wtf - affiliate commission stealing software
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Just FYI I spoke with a few of the people there, they're doing some internal testing now and if it works well they won't sell it. Well, I tried.
If they release it I'm sure you all will have a field day with em. Hint: their information really isn't too private...
As for how it's going to look in the statistics for networks, the networks won't have a clue. It's replacing the ID before the traffic is sent, so they'll get clicks and no conversions as well. In other words, networks will be clueless - it's almost impossible to track from a network level.
If they release it I'm sure you all will have a field day with em. Hint: their information really isn't too private...
As for how it's going to look in the statistics for networks, the networks won't have a clue. It's replacing the ID before the traffic is sent, so they'll get clicks and no conversions as well. In other words, networks will be clueless - it's almost impossible to track from a network level.
So let me get this straight, they were only going to sell the product if it doesn't work? Otherwise they are going to keep it under the radar and steal as much as they can? Fuckin' awesome.
Shouldn't you put their info out there regardless so people can start fucking with them, they sound like dicks either way.
I think the keyword is "works well". There is a difference between something working, and something working well.
Fair enough, but I think you're splitting hairs, unless I'm reading what Bofu said incorrectly it sounds like they fully intend to rip off affiliates whether it's them personally or their customers.
Question: Couldn't networks cross-check the popular sites traffic flow against which affiliate ID's are benefiting from the leads? Then one could reasonably deduce that the guy with the minimal amount of traffic coming from a known affiliate ID's site is the scammer? (Wouldn't work for people masking their links, but not everyone does it. Besides, the thief would be targeting any website indiscriminately so it wouldn't matter and he'd eventually reach one with unmasked traffic source and get caught)
Network Suggestion: Create a system where the affiliate ID of incomming traffic could be 'locked in' to a specific user account, to prevent the hijack from ever happening? Even though the packets are manipulated the affiliateID/traffic source are linked server side, thus unalterable.
Probably not the easiest thing to implement, but at least affiliates of said networks would feel safe knowing even IF the packet manipulation happens, they'd still get credited for the lead.
I think everyone's giving these guys too much credit. They really aren't that bright. They are just some young punks from NYC. Like Bofu2U said, their personal info is easily obtained with a minimal amount of research.
The chances of them getting they're software installed on the machines of the people who will be clicking your ads is slim.
They may make a few cents from it but it's nothing new, parasites have been around for years.
As far as the people who would buy their software, I wouldn't worry about them either. If you are stupid enough to trust these idiots, you are too stupid to run the software without getting caught.
I would say that the chances of these morons get getting federally fucked is pretty high, especially if users have to reformat to get rid of the spyware, like one of the dumbasses bragged about in an earlier post.
What makes you think people aren't already fucking with them?
Maybe affiliate networks should create a script that when a click comes in and it shows referring url there core script fetches the referring url and checks for that affiliate users ID to make sure its a real refferer. Flagging those who are spoofing the traffic.
That and this will not last long because its going to be detected fast and its so 1998 ive seen this be sold before for less and even around $29 for a simple BHO back in the day that does the same shit. You can do this yourself for few hours coding work
my bet is they are not sellin now becuse they haev been caught scamming
That and this will not last long because its going to be detected fast and its so 1998 ive seen this be sold before for less and even around $29 for a simple BHO back in the day that does the same shit. You can do this yourself for few hours coding work
my bet is they are not sellin now becuse they haev been caught scamming
Guy started a hype thread "thanking BHW" and said that he is now making $5k/day.... with his product...
After a little more thought, is this software (lets assume it works as intended) a big threat beyond affiliates who rely primarily on SEO? PPC/PPV traffic will primarily get routed through some kind of tracker so the aff ids won't be visible to replace on the infected machine. AdSense/EPN mini sites sound like they will be the most susceptible.
It would almost be worth it to infect a virtual PC image with their client, grab their AdSense and EPN ids and narc the little fuckers out.
It would almost be worth it to infect a virtual PC image with their client, grab their AdSense and EPN ids and narc the little fuckers out.
Better than that actually. They never tested it themselves. Depending on what they do I'll publish the stuff, to be honest they could have done a lot fucking worse - they're throttling it back a lot.
That assumes that people want the networks to know what site they own. Also it will replace the ID's with p202 redirects on the fly as well.
Report them to there hosting company for violating their AUP: abuse@newservers.com
Also, I'm 99% sure one of the creators of packetstuffer is Jason Maze AKA MiamiMaze who scammed a bunch of people awhile back with another BH prog called clickbanger.
Also, I'm 99% sure one of the creators of packetstuffer is Jason Maze AKA MiamiMaze who scammed a bunch of people awhile back with another BH prog called clickbanger.
I imagine every network worth their weight in paperclips has already banned E.P. They still have a whole lot more throttling back to do.
^^^ Hence the boldness / privacy sloppiness.
The way I understand it... it would literally replace their whole <a> tag, right? How it knows its an affiliate link... I have no idea. Maybe it clicks the link and records the headers while watching for common affiliate networks/subids/etc..?
We were approached by these guys to advertiser on our forum (bhw) and it was flat out denied for the obvious legal and ethical issues involved. They proceeded to spam us and it all started with that "thanks bhw" thread JonesersRX7 mentioned. The owner was banned from our forum and the link/name to his product was censored.
I just wanted to put that out there.
I just wanted to put that out there.
Won't this get detected by antispyware products pretty easily? I've done stuff with Pay Per Install, and they change their executables daily to get around anti-spyware/adware programs.
It waits for the packet to come through, and just replaces before sending off where it was going in the first place.