Account Deactivated for Sending a Hacker

[Halfdeck]

GG & Jim, I apologize in advance for ranting about a sponsor; I have talked to the folks at Moonangel privately via email and things are at a standstill. I'm about to drop these guys and move on, and I also realize a sponsor has the right to drop an affiliate for any reason -- call me a noob, but this is a weird situation I've never encountered before.

A few days ago, I opened up Feb. statement from these guys, whom I hardly promote:

Promotion Statistics
>>>>Start Date Feb 1, 2006
>>>>End Date Feb 28, 2006
>>>>Clickthroughs 23
>>>>Sales 1
>>>>Sales/Click Ratio 1:23 (4.3%)
>>>>Chargebacks 0
>>>>Chargeback/Sales Ratio 0%
>>>>Returns 1
>>>>Filtered Returns 0

Sales and Return Balance
>>>>Total Resubs 0
>>>>Total Sales 24.95
>>>>Merchant Fees (6%) (1.49)
>>>>Chargeback Amount (0.00)
>>>>Return Amount (24.95)
>>>>Sales Subtotal -1.49
>>>>Paid to Moon Angel (50%) (-0.74)
>>>>Chargeback Fees ($12.50 per cb) (0)
>>>>International Processing Fees (0.00)
>>>>Total Payout USD $-0.74

So I think, WTF -0.74 for a sale?? I shoot them an email. Ryan promptly responds:

The original purchase of $24.95 went through, which incurred merchant charges. The merchant charges are split between the partner and our site at 50/50. In this case since its your only order that was returned, the balance is in the negative (50% of the 6% merchant charges) Don't worry about this negative balance as it will not carry over to next month (we will asorb the cost).

Fair enough. But what the hell is a "return"? So I ask them. A few hours later, they email me back this message:

A return is made normally when either:

1) A transaction is deemed fraudulent.

2) A user is attempting to hack our system.

3) A customer has requested for a return under unusual circumstances.

In your case, a user named "stevee" was signed in through your site, who
in turn tried to hack our members system for scripting holes from an
Austrian IP. This is also why we have deactivated your partnership
altogether as introducing a hacker of this magnitude is definite
grounds for such a deactivation.

Sincerely,
Moon Angel

I went through my server stats and fished out 3 australian IPs. One is 211.26.186.17 -- he came to my site from http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=FP...rnsite reviews at 2006-02-11 083227 and landed on http://www.paysitestripsearch.com/

Another Australian IP 202.67.83.62 also came in from Yahoo with a similar keyword around Jan 20. Last IP 203.88.225.47 that hit my site mid February had no referrer info so I'm guessing he bookmarked a ref url previously and revisted the paysite with a different IP.

Anyway, I told these guys I'll keep my links up even if I get no credit for any sales, and won't beg them to reactivate my account. Still, I can't make heads or tails out of their decision to deactivate my account. I mean...I'm sending them decent SE traffic. I'm sorry the sob tried to hack their paysite, but how the hell am I supposed to screen Yahoo traffic for hackers?

[Tommy]

Halfdeck

dont waste your time and energy
just replace your links and move on

do the smart thing

to many good sponsors to waste your time and traffic on one that doesnt want you

[SirMoby]

You made a post about 1 sale/refund? Tommy is right. Move on. You've already wasted more time then they're worth.

[Toby]

Sponsors do seem to be making some odd decisions.

I signed up for a CCBill program back in December, single girl site, and due to a number of reasons hadn't gotten around to promoting it yet. I get an email from her via the CCBill admin yesterday, cancelling my account due to "click inactivity".

Why cancel inactive accounts? It costs nothing to leave them alone, and the next affiliate "newsletter" may jog me and many others into getting around to promoting the program.

[Halfdeck]

Originally Posted by SirMoby

You made a post about 1 sale/refund? Tommy is right. Move on. You've already wasted more time then they're worth.

tommy's advice is spot on. Sir Moby, this isn't about one sale/refund. It's about a sponsor deactivating an account for a reason that makes no sense to me. If they happened to owe me a few K, I woudn't be posting about it here. Besides, I thought I already said this

I'm about to drop these guys and move on

I'm working with over 370 sponsors so losing one sponsor that I don't even actively promote isn't a big deal. The thing that nagged me was their reasoning for account deactivation. I had nothing to do with their paysite getting hacked, except for the fact that the hacker came from my site through yahoo with a clean keyword "paysite reviews." If the keyword was "free asian passwords" or something like that, I'd feel responsible.

I'm done with my rant.

[Greenguy]

I agree with Tommy as well, but I would have psoted this info if it happened to me - that's fucked up & I really like how they only told you that your account was deactivated after 2 emails from you asking about the negative balance.

I've never heard of this program & I'm glad I now know about them.

[MrYum]

Wow...that is some seriously fucked up stuff!

Agree with the others Halfdeck...dump their asses and move on. And thanks very much for the heads up...that's definitely a sponsor I'll be sure to never sign up with...they're obviously incredibly stupid...crazy...or BOTH

[digifan]

Oh and read again.. it says Austrian and not Australian, big difference

[plateman]

yup move on and pull links, I have a well know rev-share sponsor that I had a 100.00 sale on(he must have clicked the wrong monthly option and later found out and charged back, so then a few weeks later I check my stats and see a return and minus 50.00 the 50% cut and they charged me 15.00 half of the charge back fee... some rev-share sponsors make you pay half the costs on charge backs.... But did they close my account - NO... And that was my only charge back in 3 years with them.....

[Mr. Blue]

Yep move on, but it was good that you posted...the sponsor is definitely one to avoid.

[natalie]

Originally Posted by Halfdeck

In your case, a user named "stevee" was signed in through your site, who
in turn tried to hack our members system for scripting holes from an
Austrian IP. This is also why we have deactivated your partnership
altogether as introducing a hacker of this magnitude is definite
grounds for such a deactivation.

Oi!! Don't blame shit that a European did on an Aussie!!! Like Digifan said theres a big difference between Austrian and Australian man.

[ronnie]

Another one to put on the "Dont promote" List.

ronnie

[Halfdeck]

Originally Posted by natalie

Oi!! Don't blame shit that a European did on an Aussie!!! Like Digifan said theres a big difference between Austrian and Australian man.

No offense to Aussies, I love 'em. Still, as far as I know, the guy meant Australia. Not one hit came into my domain or clicked out from Austria. It's not hard to do DNS lookups for 23 clickthrus

EDIT: Hits came from:

Singapore
Saudi Arabia
Malasia
Atlanta, Georgia
China
Australia, sydney
Thailand, Bangkok
Mountain View, California
Reston, Virginia
Indonesia
Vancouver, Canada
West Bloomfield, Michigan
Seol, Korea
Calgary, Canada

Anyway, time to move on

[moonangel]

This is Moon Angel. After reading all the "carnage" that occurred on this message board I decided to jump in and defend myself and explain exactly why I decided to deactivate Half Deck's affiliate account with us.

First of all, I told Half Deck it was an Austrian IP that hacked my site, using an account purchased via an Australian IP. I made a slight mistake, it wasn't an Austrian IP, it was actually a Czech IP. The user in question, "stevee" first logged on in 2-11-2006:

February 11th 2006 05:32:02 AM|211.26.186.17|stevee|Login Successful Session=3XRryFgd9RwwlPzjMNSyygxGaVZWYl
PK||

211.26.186.17 is indeed an australian IP. However, a few days after his "purchase", this user decided to make hack attempts against my site as follows:

February 13th 2006 03:46:08 AM|195.47.32.27|stevee|Illegal Characters in Request (/fruity/new3/ma/anya/../.
./../../../.htaccess)|
moonauth.02-14-06:February 13th 2006 03:46:08 AM|195.47.32.27|stevee|Illegal Characters in Request (/fruity/new3/ma/anya/../.
./../../../.htaccess)|
moonauth.02-14-06:February 13th 2006 03:46:08 AM|195.47.32.27|stevee|Illegal Characters in Request (/fruity/new3/ma/anya/../.
./../../../.htaccess)|

I'm not sure about any of you guys, but I take it as a severe insult when someone is attempting to break into my site.

Anyhow, I commonly group the Austrians and Czechs together in one subnet verification pool since they're so close in geographic proximity, my bad.

I have been running Moon Angel for over 10 years now (go ahead and do a whois on moonangel.com for the Record creation date ) and my affiliate site for nearly a year now, and rarely in the history of my site have I seen a hack attempt of this magnitude against my members gallery scripting. Since it was the first order that came through with half deck, and very little traffic was exchanged, I decided it would be in our best interest to deactivate his affiliate account to avoid the introduction of any future "hacked" accounts.

Anyhow, I think my last message to Half Deck pretty much sums it all up:

We reserve the right to terminate partnership at anytime as our policy states. You have not made any money for us nor have we made any money for you, so I think its fair that you just move on to another affiliate. This was a worst-case scenario of an extremely malicious (and rare) hacker, and if your site is somehow attracting these types of individuals, i'd rather not be linked nor partner with your site.

Sincerely,
Moon Angel

[Toby]

Originally Posted by moonangel

...if your site is somehow attracting these types of individuals, i'd rather not be linked nor partner with your site.

I can see why Halfdeck is pissed. The implication of the above statement is not only unwarranted based of the available facts, but it's also borderline slanderous. Implying that he is in the slightest way responsible for a hacker finding your site is way out of line.

[ronnie]

Guess we are all responsible for hackers now also? Thats BS.

Not only do we need to try and keep out minors, but screen for hackers. geezz...

ronnie

[MrYum]

Yea...the simplest solution is still to walk away...shaking your head and thinking "What the Fuck?"...but walk away nonetheless.

HOWEVER, this is way up there on the STUPID scale for a sponsor to term an affiliate on these grounds. There's no mention of having SEEN anything on his site(s) that would have 'attracted' the cockroach. Just that the roach came from there...some twisted fuckin logic there from someone who 'should' know something about the net'

Said it before...will say it again...thanks for the heads up Halfdeck! That's a sponsor I wouldn't touch with the proverbial 10 foot pole...they're a bit tetched in the head

[SirMoby]

Originally Posted by moonangel

I'm not sure about any of you guys, but I take it as a severe insult when someone is attempting to break into my site.

Get used to it. If your site becomes popular people will try to hack it.

[Mr. Blue]

Originally Posted by MrYum

Said it before...will say it again...thanks for the heads up Halfdeck! That's a sponsor I wouldn't touch with the proverbial 10 foot pole...they're a bit tetched in the head

Yep. I'm glad halfdeck posted this because this is borderline insane. I could see if halfdeck was running a warez site or something like that, but he was just promoting through standard means.

So, way off base cancelling his account and I don't know anyone in their right mind would touch the Moon Angel program after reading this thread.

[Papa]

Sad but true. I hate when this happens. Luckly, it happened to me only twice in a decade. Yeah worth posting and also, don't waist time on this. Change your links

[cosmiccat]

Really gotta agree with everyone on this one. Total bullshit. Scrape 'em off and move on, Halfdeck!

[johnnybg]

moonangel, I will never register with your affiliate program.

I understand that you were pissed with that cracker attack, I would be also.

On the other hand, after only one case you terminated Halfdeck account, becouse cracker came through his site.

Don't you think it would be rather stupid of Halfdeck to use HIS affiliate code to signup and crack your site?! Thats like he robbed a bank and left his ID card to police... Come on.

BTW, person that tried to crack your site is "cracker" not "hacker". "Hackers" are generally known as creative people while "crackers" are destructive.

[Simon]

I see this thread grew a little...

Originally Posted by moonangel

...if your site is somehow attracting these types of individuals, i'd rather not be linked nor partner with your site.

That's just fucked up thinking. |noclue|
If you want to use an "IF" logic in your equation, then you should consider an "ELSE" along with your "THEN" decision. Too late for you now, I'm sure Halfdeck would be pissed at being spit at like this, but you sure lost yourself a good affiliate. A little checking around would have been a good idea. Personally I'd take all the traffic he could send me. You really stepped on your foreskin with this one.

(we need a smiley for that one)

Originally Posted by SirMoby

Get used to it. If your site becomes popular people will try to hack it.

Sometimes even if it's just been around a long time. We have some older domains that get hacked at all the time. Not popular, just old. But yeah, it's a sign you're getting more popular as the number of hack attempts increase.

Originally Posted by natalie

Oi!! Don't blame shit that a European did on an Aussie!!!
Like Digifan said theres a big difference between Austrian and Australian man.

Aw fuck, ya mean Arnold Swarzenegger isn't an Aussie????


Simon

[Toolz]

Moonangel,

First off, of course you've been in this biz 10 years everyone has now funny but 9 years ago at some of the first trade shows there were less than 300 people, this biz is like Woodstock 250k went and 25 million say they did.

Secondly,
It's not your affiliate's fault a user tried to hack your system why even try and pass the buck to them?

[Useless]

Originally Posted by moonangel

This was a worst-case scenario of an extremely malicious (and rare) hacker, and if your site is somehow attracting these types of individuals, i'd rather not be linked nor partner with your site.[/i]

Sincerely,
Moon Angel

How does your last meal look? I'm guessing you can see it directly in front of you with your head that far up your ass.

How can you blame an affiliate for a hacking attempt? If the sale came directly from Google, would you deny Google's traffic? I sense a grand future in republican politics for you, moonbeam.