affiliate fraud

wow the effort that goes into forum spamming.

well i'm guessing here that only a central mr big does the clever bit, sets it up, mails out the spreadsheet chock full of ready to roll forum nics to low paid areas, like the "Phillipines" perhaps. mr big sits back, pays out peanuts to the spammers and collects all the ib and affiliate referals. damn clever or what :-0

watch the vids on some of what's involved.

http://imagicon.info/howto/regnow_company_list.htm

http://imagicon.info/howto/keyword-forum-search-1.htm
 
wow the effort that goes into forum spamming.

well i'm guessing here that only a central mr big does the clever bit, sets it up, mails out the spreadsheet chock full of ready to roll forum nics to low paid areas, like the "Phillipines" perhaps. mr big sits back, pays out peanuts to the spammers and collects all the ib and affiliate referals. damn clever or what :-0

watch the vids on some of what's involved.

http://imagicon.info/howto/regnow_company_list.htm

http://imagicon.info/howto/keyword-forum-search-1.htm

People actually sit there doing this all day:eek:
 
People actually sit there doing this all day:eek:

there's big money in it? has to be lucretive else why ar$e about researching forum sites, recording them, then creating reams of logins.

i can't get my head around what exactly they're doing to be able to drop the cookie, there's a switch somewhere between the real image and not having one apparently?? i guess all to do with html and codes and such, as the vid alludes to.

in fact i was even sad enough to stop the vid and scrutinise the listing to see if t2w was on it :LOL: with screen shot tool at the ready, but sadly not found, so no lulz to be had there.
 
LMQ,

Do you have a list of the merchants that these links lead to? It seems like they are the ones who should be most worried about this activity as they are being defrauded.
 
Actually I just saw your previous list,

etoro
dukascopy
plus500
easyforex
betfair

There's no honour amongst thieves.
 
LMQ,

Do you have a list of the merchants that these links lead to? It seems like they are the ones who should be most worried about this activity as they are being defrauded.

yes you're right it's the companies that are defrauded. the clever devious part is that neither the punter nor the vendor are aware it's happened, the vendor believes the punter clicked an affiliate link, which the punter didn't of course, i'm in awe :-0

a full list would be quite hard and time consuming to compile, as each individual forum is generally targeted with it's own niche market segment vendors.

but a likely incomplete list for t2w so far is -

groupon
amazon
betfair
plus500
dukascopy
easyforex
etoro
zulutrade
 
these guys, known as blackhatters, have their own forums and openly discuss/publish all sorts of techniques to get us stuffed. here's one example.

Last, and probably the least effective way to stuff forums (semi) safely is browser checking. Everyone knows that big annoying red x is a major problem. Well if your on a forum that isnt too tech savy, you can stuff just firefox users since they dont display the red x like IE6/7, the code for this one is really simple, way too simple....


....The code is read from top to bottom. The first Rewrite condition states that if there is no referer, then send them to the “real” image. This way if a firefox user finds your code, copies and pastes it into their browser, they see a real image.
The second Rewrite condition states that if the browser is firefox, then send them to your affiliate link. Stuffed
The third Rewrite condition states that if they made it past condition 1 and 2, then it must be Internet Explorer. Make sure there is a referer and send them the real signature. This way only firefox users are stuffed, they dont see a red x. and IE users (80% of users) see a real signature.
 
I am not convinced yet that Facebook will kill Google. When I am looking for a product or service I don't go to FB to find it and most people who are on Facebook are not there to do business. The users on FB would have to have a step change in the reasons they visit if it is to become the main place in which to market products. It will be interesting to see how things progress but Google has always been pretty smart. Their Android system is now the dominant OS for Smart phones and I would expect them to leverage that to their own advantage which I expect we will see in due course.
 
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