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You are a LOW DOWN COOKIE STUFFER! Yes, this means YOU!

by sbucciarel Banned
48 replies
I know it's not intentional by any means, but when you quote a cookie stuffer, you are doing their work for them. Their cookies are now in your posts.

There's a prolific cookie stuffer (probably more than one) but one I've found with many now banned user names stuffing cookies for hosting programs. So, let's say there's been at least 10 user names today with 30 posts each and being quoted over and over again, this spammer now has 3 times as many posts with cookies as he would have.

When you quote anyone, take a look at the quote. Don't just quote blindly. You will see the images codes and the urls in there. Just back out of the quote and hit the report button.

Don't bother trying to call them names, or yell at them. They are bots my friends and bots don't listen or care.

So ... take the time to look at what you are quoting. These people hurt the Warrior Forum, but if you are a hosting affiliate with a legitimate url in your signature that goes to your page with your hosting affiliate url, you are most likely going to be overwritten by this mass spammer(s). They have just about every host imaginable all in each post.
#cookie #low #means #stuffer
  • Profile picture of the author OldLodgeSkins
    The best thing to do is to hit the "report" button without wasting time (and giving them more exposure) by replying... Just let the mods do their job and don't give them even more work (to clean up the mess afterward...).
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Yeah ... just report it. I took note of the domain this guy is operating from and did a search for that domain in the WF. He had 4 pages of extra cookies from people who had quoted him in all of his numerous user names.

    I reported each of those posts and (thanks Mod) they are now all gone. It's time consuming to say the least to report each time someone quotes a cookie stuffer and this guy has been at it for this whole week, so take a good look at the code before you hit that submit button when you quote someone, especially someone who is brand new.
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    • Profile picture of the author CMartin
      Suzanne,
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      I took note of the domain this guy is operating from and did a search for that domain in the WF. He had 4 pages of extra cookies from people who had quoted him in all of his numerous user names.

      I reported each of those posts and (thanks Mod) they are now all gone. It's time consuming to say the least to report each time someone quotes a cookie stuffer and this guy has been at it for this whole week
      When there are many posts with images doing cookie stuffing from the same domain, the best way to report them is to open a ticket in the Help Desk and use "Cookie Stuffing" for the subject and use it to report all cookie stuffers (usernames), domains used and the post's URLs.


      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      @Paul
      Is there any way when we report a cookie stuffer and the url they are using, if the WF can do a search and replace on the url and make it broken throughout the WF, or is that too much trouble?
      It's always a good idea to report the domain used for cookie stuffing to the Help Desk in order to get them blacklisted. Just reporting the posts to get them deleted and users banned is not enough, unless the domain is also blacklisted. If the domain is not blacklisted it can be used again for cookie stuffing with another account.

      I don't know if the Mods who deal with reported posts (when we use the report feature) have the ability to blacklist a domain, so I always report them to the Help Desk.

      When a domain is blacklisted, it's replaced by "*".

      Carlos
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      • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
        Banned
        Originally Posted by CMartin View Post

        Suzanne,


        When there are many posts with images doing cookie stuffing from the same domain, the best way to report them is to open a ticket in the Help Desk and use "Cookie Stuffing" for the subject and use it to report all cookie stuffers (usernames), domains used and the post's URLs....

        I don't know if the Mods who deal with reported posts (when we use the report feature) have the ability to blacklist a domain, so I always report them to the Help Desk.

        When a domain is blacklisted, it's replaced by "*".

        Carlos
        My guess is that Paul can blacklist domains, but don't know for sure. You've been around a long time. Can a mod confirm that we should use the Help Desk to report these? I don't want to send stuff to the Help Desk that doesn't belong there.
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        • Profile picture of the author CMartin
          Suzanne,
          Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

          My guess is that Paul can blacklist domains, but don't know for sure. You've been around a long time. Can a mod confirm that we should use the Help Desk to report these? I don't want to send stuff to the Help Desk that doesn't belong there.
          I don't know if Paul is able to blacklist domains or not, but I presume Paul is not the only moderator to handle reported posts about cookie stuffers and probably not all mods have such permission.

          What could be very effective is when moderators delete cookie stuffers they could report the domains used for cookie stuffing to a moderator that has the ability to blacklist those domains. This way once a spammer is found, he cannot use the domain again for cookie stuffing.

          What I've been finding for many months are posts quoted by other users that still have images doing cookie stuffing and sometimes for several months. An example would be:
          A domain that was used for cookie stuffing by 18 different accounts. All the accounts were banned and their posts removed, BUT there were still 24 posts with images doing cookie stuffing - these 24 posts were posts from other users who quoted the spammers' original posts.
          To "clean" the posts and prevent the spammer from using the same domain with new accounts, the domain must be blacklisted.

          I've been reporting these spammers to the Help Desk since Nov/2010 and was never told to not do so.

          Carlos
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          • Profile picture of the author HeySal
            Originally Posted by CMartin View Post

            Suzanne,


            I don't know if Paul is able to blacklist domains or not, but I presume Paul is not the only moderator to handle reported posts about cookie stuffers and probably not all mods have such permission.

            What could be very effective is when moderators delete cookie stuffers they could report the domains used for cookie stuffing to a moderator that has the ability to blacklist those domains. This way once a spammer is found, he cannot use the domain again for cookie stuffing.

            What I've been finding for many months are posts quoted by other users that still have images doing cookie stuffing and sometimes for several months. An example would be:
            A domain that was used for cookie stuffing by 18 different accounts. All the accounts were banned and their posts removed, BUT there were still 24 posts with images doing cookie stuffing - these 24 posts were posts from other users who quoted the spammers' original posts.
            To "clean" the posts and prevent the spammer from using the same domain with new accounts, the domain must be blacklisted.

            I've been reporting these spammers to the Help Desk since Nov/2010 and was never told to not do so.

            Carlos
            Carlos - they never will tell you not to do so. Reporting this kind of crap makes mods lives so much easier.

            The ones I've been catching are the ones that the bot posts a post (as their own, not as a quote) that someone else posted previously. Dead give away that something is wrong with it.

            Thanks for bringing this up Suzanne. I'm sure that there's enough of this going on now to drive the mods crazy. I'm thinking after working here for awhile, that's not a long trip for some of em.
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            • Profile picture of the author CMartin
              Sal,
              Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

              Carlos - they never will tell you not to do so. Reporting this kind of crap makes mods lives so much easier.
              I know that

              Suzanne said:
              I don't want to send stuff to the Help Desk that doesn't belong there.
              And I said:
              I've been reporting these spammers to the Help Desk since Nov/2010 and was never told to not do so.
              I was just answering to Suzanne's "concern" about reporting the domains used for cookie stuffing directly to the Help Desk to get them blacklisted.

              ...

              Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

              The ones I've been catching are the ones that the bot posts a post (as their own, not as a quote) that someone else posted previously.
              Those [cookie stuffer bots] are usually the easiest to find, but if the domains they use are not blacklisted by WF they will create new accounts and use the same domain over and over again.

              But we have here on the WF other type of cookie stuffers:

              1. The ones that ask pertinent questions on WSOs or that posts something like "Please refund - my transaction id is XXXXXXX" or even post reviews and the OP (or someone else) quotes them with the hidden image doing cookie stuffing and then they become the "cookie stuffers". These spammers create many forum accounts (usernames) and use the same domain for cookie stuffing over and over again - they usually do cookie stuffing for hosting (HostGator/JustHost/BlueHost/GoDaddy) and a very few for Amazon;

              2. Then we have the spammers who also target WSOs and usually quote a review (or other type of message) and insert an image in the quoted message doing cookie stuffing and posts a message saying something like "Thanks, I just bought based on this review" or "Thanks for this great review". Most of these spammers are doing cookie stuffing for hosting companies. They also use the same domain with several accounts and usually do cookie stuffing once for each account;

              3. Then there are the "pros" who are very difficult to find and they usually can do cookie stuffing for several months without anyone noticing them. I will not give here any details about the way these guys behave but I will just say they don't target the WSO forum section.

              The type 1 and 2 are the "short-term" cookie stuffers and are the majority. Their objective is to drop as many cookies as possible and the fastest they can with several accounts. Type 1 is not concerned if their accounts get banned as they rely on their posts becoming quoted, while type 2 is more cautious as they usually do not do cookie stuffing more than once per account. Both of them use the same domain for all their accounts and once a domain is blacklisted they start over.

              The type 3 is the "medium/long term" cookie stuffer and they are the minority and the most difficult to find - they try to hide their activities and are not so obvious. From what I found, these guys are probably the most "successful" ones.

              Some of these spammers use advanced techniques for cookie stuffing to "hide" their activities to visitors and to the affiliate programs.

              BTW, I didn't include above a "new" type of cookie stuffer that I found a couple of weeks ago - it's the worst I've ever found here.

              Carlos
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              • Profile picture of the author Mystery777
                Ok, so all you need to do now to get your competition's hosting accounts banned, is to cookie stuff them here and report them to the hosting companies! Or let "sbucciarel" do the job! Cool!

                P.S. Just kidding of course! No need for drama.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
    Let's keep in mind here that those things are not visible to everyone. If you're using Firefox, for example, and don't have the necessary plugins, they're not displayed.

    Don't blame people for quoting what they don't know is there.


    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

      Let's keep in mind here that those things are not visible to everyone. If you're using Firefox, for example, and don't have the necessary plugins, they're not displayed.

      Don't blame people for quoting what they don't know is there.


      Paul

      It's visible once they hit the quote button and the raw code is there. That's what I'm taking about. No blame really. Just a Public Service Announcement

      If you hit quote and in the quote, it looks like this:


      Originally Posted by Pamela206 View Post

      is this totally new information ? because as you know

      lately a lot of products about youtube taken place[img]

      http://imageurl.info/ht1.jpg[/img][img]

      http://imageurl.info/jh88.jpg[/img][img]

      http://imageurl.info/test.jpg[/img][img]

      http://imageurl.info/huang10[/img]

      @Joe
      This particular one has been very adept at asking legitimate sounding questions in the WSO forum and getting people to answer him/it, even if the question addresses the person by a wrong name or the question seems somewhat out of place.

      He also pastes the same quote - IM related quote all over the place in all different sections of the forum so unless you read everything, not too many people notice it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gail_Curran
      Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

      Let's keep in mind here that those things are not visible to everyone. If you're using Firefox, for example, and don't have the necessary plugins, they're not displayed.

      Don't blame people for quoting what they don't know is there.
      Nonsense. I can't see the broken images in my browser, but I know when there's something hinky going on. All you have to do is click on the name of the poster, then click on "find more posts by."

      Then if you see a link to a jpg in any of the posts, or you see ten or twenty posts containing the same text, you know that you've got a scumbag spammer.

      People running WSOs need to smarten up, too. If someone posts something that is out of context, don't quote it. Check the posting history. 99 times out of 100, it's a scumbag spammer that should be reported. It's your responsibility to keep your WSO thread clean.
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    • Profile picture of the author REHughes
      Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

      If you're using Firefox, for example, and don't have the necessary plugins, they're not displayed.
      Paul

      Paul,
      What Firefox plugin is required for this?

      Robert
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      • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
        Suzanne,
        It's visible once they hit the quote button and the raw code is there.
        Not in all of them.

        They're getting clever. Some of these thieving clowns are using all sorts of tests and multiple redirects along the way, to try and keep the affiliate systems from tracking them down.

        Robert,

        Start by installing GreaseMonkey. Then pretty much any of the "Show Missing Images" scripts should do. Won't get them all, but it'll show most of the less advanced stuffers.


        Paul
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        • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

          Suzanne,Not in all of them.

          They're getting clever. Some of these thieving clowns are using all sorts of tests and multiple redirects along the way, to try and keep the affiliate systems from tracking them down
          Man ... they put a lot of work into this. Seems like they'd just start a real business or something with all that time spent.
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          • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
            Banned
            Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

            Man ... they put a lot of work into this. Seems like they'd just start a real business or something with all that time spent.
            They're idiots, and buy into the idea that this is somehow easier than doing actual work. I don't know how their minds arrive at that conclusion; but they do.
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            • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
              Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

              They're idiots, and buy into the idea that this is somehow easier than doing actual work. I don't know how their minds arrive at that conclusion; but they do.
              I would imagine they're just like the cheater/criminal minds offline Joe.

              They have genius minds and don't mind hard work to reach their end goal, however, they have a deviant gene lurking in their makeup that tells them being evil will make them bigger winners than being honest.

              They are the ones that live by "the good guys always finish last." :rolleyes:

              Terra
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    • Profile picture of the author Karen Blundell
      Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

      Let's keep in mind here that those things are not visible to everyone. If you're using Firefox, for example, and don't have the necessary plugins, they're not displayed.

      Don't blame people for quoting what they don't know is there.


      Paul
      I use Firefox and I'm wondering what plugins you are referring to, Paul.
      I have not noticed anything unusual or seen what Suzanne has, that is.

      Edit: Never mind, just found your answer above -
      ok Greesemonkey...I used to have it but dropped it in favour of other plugins/add-ons I wanted
      thanks!

      And now that I think of it, I did see a post with those images in them...And thought it odd...
      I learned something new today, guys....thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    Have cookie stuffers switched up their game? Because lately I haven't been able to catch any doing the classic "copy a post from the thread 50 times" trick. Are they doing something else, or just in other sections of the forum these days?
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  • Profile picture of the author Rick Britton
    I try very hard not to quote anything with a link in it!
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  • Profile picture of the author akg12
    Wow, this is pretty advanced stuff? I still barely understand it. These guys somehow get there cookie in the way of your cookie with software or other tricky methods and use your links, as well as you quoting them to basically promote themselves?

    That sounds intense...How have huge corporations not found a way around this scam?
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    @Paul

    Is there any way when we report a cookie stuffer and the url they are using, if the WF can do a search and replace on the url and make it broken throughout the WF, or is that too much trouble?
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Suzanne,
      Is there any way when we report a cookie stuffer and the url they are using, if the WF can do a search and replace on the url and make it broken throughout the WF, or is that too much trouble?
      It's not that it's too much trouble. It's that it doesn't work. They just shuffle the files to another .info domain and it starts all over.

      Doesn't slow them down much at all. Typical spammer tactics.


      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

        Suzanne,It's not that it's too much trouble. It's that it doesn't work. They just shuffle the files to another .info domain and it starts all over.

        Doesn't slow them down much at all. Typical spammer tactics.


        Paul
        Have we tried to ask them nicely to stop ?

        I'm kidding. So if I understand we are unfortunately just looking at a report them until they give up strategy. Not ideal; but if enough people did it then the bots would back off.
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        • Profile picture of the author R Hagel
          Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

          Have we tried to ask them nicely to stop ?
          Ooh, that's a great idea.

          Or how about a new rule:

          You need a note from your mother in order to post a link.

          Yeah. I like it.

          Becky
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          • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
            Banned
            Originally Posted by R Hagel View Post

            You need a note from your mother in order to post a link.
            **** my mom doesn't like me enough to write a note. I guess I'll turn my privileges in.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
    Thanks for the tips on how to spot them.

    I think I saw one once when looking at
    his posts, and he had the normal yellow smiley
    in all of them, but with a weird link... Reported
    it on the spot, and I'm sure the mods
    figured it out.


    My question is, will it not do any good
    to report these people to the affiliate
    networks they are promoting through,
    or to their hosts or domain registrars?
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    • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

      My question is, will it not do any good
      to report these people to the affiliate
      networks they are promoting through,
      or to their hosts or domain registrars?
      If you can figure out their affiliate ID, I'd say go for it.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
        Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

        If you can figure out their affiliate ID, I'd say go for it.
        Is that not something that can be
        derived from the cookies? There has
        to be some kind of identifier in it, right?
        Otherwise how would all of their hard
        work be tracked?
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

      Thanks for the tips on how to spot them.

      I think I saw one once when looking at
      his posts, and he had the normal yellow smiley
      in all of them, but with a weird link... Reported
      it on the spot, and I'm sure the mods
      figured it out.

      My question is, will it not do any good
      to report these people to the affiliate
      networks they are promoting through,
      or to their hosts or domain registrars?
      I thought of that. It wouldn't be me doing it though. I'm on a slow Internet connection and it was time consuming doing battle with the one major one that's been bombarding the WF all week and then reporting all the quoted cookies to get rid of this pest.

      And you know what? I'm certain he'll buy another cheap info domain and start all over again.

      To get their affiliate ID ... I'm not sure how to accomplish that unless you see it on the bar at the bottom when you load one of their images.

      Actually, that's one way I know a cookie stuffer is in the thread. Since my connection isn't instant and I have time, I look at the status bar and see them coming in ... hostgator, dreamhost, justhost, bluehost and more ... all in each post.
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    • Profile picture of the author MP80
      Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

      Thanks for the tips on how to spot them.

      I think I saw one once when looking at
      his posts, and he had the normal yellow smiley
      in all of them, but with a weird link... Reported
      it on the spot, and I'm sure the mods
      figured it out.
      I'm pretty sure that was the same guy that Suzanne reported. He was using what [almost] appeared to be the usual smiley face in some of his posts, but was actually an image from his domain. From what I can tell, when the thread loads in your browser, it fetches the image from his site, and you get cookied at the same time.

      I visited his page; there was actually an image there, and it didn't [visibly] redirect, so it wasn't showing up as a broken image in his posts. As Paul says, some of them are getting very clever.

      What wasn't smart though was his domain name: ihavejustbeenpaid.info

      Lol :rolleyes:
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      • Profile picture of the author cashp0wer
        They are not visible to me - I use Firefox and must not have the right plugins or something because I don't see anything at all.
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      • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
        Banned
        Originally Posted by MP80 View Post

        I'm pretty sure that was the same guy that Suzanne reported. He was using what [almost] appeared to be the usual smiley face in some of his posts, but was actually an image from his domain. From what I can tell, when the thread loads in your browser, it fetches the image from his site, and you get cookied at the same time.

        I visited his page; there was actually an image there, and it didn't [visibly] redirect, so it wasn't showing up as a broken image in his posts. As Paul says, some of them are getting very clever.

        What wasn't smart though was his domain name: ihavejustbeenpaid.info

        Lol :rolleyes:
        He was hosting on Hostgator so I sent in a spam complaint on the domain.



        lol. Some of these cookie stuffers aren't very bright. One is using a program called FlashStuffer that has the ability to load 100 cookies at a time for every visitor. Only thing is .... the Black Hatters have Black Hatted the Black Hatter. The BH forums stole the program and uploaded it for free everywhere, but apparently didn't crack it first, so when one of the stuffers gets a visit to his domain, you get this:

        This URL (www DOT gamegood DOT info) is not authorized to run Flashstuffer. To rectify the problem simply add this domain to your list and obtain a new licence key.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
    Now help me out here, I always pay other
    people to do the tech stuff for me.

    But, isn't a "cookie" something that is
    stored on your computer? I'm guessing
    in the browser (which is where we delete
    them from, or where CCleaner does anyway,
    right?)

    So, if it is in our browser, isn't there some
    way to find them?
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

      Now help me out here, I always pay other
      people to do the tech stuff for me.

      But, isn't a "cookie" something that is
      stored on your computer? I'm guessing
      in the browser (which is where we delete
      them from, or where CCleaner does anyway,
      right?)

      So, if it is in our browser, isn't there some
      way to find them?
      Sure there is. In Firefox you go to Tools > Options > Privacy and you can remove cookies there. I don't use IE, but I'm sure there's a way in each browser to do it. I don't like to remove all of my cookies because there are sites that I would prefer my settings and preferences to be kept.

      I'm not in the market for hosting right now, but if I were I would definitely remove say ... Bluehost cookie from my browser first or whatever host I was going to buy so I wouldn't give him the benefit, but most users aren't going to think of these things. They'll have all these cookies stuffed just from browsing these threads and when they need hosting, they'll just buy it.

      It's mostly hosting, but I found one yesterday for some just_been_paid crap.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
        Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

        Sure there is. In Firefox you go to Tools > Options > Privacy and you can remove cookies there. I don't use IE, but I'm sure there's a way in each browser to do it. I don't like to remove all of my cookies because there are sites that I would prefer my settings and preferences to be kept.

        I'm not in the market for hosting right now, but if I were I would definitely remove say ... Bluehost cookie from my browser first or whatever host I was going to buy so I wouldn't give him the benefit, but most users aren't going to think of these things. They'll have all these cookies stuffed just from browsing these threads and when they need hosting, they'll just buy it.

        It's mostly hosting, but I found one yesterday for some just_been_paid crap.

        OK, so now finding those cookies in our
        browser, don't they have some way to
        identify the perp that is stuffing? I mean,
        they have to have some kind of tracking
        to make sure the correct person gets
        paid, right?

        Isn't there some way that either we,
        or the affiliate network, could track
        the stuffer down?
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        ...A tachyon enters a bar.

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        • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
          Banned
          Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

          OK, so now finding those cookies in our
          browser, don't they have some way to
          identify the perp that is stuffing? I mean,
          they have to have some kind of tracking
          to make sure the correct person gets
          paid, right?

          Isn't there some way that either we,
          or the affiliate network, could track
          the stuffer down?
          Good point. I don't know where cookies are kept on my computer or if you can read them, but I just contacted all five webhosting companies and just gave them the urls and reported the cookie stuffing. Let them sort it out. Hopefully, they will and this jackmonkey will be out some affiliate cash.
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          • Profile picture of the author MP80
            Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

            Now help me out here, I always pay other
            people to do the tech stuff for me.

            But, isn't a "cookie" something that is
            stored on your computer? I'm guessing
            in the browser (which is where we delete
            them from, or where CCleaner does anyway,
            right?)

            So, if it is in our browser, isn't there some
            way to find them?
            Mike,

            If you want to find cookies on your computer (or video, etc, for that matter) CCleaner will do it for you. When you click 'Analyze', you will see Cookies displayed as one of the items to be deleted.

            eg. Internet Explorer - Cookies 1KB 2 files

            Right-click on that line, and select 'view detailed results'

            To open the location of any of the detailed results, choose one, 'right click' again, and choose 'open containing folder'

            You will see that they are text documents, which can be easily opened and read with notepad.
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            Before you do ANYTHING else in your day - do at least ONE thing that brings money into your business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Michael
    You are a LOW DOWN COOKIE STUFFER! Yes, this means YOU!
    But..... I'm not

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  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    You assume the web hosting companies care. They already have the WF urls as that is what shows up as a referrer on their end. They could take action if they wanted to.

    .
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

      You assume the web hosting companies care. They already have the WF urls as that is what shows up as a referrer on their end. They could take action if they wanted to.

      .
      I can only assume that they should care that they are paying affiliate commissions that weren't actually earned from people who were going to buy anyway. If not, no sweat. It's their money.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mohammad Afaq
        Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

        I can only assume that they should care that they are paying affiliate commissions that weren't actually earned from people who were going to buy anyway. If not, no sweat. It's their money.
        They do actually care and I have seen a few cases where HostGator closed down affiliate accounts for cookie stuffing. Here is something I got from their Affiliate Terms:

        In addition to the foregoing, we will immediately terminate your participation in the Program if we believe you have engaged in any of the following:
        - Unsolicited mass e-mail solicitations, IRC postings or any other form of spamming, including but not limited to, newsgroups or AOL customers or otherwise violate the anti-spamming policies of HostGator or state law;
        - Provide inaccurate or incomplete information to HostGator concerning your identity, address or other required information;
        - Attempt to cheat, defraud or mislead us in any way;
        - Misrepresent to the public the terms and conditions of our sites or your sites;
        - Engage in popup advertisement network activities;
        - IFrames may not be used unless given express permission by HostGator, sales made through hidden IFrames or Cookie Stuffing methods will be considered invalid
        So if you can find their affiliate id and report them, I would think HostGator would take action.
        Signature

        “The first draft of anything is shit.” ~Ernest Hemingway

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        • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Mohammad Afaq View Post

          They do actually care and I have seen a few cases where HostGator closed down affiliate accounts for cookie stuffing. Here is something I got from their Affiliate Terms:

          So if you can find their affiliate id and report them, I would think HostGator would take action.
          Don't even really need to find their affiliate ID. I sent the urls they use to the hosting companies. So far 3 have responded back that they have disabled their accounts.
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  • Profile picture of the author denis57
    Im a cookie monster, is that the same?
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  • Profile picture of the author luckystepho
    I didn't even know this problem existed! It's amazing how in every walk of life or any service industry there will always be people looking for ways to scam the system... I guess humans are inherently lazy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dragonfire Wealth
    It's depressing, seeing so many people resort to these "Black Hat" methods. My family calls me lazy because I make my living on the internet, but the TRUE laziness is from the extreme amount of "cheat your way to riches" being invented daily. Gives true, hard working IMers a bad name if you ask me.

    I've done some questionable stuff in my day but whenever I see the REALLY bad stuff (youtube videos with every friggin word in the dictionary in one block of text on the description, freebie sites although legitimate have thousands of people exploiting them by trading signups and paying referrals to sign up for ads and cancel the next day) it's sickening.

    -Paul

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  • Profile picture of the author Tony Dean
    I just wonder how much they have made out of me, especially if it was Amazon, it's my fave shopping site for everything.
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Tony Dean View Post

      I just wonder how much they have made out of me, especially if it was Amazon, it's my fave shopping site for everything.
      There's one that I found that went to Amazon. I reported it to Amazon. They thanked me for the information. I reported the hosting affiliate urls to the appropriate hosts also. Only Hostgator and Dreamhost responded back. Three other hosting companies never responded back.

      I hope at least I gave them a headache for a day but it would be nice if some of the affiliate programs banned their accounts with a big wad of cash in them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tony Dean
    Thanks for that I will still use Amazon for purchases then.
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