In Trouble from an Affiliate Spamming - Please Help

I hope you get your hosting company to see sense, but the big lesson you should learn here is to never use the same company as both your domain registrar and your host. It is way too easy for them to hold you to ransom.

Martin

No, I use a separate registrar for my domain name. And I actually use two separate hosting companies for my sites. So, if some sites are down, at least my others are going in case of hosting problems.

And no, I'm not using any "freebie" autoresponder. Of course, I didn't send the email to begin with.

Update: My domain name hoster has contacted me and said that I'm still responsible.

I have two options. Either pay $199 for them to "clean up" the spam complaints and then I would need to set up an abuse@ for my domain name and they would send future complaints there to deal with and I would have 5 days to deal with future complaints before being charged.

Or, number two I can transfer to another registrar, but I have to pay $75 for them to release my domain.

**I remember reading a conversation long ago among marketers who used certain registrar companies for their domain names because they were more understanding of marketers and knew the challenges they faced.

Where do you all host your domain names? How have you dealt with with matters of spamming affiliates? Of course, you can ban them, but, how do you protect yourself further?

That's what I was thinking Istvan, so if they haven't taken her site offline yet (which usually they don't if a response is received in 2 business days or something like that), then you can just move to a new host.

Personally, I received a lot of abuse notices of "spam" and things of that nature, as a web host, and never once did we shut an account down overnight for that kind of thing.

An affiliate spamming your domain name, does not make you liable, it makes said affiliate liable. Did they send you a copy of the complaint they received?

Caleb

That would only apply if any of the points were in the USA, aka the affiliate is from the USA, the receiver is from the USA, or the domain is registered in the USA.

If none of those are correct, then technically that would not apply.

I'm not saying this to be all "I'm in Canada and I'm awesome" like you'll all assume, I am just saying it's situational on whether an FTC ruling would actually apply in every case.

Thanks Istvan for pointing that out, since I do a majority of Business in the states, this is one of those things that I have to watch for (The FTC), which is why I try to keep up with ALL their rulings

Caleb

Kind of makes you think twice about opening things up to affiliates:-)

Talking about stupid inapplicable laws. Just doors opens to abuses like godaddy's.

I'm grateful for the tip. Thanks. So you've used namecheap without problems?


*Any other marketers have good suggestions for where to move my domain names?

It's all there in the GoDaddy Terms of Service. One person's "extortion" is another person's "policy."

You really didn't think they made money off the low hosting prices they offer, did you? This kind of "policy" must be a major revenue stream for them.

Thanks, Daniel...I've already let them know that I'm moving...and so the process has begun. I'm chalking it up to yet another lesson learned. You never quit learning...it seems.