In what is really an odd case, Shawn Hogan who was the top Ebay affiliate marketer, along with being a top Google Adsense earner got nailed for defrauding Ebay.
Business Insider the story,
Shawn Hogan, the CEO of a successful online marketing company called Digital Point Solutions, was sentenced to five months in federal prison for his role in defrauding eBay of an alleged $28 million in online marketing fees.
eBay had secretly cooperated with the FBI since June 2006 to root out affiliate marketers whose success was a bit too good to be true. eBay had even created an online sting operation, called “Trip Wire,” to monitor the traffic Hogan was sending.
eBay initially alleged that Hogan had rigged eBay’s system so that it falsely credited him for sales he did not generate. He did it by seeding unknowing users with hundreds of thousands of bits of tracking code, or “cookies.” If any of those people bought something on eBay, the code signaled to eBay that Hogan should get a cut of the sale — even though he had done nothing to promote eBay.
So this guy gamed the system for a while and got caught because he did it on a big scale. I see now why the affiliate programs never produce much revenue for me. My main complaint was not getting credit for sales I could track coming from my site. Affiliate programs are too easy to game. It’s about a cookie and guess what, many people have those turned off anyway.
Now will Ebay pay me the revenue that was supposed to come to me but went to this guy.
So the guy defrauds Ebay for 28 million dollars and gets 5 months in prison??
Wow..that some deterrent……….
He paid millions in legal fees too, along with an unknown settlement to eBay. Still, he got what looks like a good deal, even he seems to think so… read what he has to say himself, he owns the digitalpoint forum….http://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/shawn-hogan-sentenced-ebays-1-affiliate-gets-5-months-in-federal-prison-ouch.2718377/
I am like a dog hound, if I cannot see, cannot feel, squeeze, touch, smell and taste then it is a scam
Affiliate programs and 99.9999% on the internet is full of scam , useless!!
It’s significant that Shawn Hogan isn’t just an isolated individual; he’s a trend-setting forum owner. So his approach has probably set the tone for others.
I read through his comments at DigitalPoint. This sentence stands out:
“Until they stop compensating the program managers based on how much the affiliates under them make, you will always have program managers encouraging it.”
Maybe he’s just looking to spread the culpability a bit. That’s human nature. But, on the other hand, if affiliate program managers are paid more when affiliate payouts are happening in volume — because that makes the program more “successful”? — then it would take some rare restraint NOT to encourage shenanigans or, at least, NOT to turn a blind eye while making more money oneself. One would imagine …
Crimes are done by individuals. But the underlying problems are usually systemic.