I recently received a very long email from the seller of a domain name who never got paid. Although I have covered domain sale issues before, I failed to document a critical procedure to prevent this from happening. The email is to long to publish and the situation sounds quite volatile so I will summarize the issue and provide tips to prevent this.
Dec 112005
Finally, The Music Publishers’ Association (MPA), which represents US sheet music companies, will launch its first campaign against such sites in 2006. What took you so long! The Internet is jam packed with these illegal sites, numerous enablers/gateways to same, and affiliate programs which encourage this deplorable action. One site has already been shut down. Read the gory details…
An entire industry of Cybersquatters exists today. These slime bags are too lazy to build their own sites, are legally, morally, and ethically challenged. Rather, they choose to leach off registered Trademarks with their pervasive “typo” domains and often use redirects to their own low life sites. Many of these sites also use Affiliate Programs to earn money so these myopic Networks who are only interested in a quick buck effectively become “enablers” with these cyber thieves. In this installment I present a real world case and tips to prevent this action.
Abuse on the Internet and in the brick-and-mortar world always increases during the holidays. Although we have previously covered Spam, charity fraud, Phishing, Identity Theft, and other slimy procedures, we feel obligated to cover some of these issues again and include a few additional tips.
AOL agreed to pay $1.25 million to the state of New York in penalties and costs. They also agreed to clean up their act and stop using low life practices and not honoring customers request to cancel their AOL account. The lessons and techniques which AOL used can guide all of us when we deploy a “cancel” with any third party.
Reader “frogtrain” tells me how he used the techniques in my recent entry titled “Secrets your Affiliate Program doesn’t want you to know about” to earn significantly more money from his current CPA programs. The article link opens in a new window so, I suggest you read the original article as well as the email which I received and have edited at the senders request. The reader was generous enough to include a few tips which I failed to document.
All affiliate programs are full of Publishers who cheat. All affiliate programs include advertisers/merchants who engage in Spyware techniques to steal commissions, insert virus laded creatives in the banner stream, and sometimes don’t pay their affiliates. Catching these criminals is paramount for the long term viability of any Network. Their are numerous procedures to combat this problem which I have previously covered. In this installment, a detailed look at a Bounty for your reading pleasure.
Forums across the Internet are filled with Webmaster/Publisher complaints and large doses of dribble and noise about the YPN. Way to many posts about their dissatisfaction in not being able to join, useless micro management posts and a feeble attempts to compare a Beta product with Googles AdSence. For the most part, these Webmasters/Publishers don’t have the slightest clue nor a desire to even learn about the proper way to enter the PPC (Paid Per Click) space and the most important issue and benefit that a tightly controlled and restricted Beta provides.
It’s not unusual for me to receive phone calls from this sites visitors who need help. This call was different. Mom and teen daughter were in a panic and indicated a scruffy looking stranger was at the front door asking to see the teenage daughter and even worse, the stranger knew far to much about the teen. This was an exclusive gated Community which required a Password to open the gate and located a few miles from my office. I advised Mom not to open her front door, politely ask the stranger to leave, use the Panic button on her alarm and then call the police. It would take me a few minutes to reach the house with my “digital kit” on a pro bono house call. What I saw and learned not only confirms my view that the Internet is a very dangerous place but lot’s of Parents and teens need a strong dose of reality and training.
Criminals and slime bags are beginning to discover and exploit a rich source of data on you. Does your Blog contain enough data for them to steal your identity, follow you home, break into your house, kidnap your family, and other nasty actions?