Fraudulent Affiliate Networks

non-paying Affiliate Networks

[night707]

What can be done against cheating affiliate networks that do not send payments of the confirmed commissions ?

In this case 2 US webhosting firms seem to be fraudulent and i wonder where some proper documentation could be forwarded to in order to trigger some further investigations.

[Marcia]

Best place is the State Attorney General where they're located or the Federal Trade Commission [ftc.gov].

Just make sure you can thoroughly document that it was valid traffic.

[night707]

Thanks Marcia,

Available are screenshots from the affiliate panels with all commissions confirmed by the hosting companies. They simply do not pay and respond to complaints.

Problem is, one is hiding behind whois privacy.

[Marcia]

night707, for one thing hosting company affiliate programs are notorious for reversing commissions, saying that the customer cancelled. How that's proven or not I have no idea, but it pays to keep it in mind.

Listen - there are a ton of hosting programs out there. If one is suspected of not dealing honestly with you, it can't hurt to give another one a try (after checking them out).

[vik_c]

With the sort of commission some hosting companies seem to offer, it would be impossible to stay honest. I've seen $3 hosting plans with a $50 new customer bounty for the affiliate who brings the sale. Does anyone have any experience with these?

[night707]

vik_c,

yeah, one of them simply blocked access to the affiliate account all of a sudden and that was it. So best to do screenshots and downloads of panel pages.

Marcia,

i am talking about over 120 referals that are confirmed inside the panel as they are older than 60 days. This hosting firm does not react on mails so that fraud is pretty obvious.