Porn MegaBucks says I'm a fraud

SheepGuy · 2007-09-07, 10:32 PM

After sending them roughly 5-6,000 hits without a sale I was ready to dump them when Wahoo! I made a sale! So I check the stats to see what kind of big bucks I made, but the stats didn't tell me. So I sent a slightly sarcastic email asking "How much?" and stating that their stats suck and I would likely be dumping them anyways.
Boom! I make 3 more sales! Now I'm thinking there's something wrong on their end. 4 sales from 6 hits to a free hosted site that I don't even remember putting up is a bit unusual. But it's late at night, and I go to bed.
I wake up in the morning to this email
"Important Information Regarding:
Affiliate ID(s): -----------
Webmaster Program: Pornmegabucks

Your Affiliate account(s) has/have been deactivated due to suspicion of fraud.

Thank you,
CCBill"

Funny thing is the sales were reported as coming through Paycom

but the email is from CCBill.
Regardless, I am dumping Pornmegabucks, and hoping that this doesn't affect my status with CCBill, who I do well with.
Everyone who has ever had any business with me knows I fly straight, so this fraud bit pisses me off.

Lisa · 2007-09-07, 10:46 PM

I had no idea who the fraudulent webmaster was, I only go on statistics, not personalities, but I can tell you this.

From September 5 to September 7, 5 sales were made to Erotic Punishment under what I now assume is your reseller ID.

All of those sales were made from the same IP, all of them were monthly sales, and NONE of the 'members' at any stage entered the members area.

Read into that what you will.

I'm happy to provide you with screen shots to prove it.

SheepGuy · 2007-09-07, 11:10 PM

I already have honey. I read that you are accusing me of fraud. My conscience is clear.
Read into that what you will. If however this affects my business with other sponsors, please post your proof publicly now, or in court.
I will not take being slandered in a public forum lightly though, and if it should affect my income I will sue.

Lisa · 2007-09-07, 11:16 PM

So you are giving me permission to post the screen shots to prove it?

I'm not slandering anyone...as I said until your post I had no idea who the reseller was who I had cancelled. I merely cancelled a reseller who clearly had fraudulent memberships.

If having 5 sales from the one IP, none of which ever entered the members area, isn't fraud, what exactly would you call it?

We're not in the habit of terminating webmasters who send legitimate sales, we're not stupid. However in the interests of protecting our processing, we have no choice but to terminate webmasters who have clearly fraudulent signups.

SheepGuy · 2007-09-07, 11:30 PM

Post away. Just assure me that this will have zero affect on my dealings with other sponsors and we have no problem. I don't want any money from you, and yes, as I said, those sales definitely look unusual at best. I'm thinking it's a problem at paycom's end, so why notify CCBill? If I have problems with them because of your actions, then we have problems.
Why not track back to see who's credit card was used, from where, and take it from there. Talk to paycom before accusing me. Or talk to my lawyer.

Lisa · 2007-09-07, 11:34 PM

I have to get permission from my boss to post the screenshots (he owns the program, not me) but as soon as I get his ok to so, I'll post them.

As for notifying CCBill...I cancelled a webmaster from our program due to apparent fraud. When terminating a webmaster in CCBill they request a reason, I gave them one.

Let me remind you that this was not a personal attack on YOU. As I said I had no idea 'who' the webmaster was, just that there was fraudulent activity on an account.

What other sponsors do with the information is up to them. But let me remind you that it was you who brought it to the board, not me.

SheepGuy · 2007-09-07, 11:46 PM

Aaah, now it's "apparent fraud". Talk to your boss, I'll talk to my lawyer.
I'm finished talking to you.
In the meantime, I suggest you or your boss talk to paycom and track that IP address, maybe even ask them why they would allow 5 signups from the same IP?
I'm sure this is a computer mixup that I have no control over, but if that mixup harms my business through your actions, well, it's your problem too.

Lisa · 2007-09-07, 11:52 PM

I'm sure your lawyer will advise you that given the proof at hand, my actions were completely justified.

I've just written to Paycom asking them to investigate and see if they can shed any light on the situation. I'll be sure to inform you of what they say. The likelihood that it is a 'computer mixup' is extremely remote. I didn't mention that the usernames and passwords all bore a resemblance to each other also. Fraud is being committed by someone...just who that is remains to be seen.

As soon as I hear back from Bill, I'll post the screenshots.

SheepGuy · 2007-09-07, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisa

I've just written to Paycom asking them to investigate and see if they can shed any light on the situation.

Maybe you should have thought of that first.

Lisa · 2007-09-08, 12:03 AM

Maybe I've been doing this long enough to know fraud when I see it.

Whether or not YOU did it is beyond the point. They were fraudulent signups...I refunded them and terminated the reseller responsible.

As I've already said, but I'll repeat it just so you get it. This isn't about YOU, it's about fraudulent signups done by someone. I had no idea WHO that was, nor did I care.

Given your insistence that you are not responsible, i'm happy to have Paycom investigate, but it's unlikely they'll be able to shed any information on the matter, but we shall see.

murray · 2007-09-08, 06:48 AM

Good luck with Pornmegabucks I won a competition years ago for $1000 and never got it, after many many emails I just got ignored

Lisa · 2007-09-08, 07:00 AM

Murray, you elected to have that paid via an Amazon gift certificate, instead of a check.

The GC was purchased, and you were sent the receipt but for whatever reason you claimed you didn't receive it.

I still have the receipt if you'd like me to send it to you again.

Every other winner received their funds.

And incidentally, that issue has absolutely NOTHING to do with a webmaster defrauding US. Try and keep on topic eh?

Lisa · 2007-09-08, 07:06 AM

And BTW, the return address on all the emails you sent me didn't have a .com at the end of it, and you wanted me to send emails to you to a completely different email address/domain. After asking nicely that you fix it, and then warning that if you didn't fix it, I would stop replying to your emails, that is probably what happened.

How does a person who relies on the web for their income repeatedly have an invalid reply-to in their email client?

spacemanspiff · 2007-09-08, 10:08 AM

Hey Lisa, you didn't used to work for Southwest Airlines, did ya?

ladydesigner · 2007-09-08, 01:29 PM

I probably should stay out of this since it has nothing to do with me but I'm sorry to see this happen to you Sheepguy. Another sponsor (whom I won't mention) did the same thing to me about a year ago. I'm still trying to find all the links out there to their sites so I can remove them. Not fun!

Porn Mega Bucks?? Is that program still around? I stopped promoting them for various reasons years ago. Good luck.

tigermom · 2007-09-08, 01:58 PM

I would expect a sponsor to keep the lines of communication to a webmaster open and investigate first, before accusing of fraud and shutting down an account, especially since it's a CCBill program and who knows on which records of theirs the info is kept for future reference.

I think Sheepguy made it clear that he too is pretty certain that there was something fishy going on there with those sales. That was not the issue. The issue was with accusing the webmaster of that fraud, rather than investigating first. If it happened to Sheepguy, it could happen to anyone (and obviously it does happen from time to time). I would expect any sponsor that I work with to talk to the webmaster first and investigate and not just terminate an account and flag that webmaster as the one responsible for the fraud.

SheepGuy · 2007-09-08, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tigermom

I would expect a sponsor to keep the lines of communication to a webmaster open and investigate first, before accusing of fraud and shutting down an account, especially since it's a CCBill program and who knows on which records of theirs the info is kept for future reference.

I think Sheepguy made it clear that he too is pretty certain that there was something fishy going on there with those sales. That was not the issue. The issue was with accusing the webmaster of that fraud, rather than investigating first. If it happened to Sheepguy, it could happen to anyone (and obviously it does happen from time to time). I would expect any sponsor that I work with to talk to the webmaster first and investigate and not just terminate an account and flag that webmaster as the one responsible for the fraud.

My point exactly.

SheepGuy · 2007-09-08, 02:07 PM

Thanks LadyD, I was ready to drop them for poor conversions when these "sales" started showing up.

Useless · 2007-09-08, 02:27 PM

I think SheepGuy was using plateman's magic sign-up bot which comes equipped with its own credit cards, yet isn't advanced enough to change IPs.

Sounds like yet another case of a scripting error on the biller's end that ends up screwing both the webmaster and the program. It very well could be some douchebag attempting to sign-up, getting declined, attempting again, getting declined...lather, rinse, repeat...but the declines are getting tallied as sales. That explains why it's the same IP and why no one ever logged in to the member's area.

Tommy · 2007-09-08, 03:05 PM

Lisa, your boss Bill and I go way back

I would have a hard time believing any fraud was committed by Sheepguy no matter what screen caps or proof you have

if I were you I would take a step back and maybe take a fresh look at everything

your dealing with a well respected webmaster who has a very good reputation, a little caution is warranted

HowlingWulf · 2007-09-08, 04:30 PM

Unfortunately it seems webmasters can be held accountable when surfers sign up for programs fraudulently. Happened to me, happened to you, welcome to the club.

tickler · 2007-09-08, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

..... attempting to sign-up, getting declined, attempting again, getting declined...lather, rinse, repeat...but the declines are getting tallied as sales.

Had that problem in a somewhat different case.

First try the CC got declined for an error. Tried again being even more careful, and got declined again.

Pulled up the CC account to verify the info, and the multiple charges are showing on my statement.

So not all scripts are perfect. Especially in the online world where a lot of programmers do not have the formal training or experience.

Lisa · 2007-09-08, 04:55 PM

These sales were not declines, they were active sales, on 5 different cc's.

As mentioned before, i've been doing this a long time and I've never seen a sales pattern like this that was NOT fraud.

I've mailed Paycom, they are investigating. If they can prove that it is NOT fraud on the part of the webmaster, I'm more than happy to retract that statement and notify CCBill of same. My job is to protect our processing...when that is put in jeopardy by a webmaster i don't know from Adam my responsibility is to the program.

Incidentally, no email was ever received regarding stats prior to these sales going thru...possibly it was caught up and not verified at SpamArrest, but no email was ever received.

Links to the screen shots are below.

http://pornmegabucks.com/pmb16985.jpg

http://pornmegabucks.com/pmb16985members.jpg

Bobc01 · 2007-09-08, 05:30 PM

Whatever happened to innocent til proven guilty?

Just remember one thing Lisa, we don't need you, but you need us so bare that in mind when you deal with webmasters.

petergg2 · 2007-09-08, 05:31 PM

You should disable that login/password from screenshot - or its promotion for GGJ board members ?

2007-09-07, 10:32 PM	#1
SheepGuy It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2,527	Porn MegaBucks says I'm a fraud After sending them roughly 5-6,000 hits without a sale I was ready to dump them when Wahoo! I made a sale! So I check the stats to see what kind of big bucks I made, but the stats didn't tell me. So I sent a slightly sarcastic email asking "How much?" and stating that their stats suck and I would likely be dumping them anyways. Boom! I make 3 more sales! Now I'm thinking there's something wrong on their end. 4 sales from 6 hits to a free hosted site that I don't even remember putting up is a bit unusual. But it's late at night, and I go to bed. I wake up in the morning to this email "Important Information Regarding: Affiliate ID(s): ----------- Webmaster Program: Pornmegabucks Your Affiliate account(s) has/have been deactivated due to suspicion of fraud. Thank you, CCBill" Funny thing is the sales were reported as coming through Paycom but the email is from CCBill. Regardless, I am dumping Pornmegabucks, and hoping that this doesn't affect my status with CCBill, who I do well with. Everyone who has ever had any business with me knows I fly straight, so this fraud bit pisses me off. __________________ If the Environment was a bank, they would have saved it by now.

2007-09-07, 11:10 PM	#3
SheepGuy It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2,527	I already have honey. I read that you are accusing me of fraud. My conscience is clear. Read into that what you will. If however this affects my business with other sponsors, please post your proof publicly now, or in court. I will not take being slandered in a public forum lightly though, and if it should affect my income I will sue. __________________ If the Environment was a bank, they would have saved it by now.

2007-09-07, 11:30 PM	#5
SheepGuy It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2,527	Post away. Just assure me that this will have zero affect on my dealings with other sponsors and we have no problem. I don't want any money from you, and yes, as I said, those sales definitely look unusual at best. I'm thinking it's a problem at paycom's end, so why notify CCBill? If I have problems with them because of your actions, then we have problems. Why not track back to see who's credit card was used, from where, and take it from there. Talk to paycom before accusing me. Or talk to my lawyer. __________________ If the Environment was a bank, they would have saved it by now.

2007-09-07, 11:46 PM	#7
SheepGuy It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2,527	Aaah, now it's "apparent fraud". Talk to your boss, I'll talk to my lawyer. I'm finished talking to you. In the meantime, I suggest you or your boss talk to paycom and track that IP address, maybe even ask them why they would allow 5 signups from the same IP? I'm sure this is a computer mixup that I have no control over, but if that mixup harms my business through your actions, well, it's your problem too. __________________ If the Environment was a bank, they would have saved it by now.

2007-09-08, 10:08 AM	#14
spacemanspiff Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Looz-e-anna Posts: 1,015	Hey Lisa, you didn't used to work for Southwest Airlines, did ya? __________________ Submit your free sites to Free Sex Pics

2007-09-07, 10:46 PM	#2
Lisa I'm going to the backseat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 83	I had no idea who the fraudulent webmaster was, I only go on statistics, not personalities, but I can tell you this. From September 5 to September 7, 5 sales were made to Erotic Punishment under what I now assume is your reseller ID. All of those sales were made from the same IP, all of them were monthly sales, and NONE of the 'members' at any stage entered the members area. Read into that what you will. I'm happy to provide you with screen shots to prove it.

2007-09-07, 11:16 PM	#4
Lisa I'm going to the backseat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 83	So you are giving me permission to post the screen shots to prove it? I'm not slandering anyone...as I said until your post I had no idea who the reseller was who I had cancelled. I merely cancelled a reseller who clearly had fraudulent memberships. If having 5 sales from the one IP, none of which ever entered the members area, isn't fraud, what exactly would you call it? We're not in the habit of terminating webmasters who send legitimate sales, we're not stupid. However in the interests of protecting our processing, we have no choice but to terminate webmasters who have clearly fraudulent signups.

2007-09-07, 11:34 PM	#6
Lisa I'm going to the backseat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 83	I have to get permission from my boss to post the screenshots (he owns the program, not me) but as soon as I get his ok to so, I'll post them. As for notifying CCBill...I cancelled a webmaster from our program due to apparent fraud. When terminating a webmaster in CCBill they request a reason, I gave them one. Let me remind you that this was not a personal attack on YOU. As I said I had no idea 'who' the webmaster was, just that there was fraudulent activity on an account. What other sponsors do with the information is up to them. But let me remind you that it was you who brought it to the board, not me.

2007-09-07, 11:52 PM	#8
Lisa I'm going to the backseat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 83	I'm sure your lawyer will advise you that given the proof at hand, my actions were completely justified. I've just written to Paycom asking them to investigate and see if they can shed any light on the situation. I'll be sure to inform you of what they say. The likelihood that it is a 'computer mixup' is extremely remote. I didn't mention that the usernames and passwords all bore a resemblance to each other also. Fraud is being committed by someone...just who that is remains to be seen. As soon as I hear back from Bill, I'll post the screenshots.

2007-09-08, 12:03 AM	#10
Lisa I'm going to the backseat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 83	Maybe I've been doing this long enough to know fraud when I see it. Whether or not YOU did it is beyond the point. They were fraudulent signups...I refunded them and terminated the reseller responsible. As I've already said, but I'll repeat it just so you get it. This isn't about YOU, it's about fraudulent signups done by someone. I had no idea WHO that was, nor did I care. Given your insistence that you are not responsible, i'm happy to have Paycom investigate, but it's unlikely they'll be able to shed any information on the matter, but we shall see.

2007-09-08, 06:48 AM	#11
murray My wife is not a doobie to be passed around! On our wedding day I promised to bogart her for life! Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 242	Good luck with Pornmegabucks I won a competition years ago for $1000 and never got it, after many many emails I just got ignored

2007-09-08, 07:00 AM	#12
Lisa I'm going to the backseat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 83	Murray, you elected to have that paid via an Amazon gift certificate, instead of a check. The GC was purchased, and you were sent the receipt but for whatever reason you claimed you didn't receive it. I still have the receipt if you'd like me to send it to you again. Every other winner received their funds. And incidentally, that issue has absolutely NOTHING to do with a webmaster defrauding US. Try and keep on topic eh?

2007-09-08, 07:06 AM	#13
Lisa I'm going to the backseat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 83	And BTW, the return address on all the emails you sent me didn't have a .com at the end of it, and you wanted me to send emails to you to a completely different email address/domain. After asking nicely that you fix it, and then warning that if you didn't fix it, I would stop replying to your emails, that is probably what happened. How does a person who relies on the web for their income repeatedly have an invalid reply-to in their email client?

2007-09-08, 01:29 PM	#15
ladydesigner ~Serving Up Sinful Sex ~ Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Missouri City, Texas Posts: 1,928	I probably should stay out of this since it has nothing to do with me but I'm sorry to see this happen to you Sheepguy. Another sponsor (whom I won't mention) did the same thing to me about a year ago. I'm still trying to find all the links out there to their sites so I can remove them. Not fun! Porn Mega Bucks?? Is that program still around? I stopped promoting them for various reasons years ago. Good luck. __________________ Porn Pixie XxX ~ Looking for Link Trades

2007-09-08, 01:58 PM	#16
tigermom You can now put whatever you want in this space :) Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 893	I would expect a sponsor to keep the lines of communication to a webmaster open and investigate first, before accusing of fraud and shutting down an account, especially since it's a CCBill program and who knows on which records of theirs the info is kept for future reference. I think Sheepguy made it clear that he too is pretty certain that there was something fishy going on there with those sales. That was not the issue. The issue was with accusing the webmaster of that fraud, rather than investigating first. If it happened to Sheepguy, it could happen to anyone (and obviously it does happen from time to time). I would expect any sponsor that I work with to talk to the webmaster first and investigate and not just terminate an account and flag that webmaster as the one responsible for the fraud. __________________ XLEF

2007-09-08, 02:07 PM	#18
SheepGuy It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2,527	Thanks LadyD, I was ready to drop them for poor conversions when these "sales" started showing up. __________________ If the Environment was a bank, they would have saved it by now.

2007-09-08, 02:27 PM	#19
Useless Certified Nice Person Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Dirty Undies, NY Posts: 11,268	I think SheepGuy was using plateman's magic sign-up bot which comes equipped with its own credit cards, yet isn't advanced enough to change IPs. Sounds like yet another case of a scripting error on the biller's end that ends up screwing both the webmaster and the program. It very well could be some douchebag attempting to sign-up, getting declined, attempting again, getting declined...lather, rinse, repeat...but the declines are getting tallied as sales. That explains why it's the same IP and why no one ever logged in to the member's area. __________________ Click here to purchase a bridge I'm selling.

2007-09-08, 03:05 PM	#20
Tommy NYC Boy That Moved To The Island Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 2,940	Lisa, your boss Bill and I go way back I would have a hard time believing any fraud was committed by Sheepguy no matter what screen caps or proof you have if I were you I would take a step back and maybe take a fresh look at everything your dealing with a well respected webmaster who has a very good reputation, a little caution is warranted __________________ Accepting New partners

2007-09-08, 04:30 PM	#21
HowlingWulf Me fail English? That's unpossible! Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: FL Posts: 1,381	Unfortunately it seems webmasters can be held accountable when surfers sign up for programs fraudulently. Happened to me, happened to you, welcome to the club. __________________ WordPress Porn directory theme => Maddos Create a Porn Tube => Video Pornster

2007-09-08, 04:55 PM	#23
Lisa I'm going to the backseat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 83	These sales were not declines, they were active sales, on 5 different cc's. As mentioned before, i've been doing this a long time and I've never seen a sales pattern like this that was NOT fraud. I've mailed Paycom, they are investigating. If they can prove that it is NOT fraud on the part of the webmaster, I'm more than happy to retract that statement and notify CCBill of same. My job is to protect our processing...when that is put in jeopardy by a webmaster i don't know from Adam my responsibility is to the program. Incidentally, no email was ever received regarding stats prior to these sales going thru...possibly it was caught up and not verified at SpamArrest, but no email was ever received. Links to the screen shots are below. http://pornmegabucks.com/pmb16985.jpg http://pornmegabucks.com/pmb16985members.jpg

2007-09-08, 05:30 PM	#24
Bobc01 Banned Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Hell Posts: 817	Whatever happened to innocent til proven guilty? Just remember one thing Lisa, we don't need you, but you need us so bare that in mind when you deal with webmasters.

2007-09-08, 05:31 PM	#25
petergg2 Are you sure you're an accredited and honored pornographer? Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 63	You should disable that login/password from screenshot - or its promotion for GGJ board members ?