Severe Warning - Payment Email Details shared with BluffRoom Affiliates

[GFPC]

I have posted this on Pal - just a few minutes ago since someone was asking about the affiliate program. I do not think they are a bad outfit - i do not know them - but what i do know is my security has been breached and my payment details (the email address i use for payments from affiliate programs has been shared with them for use to market me). This alone is unethical and i have a grave concern for the safety of all affiliates being approached by them.

Please act accordingly and secure yourself. Heres the post i made at PAL
...............................................
I was about to wait till i finished my own internal investigation. But i have a strong suspicion my email address has been either sold to them and gotten unethically via another affiliate program sharing it with them.

I will be posting this for other affiliates on AGD since my security seems to have been breached and my details shared.

I got this email today on 2 email accounts. One email account is a business one i share amongst affiliates, affiliate programs and business clients. The other email is strictly only used for payment details ONLY. I have never given it out to anyone other than using it for a Payment email address to certain Affiliate Programs.

That being said - I can with utmost certainly say some Affiliate program I have dealt with in the past has shared my details with this affiliate program.

That i consider really unethical and disturbing and I seek an official reply from this group and want to know who has given them my payment details email address.

I am in the process of changing it now for security - but i would suggest anyone who dares work with them be careful...

Here's the email

Dear Affiliate,

I received your details from leading affiliate marketers and would like to make you a very interesting offer to cooperate with BluffRoom.com.

Our room is relatively new, but is becoming very successful already amongst all players because of our great customer service though fast emails reply and Live Chat system, our top notch design, functionality and most of all unique promotions on the market.

Bluff Room is on the Merge Gaming Network where we offer over $80,000 daily in Guaranteed tournaments with excellent value and we have a back up payment system for the players where we can guarantee fast cash-outs and that is another reason why players like us.

We have integrated a custom built affiliate software that has the most complete statistics and custom built plans. We offer multi-language/multi-size banners with the most attractive graphics available, which give us a great brand value. We pay affiliates no later than the 5th day of the month.

We are already performing amazingly well for our affiliates due to our special bonuses, rake races, sponsorship and so on..

We are looking only for long term relationships with solid affiliates that we can look after personally and satisfy all their players needs.

Our strategy starts with an excellent conversion rate, and we typically can offer some small no deposit bonuses to SitnGo Step system which enable the players to test the site. This jointly with a special First Deposit Bonus typically on 2 levels, to cater for both small depositors and larger ones, ensures us the best conversion rates on the market. The player is then looked after and explained every promotion and that is why we manage to retain them on Bluff Room for the long term.

If you are interested in a long term cooperation with Bluff Room on similar terms or if you want to discuss other possibilities to work together, please feel free to add me on your Skype account to discuss personally or email me back.

All my details below.


Now I will not post the AMs name cause I do not think its his fault but here was his reply..

Hello,



No, we absolutely did not buy any list, it is unethical to do that.



You have been recommended to us by an affiliate that is cooperating with us, and we checked out your website and we thought that it was a potential for our affiliate program. We are very careful to choose who we can work with.





I am sorry this came out of the blue for you, this was not our intention.


I made a point to inform him the only reason i give this email address out was only for payment details to affiliate programs.

He then replied,

I agree,



And you are completely right about this. We were unaware of this so, we will question the integrity of the source.



Our most sincere apologies

So please everyone be so very careful from this group. As the emails they are sending out is from another shady source who is possibly selling or unethically distributing not only our business contact details but also our PAYMENT EMAILS associated with Money Bookers and other various payment methods.

I am still waiting for the source!!!

Steve

 

[GFPC]

Update from the AM who requested i post his remarks.

Update from the Affiliate Manager at Bluff. I hope he comes here soon. He did ask me to post his replies to me - so i will post his remarks with his name at his request.

His first email to me was this

Hi Steve



Although I trust what you are saying about your payment details, our source is an affiliate of ours and we have no reason to either disclose his details, nor to judge him or punish him for trying to market our program.



We are an ethical company and we have always acted in an ethical manner, we are not aware of any purchase of details and as I already said to you we have certainly not paid for your details.



We have acted to market our products with information that is available on the market clearly.



If you feel that someone has done you some wrong in passing on your details, please take it on with them, do your investigations, and take appropriate measures, and especially protect your personal details from going in the hands of untrustworthy people if you feel that is what happened. We are not to blame for your choices of giving your details, and we have no control of that. We are simply doing our job and we would never dare to share any details or infringe in any way anyone’s data protection.



Although that is the case, you have now posted a bad review about our organization, which I can assure you is very safe in terms of keeping records especially, and now we have to pay for who you have decided to trust, and you are daring people to deal with us.



I think your behaviour is not correct, I would agree with you to post something against the people that you feel have compromised your security, but its surely not moral to take it on us for your decisions of who to give your details too. Look at the solution and by pointing the fingers at us is certainly not going to solve your problem.



I apologised already and I repeat I am sorry your privacy was compromised, but it was not us to compromise it nor to act unethically, and as soon as I will be able to post a comment in our defence I will as I recon it is also not correct for us not to be able to post a reply.



So if you are as ethical as you act, please post our reply to the posts.



Kind Regards,



Sebastian Harris

Affiliate Manager


Then in his second reply to me he posted how he got his List of affiliates.. Low and behold it seems a PREVIOUS AFFILIATE MANAGER has given out our details for financial gain..

I also got others on facebook who got this email from them and no one has given their permission to have their infos shared.

Steve,



This is the message that I received together with your email, then please think what we should have done



Dear Sebastian,



I joined your affiliate program a few days ago. I have been working in the poker industry for over 6 years and know a lot of people in all areas of this market. I had my own affiliate program and throughout the years have developed great contacts that I think may be valuable for bluffroom. I think you run a great product and if we were to offer it to my contacts we would achieve good results for your room.



Can you write an email to this affiliates explaining as best you can, what you can offer them and why to join bluffroom if you join any of them you can put me as masteraffiliate or subaffiliate for them. I think you better contact them as you know better what to offer. I rather you not mention my name as it never nice to know that someone is your subaffiliate and introduced you to the opportunity, so you can say something like:



Dear Affiliate, I received your details from leading affiliate marketers...











Please tell me if we should have doubted the integrity of this and not marketed to the contacts received. Thank you Steve.



Anyone comments anyone?

Steve

 

[lots0]

He said you should take it up with the affiliate that gave them your info... But he won't release the name or email of that affiliate to you...

I think that says it all.

 

[GFPC]

He said you should take it up with the affiliate that gave them your info... But he won't release the name or email of that affiliate to you...

I think that says it all.

True. I know what your saying.

I don't think he sees anything wrong with using the list he was given.

I find this odd. But what can you do

 

[dominique]

This happens all the time.....

 

[GFPC]

This happens all the time.....

Yup its disgraceful isn't it.

 

[casinobonusguy]

Steve since you use it for payments only , it leaves only the processors or programs who have your info.It is possible this program is linked to another program and they share db ,or a manager who is also an affiliate.makes me want to go sign up for a gmail acct for each program to try to catch the ones passing on our info .

 

[GFPC]

Steve since you use it for payments only , it leaves only the processors or programs who have your info.It is possible this program is linked to another program and they share db ,or a manager who is also an affiliate.makes me want to go sign up for a gmail acct for each program to try to catch the ones passing on our info .

Hey Judy,

He said in his email - of which he actually sent to me - (above) that it was an affiliate...

When reading the email from the so called affiliate - he claims to have ran his own affiliate program and was in this industry for 6 years. He also asks to be listed as a master affiliate and not to mention his name to prospective affiliates.

That in itself tells you what kind of person this shit head is. Unethical and a peace of trash giving our details away to get financial gain.

I am so surprised BluffRoom would follow such a practice to trust this affiliate who clearly used to be an Affiliate Manager (Co ordinator or whatever)

I have my suspicions on who it is!! And i will do my best to find out and prove it long it takes...

Someone who recently lost their job - that,s all i can say at this point.

Already another on Pal has got the same email - others i am sure and i have notes from others - so i am comparing notes..

Steve

 

[dominique]

I don't mind so much being contacted and asked to join a program, I do look at them and research them and base my decision on that.

But I do mind being in someone's downline without being aware of it...

 

[WCD Admin]

Yeah I agree. What BS. Open the door for affiliates to turn over other affiliate emails in hopes to get downstream revenue.

That is repulsive. "Careful not to tell them who I am ! Lest I be tared and feathered for our disgusting actions together." + "if you tell them who I am they wont like me anymore. So just give them the wonderful details of your totally awesome program (and make sure to use my affiliate ID!!) but dont tell them its me! - I don't want them to know what a good guy I am for turning them on to your totally great program."

Pathetic! thanks for bringing this to our attention!

 

[GFPC]

Yeah true Dom. I do not mind getting contacted as well from various affiliate programs and its business anyways...

Its just when they open up with the line - I was given your contact details - well that's another story.

If that was the case then I would like to know who gave them my info's especially personal ones like i have indicated.

But BluffRoom has decided not to honor my request and will not give me his name and choose to trust him and how he operates as an affiliate.

That is now their problem if they want to work with garbage!!

Perhaps the source will come to light soon. If not well at least i warned people about the ethical standards this company follows.

Steve

 

[Chips]

I received the same email from sebastian@bluffroomaffiliates.com on the 8th June. I was rather torqued off as the verbiage was

Dear Affiliate,

I received your details from leading affiliate marketers and would like to make you a very interesting offer to cooperate with BluffRoom.com.

My immediate thought was they bought a list from someone. I still think it was the case. The email was address to "undisclosed recipients" so it was a paste every name in the BCC and let er rip mail. I sent it to trash but not before adding the domain to my blocked senders list. So... bluffroom can sit and fester with all the other spam emails... you know, "root user", "medrx" and all the other crap that clogs the server up.

In the case that Sebastian stops in and reads this thread:

Sir,

There are much better ways to attract affiliates. Spamming with a database of unknown affiliates will not yield the desired result. It actually dose the exact opposite.

Take the time to visit a site, get a feel for it, then use the contact page and present your case. And please, don't cut and paste your message.

Thank you!

P.S. I would also like to know who sold you oops, gave you the list so that I can take the matter up with them directly.

 

[GFPC]

I agree Chips fully. He refuses to give the source. I asked him a few times.


He doesn't think there is anything wrong with what has transpired.

We will find out don't worry.

Steve

 

[Aussie-Dave]

He doesn't think there is anything wrong with what has transpired.

I'm old school and I'll admit I get narky over stuff; maybe more than I should. However this type of stuff is total BS.

Affiliates, players and anyone else shouldn't have to concern themselves with their data or emails being fleeced and sold.

I'd be interested to see where this leads. Can you keep this updated please Steve?


Cheers

Dave

 

[GFPC]

Hey Dave - Yes mate i will the best i can.

I talked to a few others who got the same emails. Seems many did.

I am comparing notes and affiliate accounts to come up with a plausible source.

However it may be difficult to be sure.. but i will try.

Steve

I will not let this go lightly...

 

[Chips]

Hey Dave - Yes mate i will the best i can.

I talked to a few others who got the same emails. Seems many did.

I am comparing notes and affiliate accounts to come up with a plausible source.

However it may be difficult to be sure.. but i will try.

Steve

I will not let this go lightly...

Perhaps another Merge poker room we all promote?

 

[GFPC]

Perhaps another Merge poker room we all promote?

I am almost certain - yes this is the case... i have a good idea.