What To Do When an Affiliate Scams You?

10 replies
I have a top ten list of proxy sites and each of those ten has an individual affiliate link. The site is doing really well and for lots of keywords I'm outranking the actual proxy site.

I have sign-ups for every single one of the proxy sites on the list except for one. This particular proxy site has really good prices and get's the second most clicks on my site and all the clicks are showing in this proxy site's affiliate statistics so the traffic is being recorded. For some reason this proxy site is showing me as having ZERO sales. It made no sense at all so I submitted a ticket saying that the traffic combined with zero sales makes no sense and would they please look into this. No reply at all came from this support ticket despite waiting two weeks.

My next move was to use a friends computer and buy from this site using my affiliate link. I did a small purchase and waited. It's been two days and I still have zero sales. BUSTED!!

I've sent them another support ticket today and I'm waiting for a reply. Will I get a reply? I have no idea.

Has anybody experienced this with an affiliate before? What action can I take? I would hate for someone else to experience the same from this company. Should I name the proxy site here?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts,

M
#affiliate #scams
  • Profile picture of the author Trevor
    Screw them. Are they not reliable and trusthworthy? Then just don't promote them.

    I had the same problem with a small CPA network, they were not counting commissions even though I was sure the traffic was converting just fine, so I stopped sending traffic to them.
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    • Profile picture of the author Melissa82
      Originally Posted by Trevor View Post

      Screw them. Are they not reliable and trusthworthy? Then just don't promote them.

      I had the same problem with a small CPA network, they were not counting commissions even though I was sure the traffic was converting just fine, so I stopped sending traffic to them.
      That's a given but if I can't hold an open flame to their testicles what can I do?
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
        Originally Posted by Melissa82 View Post

        That's a given but if I can't hold an open flame to their testicles what can I do?
        Ahem... Why do you presume they are in possession of said anatomical features? Scammers have to be male miss Melissa? and all women in India are in sweet innocent Bollywood movies?
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        • Profile picture of the author Melissa82
          Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

          Ahem... Why do you presume they are in possession of said anatomical features? Scammers have to be male miss Melissa? and all women in India are in sweet innocent Bollywood movies?
          lol fine, off with her clitoris!!!
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          • Profile picture of the author AndyBlackSEO
            Originally Posted by Melissa82 View Post

            lol fine, off with her clitoris!!!
            Oh my :-o

            On a serious note... I don't grasp why some site / product owners do that. Surely the more commissions affiliates see coming through, the more effort they will put into driving quality traffic. It's only a matter of time before yourself and anyone else for that matter will stop promoting them. It's foolish of them.

            I'm just about to setup an affiliate system for my products... And I guess if you look after your affiliates, they will also look after you.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Your options are probably limited to what country they reside in. If it is a US-based orgainization, you could probably file a complaint with the FTC and a few other organizations.

    I would keep trying to contact them (mentioning that you are no longer going to be featuring them on your website if you cannot get a response), take them off the site for now, and move on without wasting too much time or energy on it.

    It sucks, but sometimes it is better to just take the loss and move on. Not worth the time to fight when your time could be better spent doing something more productive.

    Oh, and I would work to make sure that my website outranked theirs for their own product and had a nice little "Do not use this service" type message on it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Melissa82
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      Your options are probably limited to what country they reside in. If it is a US-based orgainization, you could probably file a complaint with the FTC and a few other organizations.

      I would keep trying to contact them (mentioning that you are no longer going to be featuring them on your website if you cannot get a response), take them off the site for now, and move on without wasting too much time or energy on it.

      It sucks, but sometimes it is better to just take the loss and move on. Not worth the time to fight when your time could be better spent doing something more productive.

      Oh, and I would work to make sure that my website outranked theirs for their own product and had a nice little "Do not use this service" type message on it.
      I am outranking them for some good keywords so yeah if they don't reply then that's a good idea Mike, I'll add some harshly worded red type on top of their write up.

      Sadly, they work out of India so I guess I can't report them.
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  • Profile picture of the author entrepreneurjay
    Great answer Mike if they are ripping you off fire back with a negative review and tell people to stay away from them.

    Fight fire with fire...
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  • Profile picture of the author NestZone
    Screw them up. If not you get ripped over and over and over again in different ways
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  • Profile picture of the author flipgrind
    Banned
    Sue them Or stop working with them.
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