Spyware - Its stealing your affiliate income

Div · #1 13-Jul-2004, 20:55

We know that spyware/malware is annoying - all those popups, slowing down machines, and showing hijacked search results. But it is also a huge problem for affiliates, affiliate managers, and online merchants. Here is an interesting article;

Spyware Researcher Issues Critical Report
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_ne...?newsId=259401

Quote:

Ad-supported software provider 180solutions allegedly violated the stated policies of two affiliate marketing networks both by soliciting commissions from merchant members, and by redirecting to itself commissions that should have gone to other affiliates, according to research conducted by Harvard Law Student and spyware research guru Benjamin Edelman.

In interviews and in email communication with MediaDailyNews, 180solutions said it "categorically disagrees with the report" and that it "has never attempted to collect revenue belonging to another party."

You can also find some very interesting reading at Benjamin Edelman's website;
http://www.benedelman.org/

JdS · #2 14-Jul-2004, 08:43

Isn't this a recurring issue with affiliate programs? I remember browsing merchants on ClickBank and/or Clickxchange (can't remember which exactly) selling 'software' to counter this 'hijacking' from as far back as 2000.

Talking about spyware and other annoyances, I FINALLY went and installed a spyware checker on my PC yesterday. I am usually careful when I am on the Net, i.e. I never get online if my firewall is not installed and working, I regularly update my AV pattern and Windows ME, disabled ActiveX since too long ago and (recently) I almost never use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to visit websites unless it's to view my own. Still, I was not really certian if I was safe...

Anyway, I downloaded and installed : Bazooka Spyware Scanner by Kephyr.com and ran the scanner. Found just 2 bugs; one dialer thingy and the other is the MS Media Player GUID. Not bad for a PC that's been unformatted since 2003... The dialer for some strange reason was only found in a registry entry but the executable was no where to be found on my HDD, so I guess the AV took care of that!

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Spyware - Its stealing your affiliate income

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner