition just to discredit them.

Teaching people how to spot and avoid scammers would be helpfull. But naming and shaming people just because you feel like you got scammed is dangerous in my opinion.

A scam is a swindle.