yaheem

Good evening everyone,

Today I received an email from Copeac saying that "effective immediately Copeac.com has seased all operations."

The last time I posted on the forum about a network not responding to me one of them signed up to the forum to defend the reputation of his company and left his contact info (which do not work by the way ... just cheap propaganda).

I hope by raising this issue someone from Copeac will respond with what they have in mind regarding the affiliate commissions they owe us.

Does anybody else have more info about this issue? This is the 4th network that shuts down with unpaid balance in my account, and honestly I am seriously considering to trash the whole CPA industry because of this behavior. I mean this makes affiliate marketing a more risky business model than it already is.

Any thoughts?

Marketing Online is Fun :-)

outwest

ceased operations mean Bankrupt

yup you wont get paid
if they promise to pay all affiliates,

dont believe it for one second
kiss that money goodbye

yaheem

To file bankruptcy the company doesn't just go away with the debt, their assets (if they have any) would be collected and managed by the court in which they filed, and the debtors (us) should be notified and after selling those assets (with an auction or whatever the court decides) each one should be paid according to what the company owes us.

The question now is how to tell that court (after we figure out which one) that we are the debtors so that they pay us?

Marketing Online is Fun :-)

pacelattin

No, ceasing operations does not mean bankrupt. Bankrupt is a legal filing and term.

If they file bankruptcy, you'll be told.

COPEAC Shutting Doors

pacelattin

What are the other 4 networks

COPEAC is a long time network, so that's just bad luck. Most big networks aren't closing their doors... if you are signing up for ****ty networks, bad idea.

I'd look over my reviews - we aren't paid to do them, they are by users. Not going to bash other review sites, but there are a few that are paid to give good reviews.

outwest

Look the internet is full of shady companies or mismanaged companies, Heck you dont even know who runs this place, could be a convicted felon

This happened in adult about 2 yrs ago lots of companies went belly up NONE OF THEM PAID ANY AFFILIATES ONE DIME

dont hold your breath

yaheem

Thanks Pace,

That's really bad to get all of those hits at once, especially that FTC one. Suddenly I am not feeling bad about my money as much as I feel bad for Mike.

Marketing Online is Fun :-)

yaheem

Offeratti, ECM, and the third I forget it's name but it was owned by the same Owner of offeratti ... forgot his name too .

I joined each one of those because of an offer I was after and it had it.

Marketing Online is Fun :-)

pacelattin

We will have our top 10 networks out soon, voted by 10,000 affiliates... keep to those and youlll be ok.

bqpennell

No i would like to know which review site is bs or not and i am sure to new people coming into the industry would like to know as well.

So not only did you defend copeac when they started screwing hundreds over just cause that piece of dirt has been in the industry 15 years it is okay and we should be nice.

From your review - On a personal note, I’d like to temper this news with some thoughts. Before everyone goes out bashing COPEAC and Mike Krongel, please remember he’s been a part of this industry for almost 15 years. -

Screw that ever hear the saying you can do 99 thing perfect and 1 wrong and you will be remembered for the 1 bad thing that you did? that is mike sorry to say. They only owe us 7k but sure ill take his sad ass out to dinner and say hey no worries forget the 7k its okay cause u been in the industry for 15 years.

As far as your survey there is several networks that are not included on that list that do rank pretty good on others like

1stclass
Click Rover
ACP
Limelight

that is just the first page of one and there is 33 pages, I do not know how you made your list but it seems newer networks or only networks advertising on your review site is listed. so it is a inaccurate list, So telling people to stick to the top 10 in that survey is just as unfair toward the other networks you did not include in that list as telling the hundreds of people who got screwed out of thousands to be nice cause mike has been in the business for 15 years.

Sorry i do not know you nor have any personal ill feelings towards you or your review site but i had to add my few cents on that be nice comment, maybe if he was more ethical and not a crooked thief he would not of been sued by the FTC in the first place and the thousands of dollars he owed could of been paid. That piece of crap made his bed now he can lay in it.

pacelattin

I am not going to disagree with you on your perception of copeac or defend their actions.

Let's just not celebrate people's downfall.

Brandon Tillman

I definitely agree with this post. One certain thing that caught my attention was the fact that Pacelattin you did in fact defend him after he stopped paying affiliates thousands. I actually stated that last month. Mike wanted to make flogs and play with the FTC then he deserved to get whats handed to him. I dont wish any bad upon anyone but as a CPA Owner you should already know the risks of this game. He didnt own up to them and cease operations right then and there but decided to keep running his company and stop paying affiliates like nothing ever happened which caused his reputation and respect to be lost forever.

And besides, I heard he is up and operational with another network anyway but if it is leaked with his name under it he will go belly up faster than it opened up to the public. He can never open another successful CPA network with the stunt that he had pulled for a half year.

Cash37

Sad to see this happen, but that's the state of the industry right now. Lots of companies simply road the rebill wave and when it dried up they went out of business. Affiliates too...

Im suggesting that new affiliates start looking at more long term networks like CJ.com. Just do to the nature of their business model, you know they are cash positive and aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Maybe you'll make less, but you'll sleep better at night.

How to Sell Art Online

pacelattin

Whatcha talking about Willis? COPEAC has been around for almost 10 years.... It's just bad luck, bad business decisions.

advertisethis

The only real chance was for the unpaid publishers to quickly organize for a class action lawsuit months ago when they were first failing to send payouts. Now, there's no chance.

As far as how to decide on networks -- without being intimately involved with the operations of a review site -- there's no way to know whether it's totally on the up and up with its reviews. All you can do is go by the testimonials of others (from various locations, if possible) over a period of time coupled with your own individual discernment. And the idea that EVERY new network owner must have a fly-by-night-quick-score mentality is absurd. It's just up to publishers to use their brains by testing and cautiously ramping up the amount of traffic they send new networks over time combined with keeping tabs on reports coming in from others. That's really the only way solid new networks can be discovered, and it helps ensure healthy network competition.

pacelattin

First, you can sue at anytime for unpaid bills.
Secondly, there is no "class" for a class-action lawsuit in unpaid bills. Wont go into details on class-action law, but simply, unpaid bills are never a class.

Review sites aren't real. They are paid a commission to promote CPA networks, so they have a good reason to make sure the reviews are positive. We have a network on our site that gets HORRIBLE reviews, one after another, every network has banned them from stealing offers but another review site *cough* has deleted all the negative reviews. They "owner' of that network even approached me to pay me off, saying he's done the same.

Cash37

What are you talking about?

Its not bad luck. When you sleep with pigs, you get mud on you. Its been openly discussed here and other places that Copeac didn't have the cash to pay affiliates... and I wonder where that money was supposed to come from?

Oh yeah, those totally legit Resveratrol and Acai Berry companies. Yup. That was it.

How to Sell Art Online

Jetmir

They paid affiliates who brought bad leads, advertiser reversed the leads, COPEAC wouldn't be able to pay legit affiliates. It's gone now.

Simple.

pacelattin

Ok, you got me there on playing in the mud.

kirch

Is epicdirect/Azoogle next ??

.


Join PeerFly,the top CPA Network with over 1500 Offers-Now accepting publishers from all over the world !

Jetmir

Maybe. I've heard quite a lot affiliates complaining for unpaid payments.

bqpennell

Not so simple but i am sure that is how they want it to be remembered as.

From scambook.com/group/pdf/4/grabswagcom.pdf

I did some investigating into grabswag after being ripped off by these cronies and i found out who was behind this scam. GrabSwag.com, is a scam, partnered with a company called IMM Interactive/Copeac which is owned by Mike Krongel, which is a scam affiliate network that sends consumers to these sites via fake news articles and gets paid for it. If you click on one of the fake news sites that they are running below, and in internet explorer use webpage privacy, you will see emediatrack.com, on the privacy, which is owend by IMM Interactive/Copeac ( This is how I found out who was behind it). IMM Interactive and Mike Krongel has duped consumers out of millions of dollars says the FTC, by running fake news sites, like the one linked below, and they are currently being sued by the FTC, for false advertising and deceptive marketing practices, for using fake news websites like the one linked below. Here is a link to the lawsuit: Federal Trade Commission, Plaintiff, v. IMM Interactive, Inc., a New York Corporation formerly known as Intermark Communications, Inc., also doing business as COPEAC and Intermark Media, Defendant

The FTC is trying to stop them but apparently can't. Lets get these people shut down!!! Report GrabSwag and IMM Interactive/Copeac, to the FTC, Attorney Generals, BBB, IC3, FBI and lets get a class action lawsuit going against both of these companies scambook!!!

Here is one of their fake news sites they are behind, which if you do webpage privacy in internet explorer on the grabswag page, you will see " emediatrack.com" which links you straight to Copeac/IMM Interactive

Here is a link to the IMM website and the grabswag site that says free, yet charges you $99
*end quote

Removed links and personal info from thread for protection if you want to view more read the Pdf from that site on your own

I say being sued for stealing money had a lot more to do with them going out of business then fraud publishers, We get our share of fraud publishers too but as mentioned before thanks to scrubkit none of them will put us out of business,

Point being Copeac got to greedy, what they made from there pubs was no longer enough and thought of ways to steal money from people's credit card. Hope it paid off for them hehe ... Sarcasm off

pacelattin

They are a different story, but who knows. They have an extensively profitable display business, funding and a real team of professionals.

However, their branding blows. They have changed from THEEPICMEDIAGROUP.com to being forwarded to EPICDIRECT.com then now have the EPIC EXCHANGE.etc..etc..

From the outside its hard to know wtf they are doing. SOmething *is* weird over there.

mtmjohn

I really hope not, but I agree it's possible. Who knows?? lol

jasonelvee

Affiliate networks that do smart business will survive. The problem with the Copeacs, Azoogles, eAds and CX Digitals of the world is that they got greedy. All they looked at was the volume they were doing without taking into consideration the fact that the numbers in your system don't mean anything if you don't get paid. They were extending millions of dollars in credit to advertisers that didn't deserve it. And so they got burned.