Cookie stuffing, CJ, Ebay and the FBI

When ebay moved away from CJ (where they had a global deal) a lot of questions were raised about why the programme moved in-house and the answer seemed now only to lie in the cost savings but also the new payment model that would have been difficult to implement at a network.

But now maybe we have some more reasons with the latest news coming from the US and the Revenews site.

Essentially it is claimed that over a period of five years, the two top affiliates on the ebay programme in the US were cookie stuffing and the case has gone as far as being investigated as a criminal case by the FBI.

The indictments charge Hogan and Dunning with wire fraud and criminal forfeiture. Hogan was charged with ten counts of wire fraud and Dunning with five counts of wire fraud.

I have to say, the figures here are astounding!   It may well have been earning CJ a lot of override but bearing in mind they would have had key account managers on the programme how on earth it went unnoticed for so long is beyond me…  Here are the numbers involved:

• Between 2006 and June 2007, Shawn Hogan (Digital Point Solutions) earned approximately $15.5 million in commissions from eBay. Hogan was eBay’s number one affiliate.
• Between 2006 and June 2007, Dunning (Kessler’s Flying Circus) earned approximately $5.3 million in commissions from eBay. Dunning was eBay’s number two affiliate.

That is around $21m commission between then in a year!  WOW.

The affiliates involved, if found guilty, could get up to 20 years in jail each.  Perhaps this will be a wake up call for some of the more black hat affiliates who are still working with some large networks about how cookie dropping is not just against the rules, but could also be against the law…

Read the full article here

It will be an interesting few months and I look forward to hearing the outcome from this case…