Here's a list of everyone who shaves...
 

IT's funny that everyone talks about ways to test if a program is straight or not.... but nobody is willing to spend < $5 to find out themselves.


You want to find out if sponsors are shaving?


Step 1: Organize a small (or large) group of people willing to spend around $30 each via credit card to find out whats what.

Step 2: The group would then make a list of programs it wishes to test and send 5 trial signups to each. (If a sponsor was going to shave they probably would do it before 5 signups.) When sending the signups, be sure to have a different member of the group send each of the 5 signups.

NOTE: It could be wise to consider using cards of consenting family members who do not live at your address. Same with when the various group members sign up for the programs -- if you actually have an account there, you might consider letting someone in the group sign up for the program who does not have an account there.
Remember - addresses and IP's can all be cross referenced later.

Use as many cards (with cardholders consent of course) as possible.

Step 3: Finish the entire list of sponsor first so none of the groups members identities are discovered. Do not cancel your trials before the entire list is completed either - or you may set off other flags.

NOTE: If you catch a program shaving during the tests, do not come immediately to GFY to out them.

Step 4: The group would then compile a list of all the signups that were made, reported by stats, and not reported by stats. Someone could create a script to make this easier, or simply use a private forum.

Step 5: Cancel all your trials. After all, this was a test to see how honest they are before you do any real business with them.

Step 6: BE HONEST -- After the entire test has been completed, do let the program owner know that they were tested by the group. LEt them know to cancel the testing groups affilliate accounts & to not pay on the signups sent. IF they sent you checks, Send them back - DO NOT CASH THEM.

If they passed the test, I'm sure they will have no problem with that once they see their name in the (good) spotlight on GFY :)

Those who don't pass...

well... Juicy & his drama alert meter will have their hands full.


Keep in mind that the threat alone of something like this will send some sponsors running to their shavers to turn them off for awhile.

Sounds shady to me.

bah fuck all that

bribe the dominos delivery guy for a copy of his nights CC reciepts. Instant 50 cards to use!!

How is it shady?

Not really I am in count me innnnnnnnnnnnn

I have 89 credit cards

More fun if you cash the cheques too :)

It would be hard to pull off though.

There would be spies in the group :)

I shave up to 3 times a day.. but I have a glandular problem.

you guys are just begging to become cell mates with Martha Stewart, aren't you ?

its not a good thing.

Hmm yeah the more I think about it...

it would be a complex task to pull off.

Mostly because you wouldn't know who the people in the group were & if they could be trusted.

Better to do multiple small groups of people who know each other & spend more money per person to do the testing.

But I'm sure the processors have thresholds for the number transactions one card can have per day or per month or something... so blah. I dunno.

stealing/shaving= good
caring=bad

Somehow I'm lost :(

it would certainly be an interesting experiment, i know i have done 2 test sign ups on sponsers before, only one was credited

nice thread title that doesn't have anything to do with your post.

The only way to catch shaving sponsors is to get a group of 10-20 webmasters who all join a sponsor a day from one site (say a tgp or something with a banner ad) then see if all the joins are counted for each program you test.

How would it be criminally punishable?

You would have consent from the people that own the cards (your friends and family) -- actually, it would be better if THEY actually sign up for the trial using their own computer/IP.

I'm sure there are flags for that as well (multiple CC's from same IP)


I am *NOT* saying to use stolen credit cards. Fuck that.

I am trying to figure out a honest way to audit sponsors that everyone could agree with.

Like I said... the people who PASS the test would have no problem with the test in the end. So long as you returned any check they sent you for sales of course.

It's the people who failed who would kick and scream about it all.

Yeah I think most sponsors who shave would be busted before 5 signups. Probably more like 3... but 5 would probably be a safer number. It all depends on how they do their shaving I guess.

Custom programs can have custom shavers.. ie shavers that only kick in between certain hours, or floating hours, or only for certain people doing high volume, varying shave %'s per person.. etc. Anything like that would be much harder to bust. (lol any sponsors taking notes?)

Even though this would be a basically legitimate experiment, it would still probably be pretty hard to pull off on more than a few sponsors due to the fraud preventention techniques used by processors.

The group would probably fuck up somehow and get flagged pretty quick.

Good idea. Would require some effort to put into practice, though.

I think labret or someone came up with this a while ago but it never got off the ground.. one thing though - 5 signups aren't enough - that'll only get someone with an 20% shave. You need to be able to detect at least 10% and preferably 5%.
my programs are revshare - please sign up and see if I have even a 1% shave :)
No, just kidding if at anytime over the next months someone wants to do this unannounced with either www.gunzblazing.com or www.spydollars.com then send 20-30 trial ($4.95) sign ups over a 24 hour period if you're worried about scripts that detect peak times or whatever, and contact me on icq the next day to say you were testing for shaving and i'll refund them 100%. You're only out $100-$150 for a day and you'll know theres no shave even down to 2-5% - fuck it send a hundred - I don't care and you're only out for a day. if you're worried about shave being turned on only on certain days of the week do it a few times. Doesn't bother me.

sounds like to much trouble to find out something u already know.

would only work if done with ppl close to you that you could trust. Anything bigger then that and evil intentions could take over...

abestweb, one of the largest mainstream boards has a section for this reason.

Affiliates post their results of sales attempts under their sponsor links. The board is sponsored by some of the largest programs in the world like cj.com,amazon.com,linkshare etc and a dozen smaller. The ones that do not track sales receive hell.

You guys don't already test your big sponsors before you promote them? :1orglaugh

Please share how you test them. :)

EVERYBODY SHAVES.

Why shouldn't they? You ain't gonna catch 'em.

It's in Hammurabi's Brokers Code; look it up.