Digitalpoint Forum & Shawn Hogan Sued by EBay for Fraud

[minstrel]

That is spot on, Linda. Great post!

[C.Whyte]

Excellent explanation. It did sound a bit wordy, but I believe anyone who reads this will understand how it really is the AFFILIATE who is harmed by the black hatters and cookie stuffers of the world. I just wish more people were aware of how much this is harming the industry as a whole.

[zeruel]

Whew. Well explained Linda... Now that is really a black hat technique eh? That could also be the reason why black hat can easily make money online by doing these stuffs. Not fair enough to those who work hard for months to gain their targeted conversion goals. I wonder how many people is capable of doing or exactly doing these stuffs...

[sitetutor]

John, some people may say that one of the most ethical requirements are not to tell something that has been told to you in private by someone who thought he could trust you.

[sarahk]

Mike, John isn't a priest - he's not sworn to honor a private conversation. If you know someone has done wrong then isn't there more honor in making things right?

If Shawn has cheated then you just have to wonder why it's taken 5 years to get this far but things do drag on.

Personally I think there'll be a fascinating story to tell, with lots of complexity. I have no idea who will come out on top and I'm not privy to any extra information - certainly nothing like John claims to have!

Originally Posted by 5StarAffiliatePrograms

SO THE THING THAT TICKS ME OFF AT DP is people who are clueless say it's cool and praise him and they don't even realize cookie stuffers are stealing their commissions too.

I don't care who they've stolen from, I don't believe in different classes of victims (big business, individual, all the same to me). It's wrong and as for the fools saying "oh no Shawn wouldn't do it, I know him too well", they may think differently if they decide to subpoena all his "colleagues".

[sitetutor]

If Shawn has done wrong, I want him to do right. But unlike most people here who wish prison to him, I want him to do good on a global level. More than most readers here he has the skills to help affiliate programmers more than anybody control cookie stuffing spam, if he steps up and admits guilt and dedicates his time to doing right, that would be great. It would put the idiots talking crap to too much shame to reply trying to promote their own agendas for a minute and do what is right for at least one second.

[minstrel]

Cookie Stuffing Detector

This modification will help protect your boards against cookie stuffing scams.

What is Cookie Stuffing
From Wikipedia:

Cookie stuffing or cookie dropping is a Blackhat technique used to generate fraudulent affiliate sales. It involves placing an affiliate tracking cookie on a website visitor's computer without their knowledge, which will then generate revenue for the person doing the cookie stuffing. Income is generated when the affected user visits the target affiliate site and either creates an account or makes a purchase, depending on the terms of the affiliate agreement. This not only generates fraudulent affiliate sales, but also has the potential to overwrite legitimate affiliates' cookies, essentially stealing their legitimately earned commissions.

Operators of websites that allow user-generated content, such as forums that allow users to post, should be aware of this technique in order to protect their visitors from this attack. Cookie stuffing can be accomplished with as little as including an image in a forum post.

People can use your boards for this illegitimate practice if you don't protect yourself.

Details of how it works and download link for registered vBulletin owners

Added: Hmmm... it seems there are problems with this add-on. If it were present on this forum, for example, you would not be able to view this thread or at least this page in IE. Additionally, Floris has pointed out that it only protects against one type of cookie stuffing so it is easily evaded.

I'll leave the post in hopes that the author or someone else will develop the add-on further.

[mikey.]

so who's shawn? and what is this dp you all speak of?

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by sitetutor

John, some people may say that one of the most ethical requirements are not to tell something that has been told to you in private by someone who thought he could trust you.

If something is told in confidence, yes. But Shawn never indicated that he felt it needed to be kept in confidence. My impression was that he was freely telling anybody who was in a position to profit from it.

And I still say that if he did wrong, he'll do right. He didn't act like he was doing wrong at all, and I have to think there's a reason for that.

He's innocent until proven guilty in my book.

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by mikey.

so who's shawn? and what is this dp you all speak of?

Shawn is an all around helpful, great guy.

DP.

[mikey.]

Ah, i forgot to insert the <sarcasm> tags in that comment
But thanks oh helpful one

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by mikey.

Ah, i forgot to insert the <sarcasm> tags in that comment
But thanks oh helpful one

My bad

Anyway, people should just chill when they feel the urge to condemn the guy. Maybe if the facts turn out that he did evil, intentionally, then condemn. But for now he's never been other than a great guy.

[mikey.]

...and to add to that, why even condemn him? It's his problem to live with, he did none of us harm right? If it is proven that Shawn did it with the wrong intentions and so on, it's his head on the platter so to speak, not ours.

[mikey.]

I guess people just love to roll around in whatever bs they find to feel like they're part of the bigger picture, no one is ever content with what they have anymore.

[minstrel]

Originally Posted by mikey.

...and to add to that, why even condemn him? It's his problem to live with, he did none of us harm right? If it is proven that Shawn did it with the wrong intentions and so on, it's his head on the platter so to speak, not ours.

How do you know that? Read Linda Buque's posts above.

[mikey.]

Come on, the chances of a visitor landing on your oh so cool landing page, clicking on your oh so well placed banner ad sending that ppc user to your oh so cool merchant, not buying anything only to go to DP to browse the oh so cookie stuffed forums, only then to decide to go back and buy or use the service of that oh so awesome merchant is as likely to happen as...well... as likely to happen as sitetutor being elected this year as president ! Ok so chances of mike making it as pres are slimmer, but give me a break with that post. She runs an affiliate program, what else do you expect her to post.

[minstrel]

What she posted is absolutely spot on. Read it again. Ignorance is not bliss.

[mikey.]

Sure she was, she stated the obvious, far fetched as it was. A scenario like that is not an ever day occurrence, if you think so you have been misinformed. What's up with the defensive stance on life dude, you that insecure You're prob just crushing on lynda eh? Canada..oh canadaaaa....what's the rest of that BS?

[mikey.]

thinks to himself: damn Canadians, no sense of humor these days either, bet he is going to come at me with a baseball bat (that's assuming he knows how to use one)

[5StarAffiliatePrograms]

"Ignorance is not bliss."

Minstrel I'm glad you get it.