I met with people from Google yesterday. Most interesting: how thoroughly freaked out they are by the advertiser backlash against financing extremist content on YouTube. In combination with the rolling avalanche of awareness of rampant fraud in the AdTech industry, this represents perhaps the biggest opportunity for performance marketing to penetrate major brands that we have … [Read more...]
Ad Fraud Is Still A Thing
It is becoming ever more clear that online advertising is suffering massive fraud. Just this last week we have seen Rovio, the Angry Birds game developer, reveal that in one holiday-period campaign 90% of app installs came from just three IP addresses. But it's not just publishers that are to blame. Andreas Naumann: "Networks are completely aware of what’s going on. Networks … [Read more...]
Why Do Some Networks Thrive While Others Die?
How Top Networks Like MaxBounty Evolve & Thrive In A Changing Environment How do some performance marketing networks keep succeeding against all odds? Why is it that while some CPA networks vanish almost overnight, others survive and grow? Over the last few years the CPA sector of the performance marketing industry has experienced a series of massive changes. From Acai … [Read more...]
FTC Roundup Of The Month
Record $478 Million Judgment Against Marketers of Massive Get-Rich-Quick Infomercial Scams: a U.S. district court ordered the marketers of three get-rich-quick systems...to pay a record $478 million for deceiving close to one million consumers with phony claims that they could make easy money using their programs. [Read More] "This huge judgment serves notice to anyone … [Read more...]
$2 Million Refunded From "Google Money Tree" Scam
The Federal Trade Commission is mailing 93,086 refund checks totaling nearly $2.3 million to consumers who allegedly were charged hidden fees tied to a bogus work-at-home product. By deceptively using the name and logo of the Internet search company Google Inc. and falsely promising that consumers could earn $100,000 in six months, the FTC charged, defendants lured consumers … [Read more...]
Summer Conference Recap: Accountability and Compliance Take Center Stage
It has been a busy summer for online marketing professionals. LeadsCon East and Affiliate Summit East were scheduled three weeks apart, making scheduling and planning for these important events somewhat more complicated than in years past. Despite the close proximity of the two shows, each continues to offer a different kind of value. LeadsCon attracts a more advanced … [Read more...]
Affiliates Still Losing Commissions To Cookie-Stuffing
The invaluable Wesley Brandi brings us his latest cookie-stuffing scammer or as he puts it, "Today's featured fraudster" CouponsUniversity is allegedly defrauding multiple merchants while using javascript to try and conceal what is happening: What CouponsUniversity is doing a little different in their scheme, is that they pick up on the error event raised by the browser when … [Read more...]
Easy Fraud Detection For Merchants
Are you a merchant or a network wanting to know just how much fraud is being targeted at your domain? Well now you can find out. Ben Edelman has been reporting on affiliate fraud for over eight years and has developed a number of automated tools that gather loads of data. Now he is making his database available for query-based search access Ben is assistant professor of Harvard … [Read more...]
Kim Dotcom: I'm No Criminal!
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is out on bail and had given his first TV interview: "...we’ve done nothing wrong. I’m no criminal. This website has not been set up to be a piracy haven." He goes on to detail how attorneys had assured him that he was not at risk of falling foul of the law because of specific protections built into the DCMA. He comes across … [Read more...]
More AdSense Publisher Bans
Two recent cases of AdSense publisher bans highlight publisher discontent about Google’s mysterious methods for determining when to ban... The incidents sparked chatter about Google’s methods for banning sites without first issuing a warning, failing to communicate fully, and then — in these cases, at least — reinstating accounts when an Internet-famous … [Read more...]
Police Crackdown On Fake Anti-Virus & Online Pharmacies
Have you ever been hit by a fake anti-virus alert on your computer? Do you know someone who has? More importantly, have you ever made money off those kinds of offers? The chances are that the number of people replying in the affirmative to these questions is disappointingly high. Fake AV software is perhaps the most visible of fraudulent activities online: it is incredibly … [Read more...]
Klein Online (& Out-of-Line): Kick Fraud Out!
The mThink/Revenue Performance team were kind enough to offer me an outlet for my opinionated self and perhaps also provide a nugget or two of value. Those who know me understand that I am rarely bashful or quiet, but that said, allow me to bring to you Klein Online. I’d like to throw some thoughts out there on fraud. What’s the biggest single threat to us these days? Al … [Read more...]
FTC Aggression: Killing? Or Curing?
The jury is in. And the verdict is that performance marketing has to clean up its act. Every week now we see evidence of the FTC's newly aggressive approach utilizing a “master theory” about online marketing that they are applying across multiple verticals. EDU, health, beauty and financial services have been affected, but make no mistake: we are going to see it … [Read more...]
Revenue Performance Q&A with Pace Lattin
Performance marketing is an industry full of interesting characters with rich back-stories, lots of ideas and a commitment to making things happen. Pace Lattin fits that description perfectly. He founded a leading online media publication, ADOTAS; he was a major player in the display advertising space and he now runs Inside The OfferVault, a newsletter focused on the CPA … [Read more...]
Cagefight: Facebook vs MaxBounty
The big news this week has been Facebook filing lawsuits against MaxBounty, Steven Richter and Jason Swan, the CTO of CPALead. The allegations are serious and include violations of CAN-SPAM, fraud and breach of contract among others. Facebook is breaking fresh ground with these actions, and the word on the ground is that the people involved are taking them very … [Read more...]