A perfect example of the kind of systemic fraud our industry has been suffering from was brought to my attention today. A person that deals in bogus bank accounts was trying to sell his wares on AffSpot. And no, his posts didn’t see the light of day… until now.
If you’ve been around at all you’ve seen the seedy posts on Facebook and Twitter about “1000 gmail accounts $50.00″ and the like. Which is part of it. But the worst part of it is people selling bank accounts. Lots of bank accounts. Accounts you could use to (in combination with a fake gmail account) create accounts with any number of networks and merchants.
But I’ll let a couple pieces of the spammers post tell the tale for you. Here’s the Title of the thread he tried to post…
selling good ccv bank logins dumps fullz and many more
What? Bank Logins? What’s up with that? I’m certain it isn’t legal (and yes, I submitted the data to the proper authorities) and if legal it’s not legitimate business to deal in this way. Here’s just a portion of what they claim they can provide to you:
Fulls come with this info
Firstname:**
Lastname:*
Address:*
City:*
State:*
Zipcode:*
Phone:*
SSN:*
Mother’sMaidenName:
DOB:*
CardBank:**
CardType:*
Cardname:*
Cardnumber:*
Expiry Date:-*
CVV2:**
Oh yes, this looks like stolen credit card data, or fake accounts built by the dozens. And just which banks are these people claiming to have accounts from? Why yes, they even tried to post that:
BOA LOGIN + FULLZ
CITY LOGIN + FULLZ
HSBC LOGIN + FULLZ
WELLS FARGO LOGIN + FULLZ
LLOYDS LOGIN + FULLZ
WACHOVIA LOGIN + FULLZ
ABBEY LOGIN + FULLZ
RBC LOGIN + FULLZ
Chase LOGIN + FULLZ
First Trust Bank LOGIN + FULLZ
They even supplied a Yahoo email address and an ICQ number to chat with them (of which was also given to the proper authorities).
The point is this… fraud is rampant and it’s up to ALL of us to put a stop to it. It’s hurting our business. It hurts Performance Marketing Affiliates, it hurts the networks, and it hurts the Affiliate Managers and the Merchants. The only way this is going to stop is if we quit ignoring the problem and put an end to it.
Affiliates… If a network doesn’t require your real email addy (on a business domain you own) along with a landline or cell number and a full IRS EIN (and they check it all out) I’d be suspicious that (as Niecy Nash says) “Mayhem and Foolishness” is going on.
Merchants… Trust me, affiliates LOVE when you just accept them into your programs. But realistically, if a fraudster gets approved they can do you alot of damage. Make your Affiliate Managers check people out. No valid EIN, real phone number, etc. Don’t take them. Don’t just reject everyone either. Do the work. You’ll have a more successful program with real affiliates.
Networks… Your caught in the middle… Sorry, that’s life. You can stop the “Mayhem and Foolishness” right now if you want to. With a few thousand networks I know it’s tough to take the high road. But do it. Make merchants be real and honest. Make affiliates be real and honest. Do it with a minimum of hassle but do your affiliates and merchants a favor and do the work.
If we all pull together we can stop this. Noone is going to do it for us. We may even endanger our industry if we don’t do it.. So let’s all do the work. Affiliates, check things out before you promote. Merchants, make sure you have real affiliates. Managers, educate the merchants and your affiliates. Networks, set reasonable standards and uphold those standards.
We all want it.. Now it’s up to us to do it.
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