Can another affiliate with scumware, take away business from my website

Scumware implications on the website

[nick_irvine]

Hi,

I had a doubt and would like some clarificaiton on it.

Assuming I am an affiliate and have a website. Can another affiliate with the use of scumware take away:

1.the customres who are visting my website and from there proceeding to the client website during this transit
I have heard it is done but I am not sure if its true.

2. or is there any other way they do it.

3. If its true then how do I safeguard my website.

thanks
Nick

[johnhh]

I would be interested to know this as well as this is something I am looking to protect myself against as well ..anyone?

<edited> terrible spellimg</>

[nick_irvine]

guys anyone who can help me here ..thanks in advance for your help.

nick

[Rogi]

Yes it is possibly for the unethical affiliates (more like criminals) to steal our affiliates and happens quite often, so promote the merchants who oppose it.

If you want to know more about it, just search for 'parasiteware' in your favourite search engine.

[bumpaw]

Read a lot of this guys great studies on the topic:
[benedelman.org...]

[bedelman]

Nick,

What you describe is definitely possible. My site has some examples, most recently at [benedelman.org...] . If there's anything there that's unclear, just send me an email (or post here), and I (or someone) will elaborate as needed.

Ben

[MarkHutch]

Criminals can steal anything whether on the Internet or anywhere else. They may even be successful for awhile until they are caught. Just focus on what you can control, your web site content, and leave the police work to someone else. Really, there isn't much you can do about it unless one of the major search engines discover the problem.

[bedelman]

I think that's partially right, Mark. But when diligent affiliates catch rogue affiliates in the act, they can report the rogues to merchants; then merchants can terminate the rogues; and ultimately commissions get restored to the folks who rightly earn them (at least prospectively, and apparently sometimes even retroactively, depending on the affiliate network).

I know some public-spirited affiliates who actively search out these scams and send documentation to interested merchants. I think that's great, and highly commendable.

A few merchants pay bounties. Find a cheater, get 50% of the commissions he would have earned. It's an interesting alternative revenue source.

And then a few other merchants hire outsiders as testers. (A very few hire me.)

All that's to say: The bad guys are getting caught. And when they do, payments to rule-following affiliates increase. Among the other implications, this means it's especially useful to choose your merchants carefully: It's better to promote merchants who don't do business with the rogue affiliates, because merchants with rogues will end up paying commissions to the rogues that should have gone to you.

[nick_irvine]

Hi All,

Thanks for the information.
Its nice to be a part of this forum where people know their stuff and are ready to share it.
Regards,
Nick