Adrian Sorello - Rogue Affiliate

[Trendyboy]

Hi All,

I think it would only be fair to inform everyone of this rogue affiliate.

Adrian Sorello claims to be doing advertising for xhttp://www.atbforum.com, xhttp://www.sportivamedia.com, and xhttp://www.unionmanspick.com. He usually requests an upfront payment for certain number of months to be on his so called sites, he also states that he runs email campaigns and that his database list will get you the depositing players which he promises you.

I would like to warn anyone to not do business with this rogue affiliate, as he over promises and does not deliver at all. You will not see one returned dime that you may have invested into his so called sites and email campaigns.

Please be aware should he get in contact with you.

Apparently the owners for xhttp://www.atbforum.com are Louie Sorello, I have contacted him with regards to Adrian and he does not deny the fact that he knows Adrian, but he also does not care what Adrian might have offered you and just states that nothing was arranged with their site and that it is not their problem.

Just know that you have been warned.

Best Regards,

Desmund
Affiliate Relations

 

[tryme1]

Hi Desmund,

I'd be interested to know (apropos of not much) which program you represent.

I hate to be 'that guy', but really, all affiliate programs do need to do proper due diligence on what they are going to get from pre-paid marketing buys.

I guess in this situation, you thought you were going to get on to an established picks forum and were misled.

 

[Trendyboy]

Hi,

Thanks for your comment.

All due diligince was done actually, I mean even the site xhttp://www.sportivemedia.com states that Adrian is the owner of the site, which I later then found out he is not the owner of the site, he does not even work for them.

Obviously they have been doing this for quite sometime and have gotten so good with the deceit factor. I am actually glad this happened and makes one more and more cautious, call it a eye opener.

My point of the post was to make everyone in this industry aware that this is not a legit affiliate, which they will be dealing with. You know I hate to be the guy to expose Adrian Sorello like this, but I cant stand people who stands for something which they are not even capable of delivering and to drag other people into it which does not even have anything to do with it.

Oh well you win some and you loose some.

 

[apollo]

Hi All

I've been a moderator and site helper on ATB for 5+ years and when I read that " All due diligince was done" that statement is incorrect. The mentioned party doesn't own Sportivamedia and being that Desmund claims to have paid Adrian you'd think that after 2 day's of not seeing his banners posted on the mentioned site he would inquiry as to why it's not there if he paid to be listed.

The problem here is Desmond did a deal with someone who never owned the site,never followed up on it and once he got minimal return he began shifting the burden of blame onto the site owner who he never paid nor had he ever spoken with.

What ground work did you do before paying for a listing?

Did you research the sites- Rankings etc to see what you were paying for?

Did you see who actually owned the sites listed?

Did you ask as soon as you seen your ads not posted why this was the case or did you wait till his deal went sour before you asked.

Seems to me if you followed up on any of the above you would have noticed only one site on that group that actually had traffic and with that said you should have been all over the contact button to ask why aren't I listed there!

Due diligince goes a lot further then having been excite at the prospect of getting hundreds of sign ups based on what Adrian proposed to you,Desmond you jumped at his proposal and got the to good to be true handed to you on a silver platter.

I'm sorry for your group but with that said Lou & ATB have honored all there agreements with clients they have signed since I've been around and your group wasn't one I can remember seeing or one I was asked to watch over because simply you were never there.ATB has been around since 2000 and will continue to grow with over 38,000+ members (now that's were the traffic is)

Good luck with your group and a good rule of thumb for everyone ,if you pay up front follow up and ask questions,when you don't see your product listed after 48 hours of sending payment that should be a RED FLAG.

Ron

 

[Aussie-Dave]

The problem here is Desmond did a deal with someone who never owned the site

True, but the site owner Louie Sorello (which btw is Luigi Sorella if I'm correct) of xhttp://www.atbforum.com admitted to Desmond he knows Adrian.

However was not perturbed to learn Adrian had made false representation and had sold marketing on that basis.

I find that very bizarre.

Apparently the owners for xhttp://www.atbforum.com are Louie Sorello, I have contacted him with regards to Adrian and he does not deny the fact that he knows Adrian, but he also does not care what Adrian might have offered

.

Edit: I whole heartily agree aff programs; casinos; and even affiliates buying links, need to perform due diligence to lessen their chance of being scammed.

The BIG issue as I see it, an affiliate program's been scammed. That certainly out weights the stupid mistake of not properly dotting all their i's and crossing all T's.

Reiterating the site owner admits to knowing Adrian but is not concerned with the guy selling advertising; site marketing on their site

I know I'd be well and truly upset to find out this information.

Ron your NOT concerned with this ??? And for the record, why are you here and not the owner of atbforum.com?

Instead you seem more intent to discredit Desmond for not taking due diligence

The dots on this certainly don't join up...More info is needed here. I'd say the owner of xhttp://www.atbforum.com should front and tell us their side of things.


Cheers

Dave

 

[tryme1]

Yeah, I'm with AussieDave. There's definitely more to this than meets the eye. Archive.org reveals that the contact email address for SportivaMedia back in 2008 was one adrian@sportivamedia.com . Coincidence? Hmm...well, more cynical minds than my own would suggest not.

A quick web search reveals that Adrian Sorella has this Facebook group : xhttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=ts&gid=2293964619

Among his friends and fans are Lou Sorella and Anthony Sorella - all three of which live in Toronto. Of course, this could just be coincidence, but again, someone with a suspicious mind might suggest they are brothers or, at least, cousins.

I, of course, would never dream of suggesting that there is any kind of scam going on here but maybe, just maybe, some people might.

What do you think, Apollo?

 

[Aussie-Dave]

ATB has been around since 2000

Really, the whois info states:

Creation date: 15 Jun 2002 08:34:26
Expiration date: 15 Jun 2012 08:34:00

 

[Daera]

Recently I was talking to an affiliate manager who's been around for a long time about situations just like this. What to do to keep from getting scammed when a casino/marketing company is thinking about a prepay deal.

He said that as a rule of thumb. Before he'll send anyone money to do a first time business deal with he requests references from them. I can't remember how many references, but I think he said 5. He wouldn't send any money unless the references checked out as well.

I thought that was a good idea.

Personally, I also think that it would help to make sure that communication by email should be to an email address of the same domain that advertising is being bought on.

Webmasters that do this to marketing companies really disgust me. I hate scammers, who rip people off with these prepay deals. We've all seen a few of them in the past that we find out had successfully ripped off program after program. Some of these scammers are really good at what they do. I was suprised to see how many reputable programs fall for some of them, one after the other. Mostly because no one got the word out and none knew how many other programs had already been scammed.

I"m glad to see this thread.

 

[Aussie-Dave]

I also think that it would help to make sure that communication by email should be to an email address of the same domain that advertising is being bought on.

I often get comms from free email accounts requesting everything from seo quotes to advertising. I respond asking they send via their domain email. This always reduces follow ups and only legitimate requests are received.

Seriously, doing business deals with someone you don't know, who is using a free email account, is not a wise decision IMHO.

Granted they can spoof the email addy, however, it's easy to check.


Cheers

Dave

 

[apollo]

Educated guess but if you sent a wire have it reversed from his bank account cause nobody in this day and age still sends out checks the wire protects them and can be reversed for failure to deliver on request