A Scamming Affiliate or Not
 

Our site has been online since 2003 now, but we only started our affiliate program recently. Affiliates are slowish to sign up but the ones that have are mostly doing pretty well. Last week our top affiliate cleared $244.22 on smallish amount of traffic. Most of our affiliates are doing anywhere from $24 - $100 per wek, some less with very little traffic. Hopefully more affiliates will sign up this week.

Now the problem is that two days ago we had an affiliate sign up, he got a sale on his very first hit and then proceeded to get 2 more sales off 4 hits, all sales were for the $99.95 membership. When we have a sign up on the first hit we always watch - his sign up ration it seems pretty amazing on such a few hits, we have had affiliates getting a sale on their first 2 or 3 hits and then another a few hits later but then it does normally pan out to a decent ratio.

Now the next weird part is that none of the names used for passwords have accessed the site, normally once a sign up is cleared they log on immeditely, but not here.....not one log onto the site since they joined. The countries for sign up are France and one US.

Another strange issue is that all the membership usernames start with the same letter.

Our affiliate program is run through Epoch and his payout he set at $200, he has nearly reached that already in only 2 days. Not one single hit from him today for day 3.

What are your thoughts on this, now don't get us wrong we would love it if it is genuine, but would also hate to have it all charged back once he has done his draw.

What would be the best way to find out if it is a scam or genuine. He is from Morocco is that strange for that sign up ratio. He is the only affiliate we have from that part of the world, most others are Europe, UK, US and Canada.

Any advice given in this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Hit me up on ICQ, I'll try and help you out.

99% chance he's cheating...
how many people are going to pay for a $100 membership and not login a single time? It would be few and far between and in this case it happened more than once...

Thanks Beanz hitting you up now

1) Check the last login time of those members. Usually CC theft peeps will not bother to login after purchase.

2) Are you basing the country signup from IP or from user info when they purchase?

3) contact epoch risk/fraud dept and they'll tell you what's up.

4) Could be PH chatters too. No referring url and 1:1 signup ratio.

Shut his account off immediately.

This is fraud for sure.

I'd say fraud without a doubt.

sounds like fraud to me.

what kind of traffic would be 100$ members at a 1:4 ratio?

yep :thumbsup

yep ban his ass

since you are on epoch
its easy for you

contact them with the member id of each subscription
they will tell you right away...and refund the transactions to avoid cbs + block the reseller on their end

sounds like a fraud to me too...

I'd go with Fraud... Nobody has the first hit be a sale.

Sounds like you got some Vietnam cheaters... :pimp

yea, probably fraud :(

Did you check the referral URL's?

Sounds like fraud to me, on a $100 signup those ratios are too good even for chat traffic.

you kidding, right? This is a bad as it gets. How many signs do you need?

Thanks Guys, yep contacted Epoch and they are looking into it right now, they will let me know shortly, at least we caught it before it was too late.

Many Thanks to Beanz for your help, much appreciated.

Definitely looks like fraud, we will let you know as soon as Epoch comes back to us, they said it would be soon.

Once it gets proved to be fraud we will post the info for you.

is OK to post a fraudulant transaction on here giving name etc or not?

if you even have to ask yourself whether it's fraud or not, it is

funny, funny , funny

I'd advise removing the $99 option. Over the long haul it will cause more problems than it's worth. :2 cents:

Seems really sketchy... definitly turn his account off...

I never looked at it that way, our $99. is pretty popular, chargebacks could be a problem at that price. We are not used to chargebacks, I see what you are saying. Anyone else think it's agood idea to remove the $99.

Thanks for the advice.

:thumbsup 99./99999999%

Keep us posted

dont wait .. cancel him now.
u are better safe than sorry.

He has been cancelled, not long after this thread started a couple of hours ago. Epoch are still working on sorting it out. I will post the info once Epoch has confirmed everything.

Many fraud flags from what you said.

Yes, sounds like fraud.
However great ratios on new affiliates do not automatically mean fraud. When a new site is announced on promo sites, often result in instant signups, if you have quality and returning traffic. My account was locked recently from a new program, suspicious one, and I had to explain this :pimp

Not wanting to be harsh Danielle but if you cant work out that is fraud then there is something seriously wrong.

Guaranteed fraud!!!

Agreed!!

Agreed x2!

enough said.

ban him and whoever else signed up from Morocco, fucking crooks. :321GFY

100% fraud... Do Not pass Go.. Do not hand out $200.00

Send him directly to BANNED!!!

You pointed out all the red flag fraud signals....

1) New affiliate with less than 1:50 conv ratio

2) All sales are at the highest price point. and, he is no doubt on Revshare

3) Members did not login to members area

4) Hits miraculously stop after he reaches his payout threshhold, until he gets paid, then continues... so.. lets see.. after convertin in 1:10, he doesnt like those numbers and takes down the links or traffic??? No fricken way!!!

5) Username consistancy with all members under affiliate. ( Impossible!! )

Looks like the only other red flag you didnt mention is that his payout option is.. ePassporte??? I bet a buck it is!!!

We usually see a few of these idiots every month.. when these red flags appear.. I dont hesitate to nuke the basturd!!

This is the most ridiculously obvious fraud there could ever be.
Even the .0000000001% possible explanation.. that is.. guys doing test sign-ups well hell they would have AT LEAST varied the amount/logins and AT LEAST have notified you.

Chat traffic.

Man..
I remember IRC traffic being fucking GOOD..
GOLD for those almost $1 e-mail collectors..
Then you stack on there three sponsors..
And they would literally sign up for all three
Maybe 1:25 idiots would sign up!
Heh
I just advertised it on my fserve..
Not of this you have to go there to get on my server
It was in my welcome message which was also sent with dcc send (direct client to client! yay!)

"Hey I found these things that give you free porn pictures, right in your e-mail!!"
"Can you imagine"

Or it said something

What the fuck ever happened to that Jim Churillo ... Grrrr
I think I had xxx-e-mail.com ..

The good old days
I ramble when I am tired
Sorry

It's a good idea because you didn't have an affiliate program before, and now you do... all of your fraudulent signups will be at the $99 price point... like you said.. 4 signups and you've paid it out to the fraudster. Do that just once, and your site will be crawling with them... they communicate through underground boards and private invite only ICQ chat channels. You'd be amazed how many open proxies they use to do the signups from. :2 cents:

One thing to always consider is this... scammers have no patience whatsoever.

That's all you had to say. It's fraud.

Sounds like fraud for sure.

Yes just heard back from Epoch and definitely Fraud.

Thanks for the advice on the $99.95 I will be taking it down today that's for sure. 4 x $99.95 scams and we just refunded $399. today for it. Atleast we caught it straight away before it ran wild.

I will start a new post later with the names and ifo etc... plus the proof from Epoch about it being Fraud.

Thanks again for all the input, much apreciated.

Just Pulled the $99.95 Sign Up Option.

Thanks for the advice.

Danielle

You should protect your webmaster content (promo stuff)
Surfers can get their hands on it very easily :2 cents:


Do a search for .htaccess and protecting a directory.