by now we are all well aware of these toolbars and trojans that rewrite pages with their ref codes..
If not ill explain a little.. there are many ways to do it , but lets say i hacked into gfy and altered the vbulletin database so when it displayed certain banners for say "TCG" it would add my webmaster ref code onto the end , randomly, only to third world ip's , ok maybe thats atricky example , but if you dont know what im talking about then you prob dont need to worry about it
Ok so we all know the problem exists , but im suprised more isn't being done to stop it..
Heres what sponsors can do to help.. and heres why you should be doing this..
When a good new sponsor comes onto the scene , many people notice better ratio's , some of this is due to the fact that these "trojans" and such havent had the time to signup to that sponsor yet so you arent getting "shaved" on your links to them..
Older / established sponsors ratios decline as more scammers rip off their affiliates and their affiliates move elsewhere..
So while you may notice a new "whale" , he might be a wolf in whales clothing
What can sponsors do about it.. ? look through your top 100 affiliates rferring urls or write a script and if you notice people making sales from other people's urls , you need to look into it..
Assure us you dont accept these practises , and that you do have security/staff in place to guard against such problems.. and if you dont , make plans to do so or watch as your affiliate base crumbles