After reading through the last group of postings I am disheartened to know I have more fraud to look out for.
The first company to set up multiple payment processing combined with affiliate tracking/management that actually protects the affiliate from all sorts of fraud will be enormously successful.
What affiliate, especially those that are affiliates only, wouldn't give a point or two off the top to know that every sale they earned is coming to them.
Everyone here seems to agree that there is fraud committed on a daily basis by sponsors (not all sponsors). I see some try to pin-point the amount of fraud to a percentage. I think that whatever percentage it's given, it is probably much higher. Just think of the tip of the iceberg. When you calculate the percentage of fraud you can only work with what you see or feel reasonably sure is taking place. If you add in the iceberg factor, the actually amount of fraud in dollars and cents would astounded you.
It's kind of strange that affiliates just let it go by. I would think the hue and cry would be much louder. I would also think that by now, some enterprising young programmer/business-person would have built a small empire by offering to protect affiliates from internal fraudulent transactions.
Quite obviously this thread and countless others demonstrates the demand for such a product. Sponsors to first adopt a transparent, anti-fraud system would do very well also.
You know Sam Walton, the greatest retailer on earth (affiliates are retailers) must just be laughing his ass off at us.
We use some of the most sophisticated technology to make sales on the most technologically advanced network on the planet. But when it come to collecting the cash we have a blind man guarding an alms box.
A system that relies primarily on trust to make sure the money gets into the till, in this day and age is remarkably foolish.
That I actually try to make a living as an affiliate, well folks what does that make me!
Cheers peeps
