eBays #1 affiliate gets 5 months in federal prison

by 44 replies
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Shawn Hogan was sentenced to 5 months federal prison.

Shawn Hogan Sentenced In eBay Affiliate Marketing Scam - Business Insider

-g
#off topic forum #affiliate #ebays #months
  • Banned
    I was wondering how that case was coming along. Pretty light sentence for $28M fraud.
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [3] replies
    • That's what I thought. I'd serve 5 months for 28M too.
    • Slap on the wrist for this no good dirt bag. Should have gotten much more time than he was given. It makes you feel bad for the majority affiliates working their butts off trying to make a living.

      Don't worry, I'm sure he'll receive special treatment in prison and will be right back finding other ways to scam again when he's released in November.
      • [1] reply
    • It's a plea deal....some lawyer wanted to burnish his prosecution bonafieds, so he offered the man something he couldn't refuse....which after 5 years of fighting, and millions of dollars spent on lawyers, you probably would have taken too.

      Sounds to me more like victory by exhaustion than anything. But then again, that seems to be how the legal system works anymore.
  • Was he ordered to pay restitution? How long is the probation after the sentence?
    • [1] reply
    • The article said:

      - 25k fine
      - 3 years probation (I think)
      - settled a civil suit with eBay

      -g
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    • Banned
      [DELETED]
  • Had a junkie gotten caught in possession of drugs, they would have gotten 1-8 years in Prison. Steal $28 million and get probation or 5 months.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • Sounds like a fair trade to me, though I don't understand why people don't quit while they're ahead or at least go somewhere the feds can't touch them.
  • That was an interesting case.
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  • How does the "seeding" work exactly?
    • [1] reply
    • I don't know the technical stuff, but from what I've read on other articles, he created a program for website owners that'd show them where their visitors are coming from. That program installed "cookies" onto their computers, just like clicking on an eBay affiliate link does. So if any of those people went to eBay to buy something, he'd get the commission for it, even though the person doing the buying never actually clicked on a legit affiliate link.

      What's interesting is the FBI has been working with eBay since about 2006 to catch affiliates doing this sort of thing. Ebay's second largest affiliate also got swept up in the sting and I think he'll be sentenced later this summer.
      • [1] reply
  • Wow $28 million for just 5 months in jail... I'll take that deal...

    (Jking)
  • So is 5 months the final verdict? That's it? The max sentence was 20 years and it dropped all the way to 5 months? How much does his lawyer make....
  • He'll be back out and making millions off of reputable scams in about 6 months.

    - R
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Never heard about this, I need to pay attention more. Thanks for sharing!
  • Interesting reading the link post. I'm sure there is a lesson in there somwhere, but as I haven't made $28 million I don't know what it is ..!
  • This is the first I've heard of it, although I don't pay much attention to eBay affiliates. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't setting cookies part of the deal? Otherwise how would one get credited for a sale? Or do they mean he set cookies without people's permission?
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      He stuffed cookies. He did nothing to actually earn the referral. Just stuffed hundreds of thousands cookies on unsuspecting visitors.
  • They should cut his account if that is not they want and it would have been the end of it. The close tons of ebay accounts why not shut his off since they knew.
  • He was also the number 2 top adsense earner for 2013. So I'm sure that his troubles are not over yet.

    Top Highest Google Adsense earners in the world
    • [1] reply
    • That estimate was based on Alexa Rank. Webmasters are much more likely to install the Alexa toolbar than other users. Therefore the Alexa rank of Webmasters' forums are likely to be highly overestimated.
  • I doubt it... Uncle Sam only took 25k in fines from him, and Ebay already settled. Ebay didn't lose any money, they made money from him, so they are just trying to save face. I guarantee you the settlement is no where near what he stole, or he would have took it to trial.

    Here in the U.S, the laws are made to favor those who steal the most. Had he stole a pair of Jordans from the mall, he would have did more than 5 months
    • [4] replies
    • Banned
      How is it Ebay made money from a cookie stuffer? They already got the cookied traffic on their own ... only he got credit for the referral even though he was not the referrer. So Ebay lost the money they paid in his commission that he had not earned.

      I'm sure Ebay is content with the settlement, but he was stealing from Ebay, not bringing them the traffic that they were paying him for.
      • [ 3 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply

    • They definitely didn't make money from him. If he were sending this traffic to ebay, then there'd be no reason to cookie stuff.

      No I've been a member of his forum for over a decade, and I can remember a lot of people over there cookie stuffing. I can specifically remember having an account banned over there for even bringing it up. They were stuffing clickbank cookies over there for a while as well.
    • I guess you don't understand about cookie stuffing!

      The way an affiliate system is SUPPOSED to work is the affiliate shows something to LEGITIMATELY entice the user to click. The *******USER******* clicks to show they are enticed, and the vendor sends a cookie to the computer tomake things simpler, and as a service to the affiliate. IF, within a certain span of time, in some circumstance,that USER *****GOES BACK***** to the site, the affiliate gets credit. The vendor pays them for THEIR enticement to visit the site. It is a kind of advertising payment.

      EBAY GETS A CUSTOMER they may not have gotten otherwise!

      The way COOKIE stuffing works is SOMETHING gets the browser to point to a given site. That site then tells the browser to visit several vendor sites, WITHOUT the user knowing! The sites set the cookies AS IF the user visited. If SOMETHING visits to site to do a given action, the "affiliate" gets credit. It is a SCAM paid for NOTHING! That second action could have been the user going directly to the site.

      EBAY GOT A CUSTOMER VIA A THIRD PARTY! They WOULD have been paid if they used THEIR affiliate link.

      I wish I could disagree there.

      Steve
      • [1] reply
    • It all depends on how the affiliate program itself worked...if EBAY was paying per visit (more than likely) instead of per sale (which would be damned near impossible for them to implement), it probably did cost them money.

      In a per visit, EBAY pays when you merely visit the site...and a per sale setup, EBAY pays when you win an auction, or purchase a 'buy now' item.

      If cookies were being stuffed in a per visit program, no one had to visit the site for the affiliate to get paid, which is why they claimed it was fraud.

      Hope that clears things up a little.
      • [1] reply
  • Huh, learn something new every day. I hadn't heard of cookie stuffing before today, and I appreciate the run down on what it is/does.

    Was it happening because of people downloading a toolbar? Did I read that right?
  • So he gets 5 months for making 28 millions through fraud?

    How many people could live with that sentence?
  • Banned
    Bound to get a lots of requests to pick up the soap in the showers.
  • Yea I would do 5 months for 28MIL However, I'm sure his restitution will make him a slave the rest of his life!

    Anybody wonder why EPN has been making so many changes and strick the past few years? For every Maddof like this bozo is a thousand smaller guys eBay doesnt have the time, resources or make financial sense to go after....
    • [1] reply
    • The article also mentioned he was No. 2 among Google's AdSense partners in 2013.....
      I wonder if Google has started scrutinising the click-through's generated from his sites?
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