Get your (not-so) free grant money

[aim]

In a lot of cases - you the affiliate marketer are a much more attractive of a legal target.

I disagree. Affiliates may be the low hanging fruit, but going after affiliates doesn't make sense for a number couple of reasons:

1. If its money the government is going after, the affiliates have the least of it.

2. The affiliates aren't the ones realizing the financial transaction. If [as an affiliate] I sell a gun to someone, and that person goes out and murders somebody, you can't come after me due to someone else's actions.

That said, the alphabet boys have a lot more to gain by getting as close to the source as possible; if they can't go after the offshore partnerships, they can go after the CC processing merchants or the entities within the US that do business with the company in questions.

Either way, the advertisers have a responsibility to ensure the parties they choose to do business with - the networks - are in full legal compliance. From there, the networks have the responsibility to ensure that whoever they do business with 2nd tier networks and affiliates are in compliance.

Obviously you're familiar with regulation in the mobile industry; it comes from the top down, not bottom up.

 

[Foreigner]

Grants are not going anywhere. The federal government is burdened up the ass with border security, mexican drug cartels, and the economy.

Follow basic guidelines and make sure that you're legal is a good first step in making a lot of money in this industry. Stupid affiliates usually ruin it for 95% of the industry.

 

[HarveyJ]

People will go after the affiliate for the exact same reason cops go after the drug dealers.
It looks like they're doing something, and it's easier to make a bust and make it stick.
If they went after the networks or merchants, there'd be work involved, and these guys are probably smooth as silk anyway, thanks to all the shit they pull to cover their own arses.

Which is why you guys need to pull shit to cover your own arses too.
Register domains anonymously. And not just by proxy, but 100% anonymous. Prepaid credit cards and from an IP that isn't your own.
Make the websites at home, and then upload them from that IP. Shit, walk down to the end of the block and find someone dumb enough to leave their WiFi unsecured and do it from their place.
While you're at it, download some bomb making manuals just to really get them in the shit if people come looking

I wonder if anything can really be done to those promoting the offers with fake identity blog landers?

Can they eventually be caught and sued for false advertising?

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, and trans national jurisdictional agreements between certain English speaking countries, potentially speaking you can be down under where our laws don't allow for this kind of advertising.

And don't think that shit can't happen.
Libel cases have been fought and won trans-nationally: Gutnick wins right to have Web libel case heard in Vic - smh.com.au
Oh, and here's one for software piracy where we send one of our guys over your way: LinuxWorld | Australian software pirate to serve 4 years in US jail, court rules

Is it just me, or is the mainstream really starting to catch up to wtf we're doing? I reckon it's going to bite some of you in the ass, so keep laughing.

I'm wondering if we're going to see a few people crash and burn in the media spotlight. It'll be interesting to see if they attempt to cash in on media fame.

PSU4Life: Ask them for proof of ownership via receipt or Membership ID# at the source site. Extra work on yoru end, but it does mean you're compliant.

 

[Spades]

Which is why you guys need to pull shit to cover your own arses too.
Register domains anonymously. And not just by proxy, but 100% anonymous. Prepaid credit cards and from an IP that isn't your own.
Make the websites at home, and then upload them from that IP. Shit, walk down to the end of the block and find someone dumb enough to leave their WiFi unsecured and do it from their place.
While you're at it, download some bomb making manuals just to really get them in the shit if people come looking

This all sounds great but in all honestly is a big ass waste of time. At the end of the day someone simply needs to follow your affiliate links and request your info from the network. Most networks will give you up pretty easily, especially with enough legal pressure. You can cover your online tracks but hiding your payment tracks are another whole story.

 

[a!!!!1]

someone simply needs to follow your affiliate links and request your info from the network

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. You really think you can convince the government that some random loser dropped six figures on PPC in order to drive traffic to YOUR affiliate link? Even if your tracks are somewhat covered it's still pretty obvious and enough for a conviction.

 

[windjc]

In a lot of cases - you the affiliate marketer are a much more attractive of a legal target.

Why?

You probably have less money to put up a good legal defense.
You probably are not based out of some offshore nation that is outside legal jurisdiction.
You probably are the one who is outright lying versus the grants offer who is at least legally probably within his rights, even if hes selling a bad product.

You should look at what happened in the RX affiliate space. A lot of affiliates got grilled and most the product providers got away.

Never assume you are invincible. Always assume you are being watched. Always make sure you have good justification for what you are claiming.

And always remember that pigs eat well and hogs get slaughtered.

well, we could argue both sides of this coin all day long. so far in the acia market place, the re-bill companies, not the affiliates, have taken the hits. in the rx market it was both. in the grant market, we will find out.

i think affiliates should conduct their business legally and create entities that divide their assets for protection, because when the acronyms come calling, your guilty until proven innocent.

 

[dahunter]

 

[Foreigner]

+1 LOL

 

[hannahmcintyre]

Holy fucking hell enough of outing people's landing pages already. Jesus Christ are you people retarded, or what?

 

[dahunter]

Holy fucking hell enough of outing people's landing pages already. Jesus Christ are you people retarded, or what?

the question is are YOU retarded or did you just not read the article on the NBC WEBSITE?

 

[HarveyJ]

This all sounds great but in all honestly is a big ass waste of time. At the end of the day someone simply needs to follow your affiliate links and request your info from the network. Most networks will give you up pretty easily, especially with enough legal pressure. You can cover your online tracks but hiding your payment tracks are another whole story.

Yeah, except there's ways around that too.

If you know what you're doing, it's really not hard to falsify details and still get paid out. ePassporte makes it particularly easy, but it's still more than doable with cheque payments.

 

[windjc]

Yeah, except there's ways around that too.

If you know what you're doing, it's really not hard to falsify details and still get paid out. ePassporte makes it particularly easy, but it's still more than doable with cheque payments.

Harvey, you might not want to sound so knowledgeable about the intricacies of fraud on a public website forum. Just a thought.

Not that you aren't extremely knowledgeable about a whole host of subjects that you have never experienced first hand...

 

[jebus3]

Sooner or later one of these advertisers will get sued.

Until then, milk it for all it's worth, risk/reward is too high.

 

[xmcp123]

Yeah, except there's ways around that too.

If you know what you're doing, it's really not hard to falsify details and still get paid out. ePassporte makes it particularly easy, but it's still more than doable with cheque payments.

Drop cookie on redirect. Subsequent times check for the cookie. If present, redirect to the url without the aff link(since in theory the merchant cookie has been dropped). Haven't tried it, but it'd probably work.
Also, EPassPorte makes it easy to use fake info, but if they get at all suspicious you're not touchin your money again. They're completely incompetent at dealing with frozen accounts.

 

[HarveyJ]

xmcp123:: Well, there is that. But then again, that's how it'd be with any group that holds your money for you if they suspect fraud. i.e. PayPal. Getting caught is a risk you take for fraudulent activity.

windjc: I'll let you think what you want about what I do or don't. We can all be certain in our knowledge about what whacky hijinx I get up to that way.