UPDATED 11:22 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.): An affiliate spammer entered PonziNews.com yesterday, leaving what was described as “my friends” (sic) affiliate link for AdViewGlobal (AVG) and an advertisement for AVG.
Seven minutes later, the same affiliate spammer left another ad for AVG, claiming that “I just watched as 2, yes 2 Attorney’s (sic) from D.C. decided that they wanted to advertise on the site, and be a member of the VIP program.”
Affiliate spam is a back-door way of gaining signups for a program or service. One form of affiliate spam is to monitor websites that publish criticism of an “opportunity” favored by the spammer and then post affiliate links as part of the defense of the opportunity.
It is possible (and easy) to defend an opportunity without leaving an affiliate link, thus taking any issue of spamming totally out of play. The affiliate spammer who claimed it was a friend’s AVG link yesterday used the username of “Jeffrey,” and the link resolved to the sign-up page of an AVG promoter who used the same name.
It was not clear if the affiliate spammer also was the AVG promoter “Jeffrey.”
Software employed by Ponzi News captured the affiliate spam. It was not published. A screen shot of the spam was made and reduced in size to fit within the borders of this Blog.
The spammer declared that Best Buy, Staples, GoDaddy.com and Delta Air Lines were AVG advertisers. The affiliate link used the identifier 7916, and an email address left by the spammer suggested he was associated with a company known as GuardIt Technologies.
Although the email address used the GuardIt name, it was not tied to the GuardIt server. Rather, it was tied to a server at a free email-hosting company, so the address could have been used without the authority of GuardIt.
AVG, also known as AVGA, publishes an antispam policy:
“If you are found to have spammed, without warning, AVGLOBAL ASSOCIATION reserves the right to disable or terminate your account immediately,” the company said on its website.
“All funds will be forfeited. AVGLOBAL ASSOCIATION may impose a penalty for each spam policy violation. AVGLOBAL ASSOCIATION also reserves the right to determine what violates this policy, in which case, any violation that occurs will result in account termination without refund of any monies,” AVG said.
A website associated with Mark Simmons, whom AdSurfDaily intended to call as a witness at a Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing in Washington, D.C., promotes both AVG and GuardIt. Simmons was sequestered at the hearing, but never took the stand.
Federal prosecutors say ASD engaged in wire-fraud, money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities while operating a Ponzi scheme.
On Nov. 19, a federal judge ruled that ASD had not demonstrated at the evidentiary hearing that it was operating legally and not a Ponzi scheme. Within days of the ruling, ASD stop using its own Breaking News website, instead giving the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum its official endorsement as an ASD news outlet.
In December, prelaunch buzz began to appear online for AVG, and the surf formally launched in February. At least two forums that use ning.com as a host sprouted up to promote AVG.
Some of the Mods and members of Surf’s Up manage one of the forums, and Simmons started the second forum. One Simmons’ thread pitches members on a technology provided by a website known as ErasableEmail.com, which purportedly permits users to send email and video that “self-destructs” and cannot be forwarded or saved.
Simmons said the product was endorsed by “the better hobo bureau” — a play-on-words of the name of his ning.com forum: The Unemployable Hobo Lifestyle Forum.
Erasable email and video technology can be abused. A promoter for an illicit program, for example, could make false claims about a product or service and then erase the claims so they could not be forwarded to law enforcement.
The legal community has been debating the utility of erasable email for years, wondering aloud if it can be used to thwart the discovery process in litigation and to erase evidence of crimes and misconduct.