Attorney General Sues Affiliate

Rose, I've seen that several times and not just on WF.

People in business who use dishonest methods don't want to be shown anything which goes against what they want to do.

:: Pass the Kool-Aid :: ?? wtf?

I very much doubt any of the Warriors who have contributed in this thread were ones who "shot you down" with regards to this topic...

So to imply that some of them have now "changed their opinion" in any sort of interesting way is ludicrous to say the least.

I don't know how true what you said is, but that is the problem with a "democracy", or public moderation. Democracies are OK, and can work, and Dictatorships are great, as long as the majority of people in the group are just, and have their informed opinion counted. Just to avoid jokes, YEAH, I know! A dictatorship is a group of ONE! But HEY, that person WILL have their opinion counted and that person hopefully WOULD be informed. SO, if they were just, it would be great.

In a "democracy", a group of uninformed or biased people can vote and, without any informed votes being counted, get their way. That group may even be one person voting multiple times, since such things may not be verified.

Even in the U.S. government, they try to argue how a conflict of interest can be worked out in the best interest of both parties WITHOUT a conflict. Precedent clearly shows that the goal should be that there is no question. If a conflict of interest is POSSIBLE, the person or group has to abandon one post/position.

Steve

Possible, but doubtful. Fines and penalties are usually on top of restitution.

How it works is the marketers have to account for everything they've earned. That will be easy as sales records are available from the merchant, the CPA network, and their bank deposits.

All of that money will likely be paid over to the government to be reimbursed to consumers. If a consumer cannot be located the money is not returned to the affiliate. Instead, the AG will pocket it. (A little known secret is that government agencies can collect huge amounts of money from cases like this.)

Of course, this is assuming the affiliate marketer has any cash left after living the high life.

Additional problems for the marketer are the possibility the government will seek to freeze their bank accounts. This really puts the squeeze on, especially when the marketer is looking for an attorney to defend them.

Not only is there restitution to consumers, but sometimes the govt seeks 'restitution' of its expenses. It can get ugly.

Instead of profiting wildly, I'm guessing this is a complete disaster for the marketers. Some will lick their wounds then eventually come back to IM. Others will be permanently done.

This is what I'm thinking.

I have no doubt the "flog" was the tipping point for the complaint, but if you do affiliate marketing, consider what else the affiliate is being sued for:

- The affiliate is being sued for having a misleading ad on their website. The banner showed Oprah Winfrey and claimed she had a secret diet. From the various lawsuits, it appears the banner ad was created by the merchant, provided to a CPA network, and used by the affiliate.

Bottom line: affiliate sued for using a banner ad created by the merchant.

- The affiliate is being sued because he linked to the merchant's website and the merchant's website did not properly disclose all important terms and conditions - such as enrollment in a continuity program that had to be cancelled within 14 days after purchase.

Bottom line: affiliate sued for sending consumers to a merchant engaged in illegal activity.

In other words, as an affiliate you need to pay attention to what the merchant is doing. If you know the merchant is engaging in fraud or ripping people off, it's not necessarily buyer beware - you'll send traffic to get commissions anyway.

The next step, of course, will be the affiliate sued for recklessly or negligently sending consumers to a bad merchant.

For example - all those ridiculous emails some IMers continually send that pump the latest ClickBank product and how it can make you money - and the sender knows nothing about the program except that it pays a good commission. Just received one the other day from a respected Warrior pumping what turned out to be a pyramid scheme.

As an affiliate, you need to pay attention to your promotional statements, your terms and conditions, and what the merchant is doing on their website.

I agree with Jason, though the "affiliates" may be in trouble - there is little mention of the people actually behind these products.

It seems a lot of little guys will get "burned" while the deep pockets behind these products will just go on to enlist more affiliates.

While his makes for attention grabbing headlines ... I don't see any real "winds of change" coming.

This makes sense. However, I could be easily duped. There are so many messages and "ideas" and plans, it is hard to know what is real and what is not. I am going to make the assumption that Warrior's offers are "for real" and not just a lot of hype. Does admin here check out the claims? Does anyone?

I think you know, as does the FTC, what the customer would assume. And saying as seen on TV is more general than as seen on oprah. In this case TV would be true and oprah would be at least misleading. And you aren't advertising "as seen on TV" because you are on the internet, but rather saying you ran ads on TV as well. CNN, TNT, CBS, MTV, etc... are technically different from OPRAH, NBCNEWS, etc... They could be considered networks, though I think I would STILL stay away from CNN, and the like.

Hey, why risk it? Why not REALLY get on there? One girl did something a newscaster found interesting. They had her on ONE SHOW, BRIEFLY, and she TRIED to run a business from it. She is having a LOT of trouble! WHY?!?!?!? HER SERVER KEEPS CRASHING because of the load! And that was a simple little product. They ran a followup to mention it, and crashed her server AGAIN! Meanwhile though, she is BACKLOGGED!

Steve