One of the biggest hassles about running a CPA Network is the insane amounts of fraudulent publishers applying everyday. If you have ever wondered why we seem like a bunch of assholes when you apply it is because the large amounts of fraudulent applications we receive. I think it would be safe to say that about 75% of the apps coming into Convert2Media are from publishers looking to fill in their own leads, create ghost leads, fire the pixels themselves (I wont go into this, hate to teach the masses how to do it) and of course the owns who like to think of their incentive marketing as “unique” enough to slip shitty quality to advertisers. These people are typically the easiest to catch because they make very little attempt to create a nice looking application.

On the other hand, we have a level of sophistication coming these days as the fraudulent publishers evolve. As with any tactic, method or idea the online marketer who likes to game the system will evolve to and adjust to slip their way into the affiliate networks. I should know, I was pretty damn good at it myself. I wont go into the levels of sophistication or organization that is being deployed. I covered a lot of that last Friday on Andrew Wee’s podcast if you would like to hear a verbal version of it.

So anyway, Steve was able to catch one of these hired actors this past week and video tape the conversation. So far we have not released the footage. Our boy would like to remain anonymous and I concur. He’s agreed to keep feeding us information if we keep it that way. What a trade-off! One of the things discussed is that while this guy is a whitehat publisher, he is able to secure $5000-$6000 extra per month in just calling into Affiliate Networks and getting accounts approved. Say it aint SO! You can make money, good money some would consider in just calling affiliate networks and getting accounts approved for fraudulent publishers.

This is ruining the business and very rapidly. It’s virally spinning out of control and I know from talking with other managers in the industry that it’s blowing up exponentially. Just the other day we saw this:

NEED CPA NETWORK ACCOUNTS

Let’s screenshot it so that Get a Free Lancer doesnt happen to decide it’s wrong and take it down shall we.

Cool. Now the frauders have actually smartened up and decided to go on a much larger scale by outsourcing the actual approvals. This makes it a bit tougher on networks especially the ones who have affiliate managers not prepared to ask them things that throws them off. We got word on some going rates around the industry on what people get paid for approved fraud accounts on networks:

• Clickbooth - $100
• Hydra - $100
• CX Digital - $100
• Affiliate.com - $50
• Neverblue - $50

We were not able to receive word on how much a Convert2Media account is. In all honesty, the guy told Steve that we were the first network to catch him. Purty Slick, I guess. I would imagine the bounty for egotistical dumbasses who need a good challenge would be quite high on a C2M approval.

Nothing is really said about fraud in the industry and it’s sad. With the enormous amounts of it, you would think a ton would be talked about. Unfortunately, a lot of this behavior is either accepted or it’s overlooked by managers not equipped and educated in how to pick up on it. With that said, it looks like we are doing a pretty good job of it:

BlackHatWorld:

I’d be cautious about doing blackhat with C2M.

Ruck is one of the smartest fuckers in this business and they will catch you eventually.

Just sayin…

I’m thinking about declaring Friday on the blog as “Fraud Friday’s”. On Fraud Friday’s I fully intend to expose fraudulent publishers including:

• Any stupid pictures I find of you
• A short story of how we pwned you
• Any related information I can find

All your fraud apps belong unto us. Keep sending thanx.