
Originally Posted by
thepogg
I can thing of another couple of possibilities;
3) If a program has no possibility of exposure on a displaced site. For instance, none of the programs that have been working with this hacker received positive placement on ThePOGG.com. Even before all of this they were either lowly rated or listed as 'Not Recommended' or 'Blacklisted'. So if I was displaced by hacked sites, the traffic that went to the programs that worked with the hacker would never have ended up with those programs otherwise.
Many of the programs still on these sites have rightfully earned themselves a negative reputation in other ways. There will be improving their exposure on this network.
[Note - this whole situation, watching the programs I've work with a lot shut hacker associations down quickly while programs that I've rated poorly haven't, has only reinforced my confidence that my rating system is doing a pretty good job.]
4) If this operation was actually being run by some of the casinos involved they'd be getting traffic but not having to pay for it. I've heard this theory and whisperings of an inside job from a few different people. Personally I think this is a little off the mark. It's unlikely that all these groups got together to set up this operation and share the gains and if that's not the case why would the group behind it offer traffic to some of their competitors? I guess it'd be a fairly effective way of covering their tracks, but you'd still expect one group to be taking the lion's share and from what I've seen the same brands have consistently been mixed and matched between positions.
On a totally separate note - I really don't understand why the hacker group having other big affiliate sites is being taken into consideration when people are judging this activity. There are two issues here - 1) the activity is actively damaging all of your brands, your brand should matter more than the short term profit a criminal operation can provide regardless of how big 2) we're talking about CRIMINAL activity here! If I become aware that a business I'm partnered with is engaged in criminal activity and I not only don't report it to the authorities (this group have been paid by every program still listed, we all know that, so you all have the information to do this), but continue to support their operation I've become complicit in the criminal activity.