StopScum

Email received:

I've looked at a bunch of Web sites to purchase but I'm uncomfortable with them. Can you offer any additional tips?

Our response:

Hello confused,

We could probably fill a dozen ebooks with tips to prevent fraud and the abuse of buyers. Here are a few:

1. We never send payments via Western Union. Period. That's always a red flag and the sign of fraud. This includes auctions. You have no recourse if you pay via Western Union. We examined numerous sales and auctions and this trait always occurred. Use an escrow Company like www. escrow.com to protect yourself.

2. Many sales include verbiage like "...fastclick, adsense, realmedia approved.." or something like "includes FastClick account" Sometimes these statements hint and other times they are more pronounced. In all cases the statement is not true and we consider it a Red Flag. For example: the AdSence Policies state:

"Account Transferability

AdSense accounts are not transferable, assignable or resalable in connection with the sale of your site or otherwise. For example, when a site changes ownership or management, the prior owner or manager must cancel the AdSense account for the site, and the new owner or manager may sign up for a new AdSense account in his or her own name." Source

The Fastclick procedure:

"I wanted to jump in here and mention a few things. First, we do allow transfers for sites that have been sold. You may not switch your payment profile to the new owner, the new owner must create a new Fastclick account or add the site to their existing account. Please keep in mind that the site is still subject to our publisher agreement. Fastclick.com reserves the right to refuse service to any new or existing Publisher, in its sole discretion, with or without cause.

If you have sold a site and the new owner would like to continue to use Fastclick you must send an email to publish@fastclick.com and CC the new owner stating that you would like to have the site removed from your account.

Regards,
Matt Oettinger
Media Account Manager
Fastclick.com, Inc." Source

What can happen to a buyer? The seller gives you the Admin data to log into the affiliate program which also violates the TOS. You log in and change the Payee/Ownership of the account to your own. BINGO! Not so fast dude! No can do. The affiliate program suspends the account and earnings drop to zero or they require you to reapply. If you reapply then the next series of questions are: Does the site still comply? Is the affiliate program still interested in the type of site you just purchased?

What can happen to a seller? You fail to notify the Affiliate program of the sale so you may loose all your earnings. The sale should include terms and a requirement that the seller will notify all Affiliate programs of the sale and that the buyer will reapply.

3. Why are you purchasing a site which is cheating? Forums are full of these types of deals. The buyer needs to carefully examine the site in question and insure that every Affiliate Program running on the site or which has ever produced revenue complies with the letter and intent of the Affiliate programs rules.

4. When you first see a sale, immediately run a Whois search and make note of the owner. If the seller is not the same owner as displayed in the Whois database leave and do not purchase the site. If the owner changes in Whois during the sale, you have a red flag. Audit the sale by sending an email to the address displayed in the Whois database and require a response from this email. If it bounces or you do not receive a response, leave and do not purchase the site. You would be surprised at the huge number of fraudsters trying to sell sites which they do not own.

Final thoughts

We realize we haven't covered all the issues but hopefully have provided you with what we believe to be some of the key areas of fraud in the sale of sites. Don't hesitate to drop me an email if you have other questions. I'm pretty busy but will do my best to try and help. Thanks so much for the great question.