affiliate fraud

Lightning McQueen

Lightning McQueen

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it can still be seen that nothing is being done about the affiliate fraud on the boards, i guess it's time for some more info as what was previously given today appears wasn't enough.

see todays discussions
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/spread-betting-cfds/16595-capital-spreads-1019.html#post2122338
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/edu...should-i-take-course-not-358.html#post2122332

for cookie stuffing info google "cookie stuffing" here's a couple of results.

Cookie Stuffing - Wiki

Cookie stuffing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


ffsear said:
All i'm seeing is smilies linked to a different site which provides them for free.
Click to expand...


now read the following link to see what users of the so called free smilie provider imagicon.info is up to on these very boards.


Audacious Affiliate Uses Merchant's Own Site to Commit Affiliate FraudReveNews


this has dragged on for a couple years now. there are at least 70+ threads infested. you can't now say you can't see it like before and do nothing about it.

will somebody now finally get rid of this fraud please.

and keep it out.
 
how do we know if our machines have fraudulent cookies?

do we have to delete ALL cookies to be on the safe side?

is this something that an anti-virus sweep can deal with?

good find, LM, and thanks for highlighting this.
 
Lightning McQueen said:
it can still be seen that nothing is being done about the affiliate fraud on the boards, i guess it's time for some more info as what was previously given today appears wasn't enough.

see todays discussions
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/spread-betting-cfds/16595-capital-spreads-1019.html#post2122338
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/edu...should-i-take-course-not-358.html#post2122332

for cookie stuffing info google "cookie stuffing" here's a couple of results.

Cookie Stuffing - Wiki

Cookie stuffing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia





now read the following link to see what users of the so called free smilie provider imagicon.info is up to on these very boards.


Audacious Affiliate Uses Merchant's Own Site to Commit Affiliate FraudReveNews


this has dragged on for a couple years now. there are at least 70+ threads infested. you can't now say you can't see it like before and do nothing about it.

will somebody now finally get rid of this fraud please.

and keep it out.
Click to expand...

Is there any way to know who they are defrauding? I mean it might not all be bad, if you know what I mean.
 
pboyles said:
Is there any way to know who they are defrauding? I mean it might not all be bad, if you know what I mean.
Click to expand...

i believe it's the merchants that are being defrauded. previous incarnations of this a couple of years ago here included amazon and groupon, the proof we provided at the time to admin was ignored and the posts deleted. the spam has drip fed in ever since :confused:

although the flipside of the coin is that it could be the spammers that buy into this are being defrauded, that'd be funny. that said they are still spammers and should be removed from the boards.
 
Last edited:
trendie said:
how do we know if our machines have fraudulent cookies?

do we have to delete ALL cookies to be on the safe side?

is this something that an anti-virus sweep can deal with?

good find, LM, and thanks for highlighting this.
Click to expand...

i have no real idea, i'm not techie enough to know. but as it appears cookie based getting rid of cookies should be enough i'd have thought?? anyone know?
 
Thank you for pointing this out Lightning McQueen.

I am not clear on this point. Is it enough to just see the icon or do you have to click on it for the cookie to be installed?
 
twinj said:
Thank you for pointing this out Lightning McQueen.

I am not clear on this point. Is it enough to just see the icon or do you have to click on it for the cookie to be installed?
Click to expand...

if you see a red x then you don't have the cookie and it will be served to you via the smilie provider. once you see the icon then you have their cookie. as far as i can tell you only have to view the post. that is all i know.

if it helps, from the wikipedia link on post 1

Images

The "IMG" HTML tag forces a browser to attempt to retrieve an image at any URL. It doesn’t matter if the URL supplied doesn't have an extension like ".jpg", ".gif", or ".png" at the end. For instance, "img src=http://google.com" would actually get anyone that visits that page to send a visit to Google. Affiliate links can be put in directly or by creating a redirect in their .htaccess. This is how affiliates cookie stuff user content
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Lightning McQueen said:
i believe it's the merchants that are being defrauded. previous incarnations of this a couple of years ago here included amazon and groupon, the proof we provided at the time to admin was ignored and the posts deleted. the spam has drip fed in ever since :confused:

although the flipside of the coin is that it could be the spammers that buy into this are being defrauded, that'd be funny. that said they are still spammers and should be removed from the boards.
Click to expand...

They should make a commission only if someone clicks on the link and purchase's something from the merchant.
Should report the person/link to the merchant and they will be removed from the affiliate program.

Affiliate programs have strict guide lines on how bloggers send traffic to the merchant website. There is a middle company called an affiliate network which is the in between with the blogger and merchant.

Sample of a correct run UK affiliate blogger site.
OSOYOU.com - Your one stop shop location to over 550,000 products from more than 500 UK stores
Click on to buy something and see how the website directs you.
Probably breaking T2W law's for showing this site.


There is also pay per click sites, but know nothing about them.
 
LM,

Did you report any of peleus posts and in the report include info about the image link ? In the past when I saw this it was automatic band and clean but if they are not reported then that is why they will slip through the net. There is no way I know of to go through all threads and posts to find and delete this sort of thing so if you know of one please elaborate.
 
Trader333 said:
LM,

Did you report any of peleus posts and in the report include info about the image link ? In the past when I saw this it was automatic band and clean but if they are not reported then that is why they will slip through the net. There is no way I know of to go through all threads and posts to find and delete this sort of thing so if you know of one please elaborate.
Click to expand...

why would i report something that previously has been ignored by such reports?

it was tackled out in the open and in thread yesterday, this way it can't be ignored. there is now enough evidence gathered that you have to do something.

will you do something now and get rid of the spammers?

as i posted yesterday it is quite easy if you use the search term imagicon.info

you'll find all the posts and quotes, including the old hidden ones from a couple of years back. there are currently 74 threads worth to go through.

also you need to ban the use of outside sourced smilies.
 
Last edited:
Trader333 said:
LM,

Did you report any of peleus posts and in the report include info about the image link ? In the past when I saw this it was automatic band and clean but if they are not reported then that is why they will slip through the net. There is no way I know of to go through all threads and posts to find and delete this sort of thing so if you know of one please elaborate.
Click to expand...

How does so much slip through the net? Why are the mods and admin the only ones who can't find this stuff when the rest of us can without even trying. Just open a few threads and/or do a simple search.

Peter
 
why would i report something that previously has been ignored by such reports?
Click to expand...

This is simply not true. Every time I saw a report for this it was auto ban and clean. I don't moderate any more but as I said I got rid of hundreds of these over about 2 years. I have reported the peleus posts now based on this but the idea that you have now flagged it and that we have the ability to go back and clean the whole lot manually is not realistic and we dont have the resource to do so.

As a matter of interest I checked my own browser for these links as I use firefox and there is nothing of affiliate nature at all in my cookies so this would imply that the cookies are not autogenerated unless I am missing something ?
 
wackypete2 said:
How does so much slip through the net? Why are the mods and admin the only ones who can't find this stuff when the rest of us can without even trying. Just open a few threads and/or do a simple search.

Peter
Click to expand...

as i've said before to them, it's no good sitting back and waiting on a report. they could be more proactive and get rid of spam on sight, they are allowed to do that, but don't seem to want to sometimes and seem to be operating a report needed to delete system :confused:
 
Trader333 said:
This is simply not true. Every time I saw a report for this it was auto ban and clean. I don't moderate any more but as I said I got rid of hundreds of these over about 2 years. I have reported the peleus posts now based on this but the idea that you have now flagged it and that we have the ability to go back and clean the whole lot manually is not realistic and we dont have the resource to do so.

As a matter of interest I checked my own browser for these links as I use firefox and there is nothing of affiliate nature at all in my cookies so this would imply that the cookies are not autogenerated unless I am missing something ?
Click to expand...

it was ignored, as were a few of my reports back when i did that, that is why i don't do it, why bother when there is picking and choosing going on.

eh? what do you mean haven't the resources?? 10 minutes tops to bin, 20 mins if there are a lot of quotes, which i don't believe there are. a mod could have done it yesterday but he chose not to :confused:
 
You said they have been put all over the boards and ignored so how would they all be found ? I am stating categorically that there was no "selective" element in this. If I was aware of them there was not a single exception and in every case it was ban and clean.

What possible reason would there be to be selective about this kind of activity ?
 
Trader333 said:
You said they have been put all over the boards and ignored so how would they all be found ? I am stating categorically that there was no "selective" element in this. If I was aware of them there was not a single exception and in every case it was ban and clean.

What possible reason would there be to be selective about this kind of activity ?
Click to expand...

dare i say vendor protection for an example, there will def be a report ignored on that one lurking in the report threads.

content issues another example where my research was ignored, i has to resort to protest on msn to get something done on a multinick forex fraudster, as reports were falling on deaf ears.

there's 2 examples straight off the bat, i'm sure there's more that i don't recall right now.
 
...dare i say vendor protection for an example
Click to expand...

Absolutely not. If there were posts with hidden links as those of peleus (who I see is now gone), then it was always ban and clean from me. The only way in which reported posts of this nature could have been missed is if there were a large number of general reported posts and no mod had been on the site for maybe a day or so which did sometimes happen.
 
All posts now removed.

Lighting, I was not ignoring this request, I waiting conformation that the smilies linked were not part of a feature built into a mobile device. I will always investigate before banning anyone, its only fair.
 
ffsear said:
All posts now removed.

Lighting, I was not ignoring this request, I waiting conformation that the smilies linked were not part of a feature built into a mobile device. I will always investigate before banning anyone, its only fair.
Click to expand...

i was just about to post good work sir! and well done.

but alas you've done only 2 threads worth, another 72 to go i'm afraid. don't forget the quotes, as you're leaving them behind :p

good start though (y)
 
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