Come On! Resolved

ThePOGG

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Hi guys,

I wanted to give fair notification that I've move Come On! casino to Blacklisted status. The reason for this is that Come On! is still listed on VerifiedCasinos.com. This site has been repeatedly highlighted as being run by an individual engaged in hacking activity. As this constitutes a crime, supporting this individual is a very serious issue.

I hope you're not already aware of the issues surrounding this site and as such I'm providing a link to the major thread from the last few months that's discussed this topic - http://www.gpwa.org/forum/urgent-al...ious-hacking-proof-219035/p19.html#post775761

If you're placement on this site is retracted I'll be happy to alter your placement on ThePOGG.com.

While I realise this isn't the most pleasant of news, I would still like to wish you a great New Year!

ThePOGG
 
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casinonewbie

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Funny thing is these days i am spending more & more time lurking at thepoggs site to get an idea on who to & who not to promote rather than spend time on this or the GPWA site.
 

admin

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A reminder is sent to all affiliate managers.
 

AussieDave

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ThePOGG

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I agree it's an issue, but I'm guessing that whoever's in charge over there atm is unaware of this rather than choosing to turn a blind eye as other programs are. I'm expecting this to be resolved fairly quickly and to make relevant changes myself.....
 

AussieDave

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I'm guessing that whoever's in charge over there atm is unaware of this rather than choosing to turn a blind eye as other programs are.

I certainly hope that's how it pans out!
Because it's turning into a snowball effect, with way too many programs, thinking they can do as they like, to us.

It's a shame more Affiliates (like yourself), who have some clout, aren't also standing up against this rot. Right now it hurts the little guys but eventually it's going to start biting the asses of the BIG boys. By that time though, it will be a lost cause.
 

ThePOGG

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They've already posted in a couple of other threads now that they're taking action to remove themselves from this site. I'd say that's fairly clear that they're - rightly - more interested in protecting their reputation than the proceeds from hacking. I know other programs have claimed they've closed this affiliate's account only to end up with their brand mysteriously still in place and sending traffic (I'm talking about you 888), but I'm confident that's not going to be the case here.

And you're right that issues like this need more attention from the affiliates that are really making money. The entire problem with this industry is that everyone's always willing to turn a blind eye until something really bites them personally. I should have been more involved with this right from the start so I wouldn't call myself faultless on this topic but I'm still running a one man op (should change in the next 6 months or so) and between the player complaints and a new project I'm hoping to launch around the time of LAC I'm totally buried. Nevertheless I always find myself shaking my head about how little so many affiliates seem to care when operators start screwing their peers or the players that are sent to them. It reminds me of this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_... - perhaps a little over the top given the diminished context, but there's wisdom there that makes fools of us all to ignore.
 

AussieDave

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Nevertheless I always find myself shaking my head about how little so many affiliates seem to care when operators start screwing their peers or the players that are sent to them. It reminds me of this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_... - perhaps a little over the top given the diminished context, but there's wisdom there that makes fools of us all to ignore.

One, if not THE biggest problem I see this industry faces (been like this since day dot), personalities are put ahead of right and wrong. Double standards are riff. Not going to give examples because I believe it's not constructive or beneficial to moving forward. Though I'm sure anyone reading this, can identify, with what I've laid on the line.

Point is if something is illegal, it's illegal.

Same as if a program has promised (agreed) to pay a % for the life of players or a bespoke agreement, then that's exactly what it does. Reneging on this deal/promise at a later date, is not Kosher. Yet we see this type of treatment taking place these days, at least once a month, if not more. If a program has out-grown their T&C's change them BUT don't enforce these changes on people (affiliates) who have supported you for years, who the program has a previous standing agreement with an affiliate.

I don't think your Wiki reference is over-the-top. It spells it out and gives a clear indication of exactly how an issue can turn out, if it is not addressed.
 

Vladi

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I tend to agree in general but I'm curious as to who or what you guys consider to be "the big guys" or these affiliates that are making loads of money from programs like this and aren't doing anything?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that there are basically no affiliates that run websites or forums that can compete with hackers running an automated bot that can inject millions pages into thousands of websites across all industries. That is the sad truth. What I (and probably you) would consider the larger, well-known, affiliate sites I can count on one hand, though I don't look at loads of other affiliate sites or non-English sites much so maybe there are some I am unaware of. For example I just took a look at the list of nominated casino sites on the typically questionable IGB awards list this year. I honestly have only heard of 4 of them before - CasinoMeister, LCB, AskGamblers, and Gambling.com. The rest are unknown to me and there are other well-known sites that I am surprised not to see there but its totally possible that they are making crazy money though being mostly invisible to me in my day to day adventures in affiliate land. Most of these have been smashed in terms of search rankings over the past 12 months, and the irony is that Google's "clean-up" process has made it easier for the hackers to rank their defaced sites.

I don't think anyone could accuse CasinoMeister of being shy in public and of the other 3, LCB and AG are useful sites, while Gambling.com is a typical thin affiliate waste of web space. When it comes to the crunch and you're dealing with a greedy affiliate program that looks at this on a purely monetary basis, I don't believe that there is a single reputable affiliate or group of affiliates that is valuable enough to make these guys stop. Note I exclude the email spammers, facebook scammers and other evil affiliates that can drive massive volume from this group. The value trade-off for the affiliate program is basically having their casinos blacklisted on a couple of sites that are very well diversified and have 500 other casinos on them vs working with a hacker that puts their casino as one of only 5 to choose from on millions of pages within minutes.

In these days of negative seo attacks and utter scum-baggery from many affiliate programs and competing affiliates (e.g. look at what Revenue Jet has recently done to a number of sites that told the truth about their casinos), many might see discretion as the better part of valour rather than going on the public attack. After all who wants to piss off a group of hackers or dodgy casino owners with no ethics or compunction about doing something illegal? The people running those sites have a lot to lose. I admit that sounds gutless but I can also understand why people might feel that way.

Personally I have contacted 2 programs about this in private (the rest I never dealt with or were already on the blacklist) and their response paraphrased was basically "why should we do you a favour when you have hardly brought us any traffic over the years, our casinos are not rated highly on your sites?" Aff Europe have since shut down their program but are obviously still paying the hackers. So their casinos get blacklisted but it makes little difference to them and they continue to pay the hackers. I think the better option is to attack them where it hurts by complaining through official channels to licensing authorities, particularly the ones that have moved into the UK, but many on the hacked sites are set up in b.f.-nowhere so that isn't even an option.
 

Kadabra

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The value trade-off for the affiliate program is basically having their casinos blacklisted on a couple of sites that are very well diversified and have 500 other casinos on them vs working with a hacker that puts their casino as one of only 5 to choose from on millions of pages within minutes.

Nice post! The problem is that the operators know that the price of working with hackers, spammers, etc will be getting blacklisted on few sites. If the price was loosing massive white traffic - they wouldn't go for it, but they are fully aware that this is not the case.

Regarding the Term changes: was there ever a case of a company being sued by an affiliate for terms breach? I tried to look it up, but couldn't find a single case. It's a bit surprising- I assume there were plenty big companies screwed by known and publicly traded operators, Bwin for example. And yet no one tried to take legal actions. Maybe it's about time.
 
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AussieDave

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Regarding the Term changes: was there ever a case of a company being sued by an affiliate for terms breach? I tried to look it up, but couldn't find a single case. It's a bit surprising- I assume there were plenty big companies screwed by known and publicly traded operators, Bwin for example. And yet no one tried to take legal actions. Maybe it's about time.

With all the noise from some affiliates, over the sheer amount of cash they'd be ripped-off by in the Grand Prive fiasco, I would have expected a class action to have taken place. Yet no legal action from anyone surfaced. I stand by my words then and reiterate them again now... Maybe if legal action was taken back then, we'd not be getting shafted like we are now.

Edit:

I think the only was is with a class action, otherwise it becomes too damn expensive for a single affiliate.
 
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footballaffiliate

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That's ComeOn removed completely form ALL our sites. They never made us much money anyway. Poor brand, poor conversion.
 

Vladi

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Good decision. Now, once again I make this appeal...

Feel free to post their names and address details here. You guys (affiliate managers in general) are only too happy to move companies, taking names and contact details with you, or selling/trading/passing them on to your friends all the time. So don't be shy and don't protect them. These guys are criminals engaged in mass hacking and I would happily pass their details on to the FBI, Interpol or whoever. Or do that yourself. It seems to me its the only way this crap is going to stop.
 

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