Warning to affiliate managers

[alexpratt]

Unfortunately we have another “idiot” that is trying to rip the industry off - This time it is an affiliate pretending to represent casinoportalen.com.The email you may have received will have come from martin@casinoSportalen.com – As you can see the URL has and an s added after casino. This is not a legitimate email so don’t enter into a deal with them as it is fraudulent.

Below is an example of the email that is being sent out:

Hej,

I am Martin from Casinoportalen.com. I am adding brands to our portal and I wanted to speak to you about your affiliate program terms. If you can call me or add me on skype I would appreciate it.

Med venlig hilsen,

[SlotsAff]

Jokers - I know this happened to Richard @ CasinoChoice.co.uk recently and a few others.

Anyone know if these people can be prosecuted?

[Gabriel_LCP]

Thanks for the heads up! We have been going through a similar situation so I can understand how much of a pain this is!

[universal4]

Most of us know that this is done on purpose to fraudulently convince the buyer that they are in control of the listed portal, but it would be difficult to prove the intent since the seller/mailer would just claim that it was an honest mistake and just a typo error.....

However, since there is a live portal existing at the domain where the email resides, the person behind the fraud could easily be discovered through the affiliate links....

Rick
Universal4

[AFFcoins]

thanks for the notice.

[Maria F]

Hi Alexpratt,

I just got the same email yesterday and I even added him to my Skype. Thank you for letting us know!

[alexpratt]

Most of us know that this is done on purpose to fraudulently convince the buyer that they are in control of the listed portal, but it would be difficult to prove the intent since the seller/mailer would just claim that it was an honest mistake and just a typo error.....

However, since there is a live portal existing at the domain where the email resides, the person behind the fraud could easily be discovered through the affiliate links....

Rick
Universal4

It's actually v easy to prove the intent as they usually pretend to be a person that exists at the domain, redirect the mispealt domain to the real one, put the real domains address and contact details in the signature etc.

It's amazing how many domains these guys have hit, I can name at least 10...... I know Pokerlistingss have the guys details and are trying to prosecute

[grem]

They did state they are from the original domain when they are not. This seems like it is fraud.

[universal4]

Good point Alex, but as an example they will claim:

"Yes there is an Alex here that does that handles marketing and he must have accidentally made a typo"

You and I know this is BS....and I fully agree that most affiliate managers should see through this but some may not....

Hopefully bringing it to their attention in threads like this will help them catch this stuff quicker....

Rick
Universal4

[davemerry]

Thanks for the heads up Alex!

[Louis - Income Access]

I remember a while back I used to have an ongoing contest with friends to see how far we could go with some of the old school Nigerian scammers, trying to bait them to give us as much detail as possible. Couldn't we try to get some kind of sting operation going?

[sherone]

I also got the same email last week. I added him into my spam list.

Thanks for the thread Alex.

[rtgbonus]

Thank you for the notice Alex. I also got the same email and block him as spam.

[universal4]

No sting should be necessary....

It's fairly clear what they are doing....

They show what sites they have control over....

The affiliate links on the sites they do control will show who gets paid....

Only affecting commission payments from the affiliate programs the scammers work with would be effective and all the information to do that is supplied....

Rick
Universal4

[xecutable]

Can someone explain what the scam revolves around? From what I understand, they claim they are from site they are not, having an extra 's' in the email. Then they negotiate a deal with the AM pretending they r from the site without the 's'? AMs buy that because they were not able to spot the extra 's'? Is this correct?

[universal4]

Yes X,

That is it in a nutshell....

It is fraudlent in nature because pretending to represent a site that is better known they have a better chance of "closing the sale" with the program or affiliate manager since they may base the decision on previous dealings with, or current traffic numbers, or even just the reputation of, the site or individual they wrongly assume they are making a deal with.

This in and of itself is a direct slap in the face to honest hard working affiliate managers who really do care about affiliates, and can reflect badly on the site or group the fraud is pretending to be.....

If a handful of managers are able to catch these jerks outright and threaten to stop working with them for these kinds of practices I think we would all benefit since this kind of stuff might be reduced in the long term.....

.....and if/when any of these indviduals are caught doing this, they should go on a list of people that should NEVER be accepted here as private members.......

Rick
Universal4

[xecutable]

I see, like it isn't hard enough to be in the industry already!

[alexpratt]

The affiliate links on the sites they do control will show who gets paid....

Only affecting commission payments from the affiliate programs the scammers work with would be effective and all the information to do that is supplied....

Rick
Universal4

Problem is they don't actually have a site or affiliate links - The misspealt site they have typically redirects to the real site - They get their money through a pre paid model which many AM's agree to because they mistakenly believe they are going into business with a big gun - I believe the money goes to one of these companies that process it anonymously so its v hard to track but I think pokerlistings have got close and have the guys details so are in the process of prosecuting or at least trying

[universal4]

In the case that Alex outlines above, yes they are redirecting to the site they pretend to represent, but often this is not the case.

Whichever the situation, making more managers aware to watch out for this stuff can only help.

Rick
Universal4

[eaton2003]

I recall this happening about 1-2 years ago with pokerslistings.com etc.