Affiliate Scam Challenge

Feb 28, 2005
by

Welcome to my Affiliate Scam Challenge. Simply click on the two links below and you will be taken to two merchant Web sites. The challenge is to

A) Determine which is real and which is fake without cliking beyond the landing page.

B) List off characteristics that tipped you off as to which was a fake merchant site.

URL one

URL two

Were you able to guess the fake site… set up by our very own Federal Trade Commission? How did you fare and what tipped you off?

About Jeff Molander

Jeff Molander is the authority on making social media sell and corporate trainer to small businesses and global corporations like IBM and Brazil’s energy company, Petrobras. He’s an accomplished entrepreneur, having co-founded what is today the Google Affiliate Network. He’s adjunct digital marketing professor at Loyola University’s school of business and author of Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You.

Website: JeffMolander.com

Blog: Off the Hook Blog

Answers: AskJeffMolander.com

You can find Jeff on Twitter @jeffreymolander.

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing
  • http://www.affiliatetracking.net Craig

    Sundae Station… basically because of no copyright or privacy statement.

  • http://www.webbloom.com David Delisle

    Both the URL and site design on URL 1 are very suspect.

    However, what's with the Yahoo email address for Golden Survey? Whenever I see a company using a free email account it immediately throws up a red flag. I guess a real fake Affiliate would know that…

  • http://www.birthdayexpress.com Jeff Nienaber

    C) All of the above.

  • http://NoCookie Carolyn Tang

    A) Sundae Station

    B) No privacy policy, no contact information, use of "no risk" and "guaranteed" terminology.

  • http://www.molanderassoc.com Jeff Molander

    Hi, Carolyn:

    you mean to tell me you've never seen those words on a merchant's / advertiser's site? :)

  • http://NoCookie Carolyn Tang

    Ah-HA, very good segue. Lure me in with a fun game, and yet, there's a moral catch. Thanks, Dad.

    Okay, so you're really examining how does a merchant feel about an affiliate using such terminology to drive traffic to the merchant?

    At my current job, and at my prior job, we did crack down on affiliates who misled consumers. However, it needed to be a joint effort between affiliate and search channels. Search would usually discover the violation and notify us.

  • http://www.molanderassoc.com Jeff Molander

    LOL. Please keep in mind, everyone, these are "merchant/advertiser" sites.

  • J Mopar

    What do I win if I get the right answer?

  • http://NoCookie James Dorans

    An addition to Carolyn Tang's comment. Also the affiliate networks should help detect affiliate scams.

  • http://www.305design.com Michael

    Sundae Station is the fake. The Sub-URL is what gave it away to me. No contact data – the verbage used seemed so hype. Stating the generalized industry dollar values of the over-all. Calculators where-by you make up your own pie in the sky earnings. There is a ton of indicators within the text alone. When it seems to good to be true, it is to good to be true!

  • http://www.affiliatetracking.net Mandy Haga

    Sundae Station. It doesn't have a direct domain and the idea is , well, ridiculous. I wouldn't do Golden Survey either. Paying to join screams old school mlm and probably is a scam itself.

  • http://adjungle.com/ Brad Waller

    It's obvious. Only link B has an affiliate program.

    And of course, B has links to a Members Area, FAQ, Contact us, and Privacy page.

    Finally, in all my years I have never heard of anything like the Sundae Factory, yet I know of many get paid for surveys "programs". So, knowing that surveys are an oft-used "scheme" and popular, this means that the site is not a fake. That said, I'm not going to say anything about how legit it is…

  • http://www.summitbum.com/ GearGuy

    With just a quick glance I thought Sundae Station. The no copyright and privacy policy tipped me off.

  • http://www.MP3Dollars.com Jim Lillig

    Sundae Station, the URL was the big tipoff. No privacy policy and no copyright. Cheesy graphics aside, it seems a little far fetched that you can dispense scoops of ice cream in an untended environment. If you search farther into the site, it also claims that elves make the ice cream. I can't believe that my tax dollars are spent on crap like this. Pork barrell is alive and well, maybe that will be their next site, Pork Barrell Pork Rinds – You don't need 'em, just shut up and eat 'em.