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How do people steal clickbank commissions?

Discussion in 'ClickBank' started by digitaldownload, Nov 14, 2010.

  1. #1
    Hello, I have been searching for some time trying to figure out how people steal clickbank commissions, but no web page or anyone has been able to describe how this works technically. Yeah, so people say to hide your hoplink, which is exactly what the clickbank tool does when it encrypts it, but it still shows hop= on the actual page you land on.

    Even if a vendor knows your hop link, I still don't see how that has a damn thing to do with stealing your commision. Just because a website has a link on it, doesn't mean some random person out there can replace it with his own, and even if he could, replacing means REPLACING, you wouldn't need to know the previous value to replace it with a new value, you would just overwrite whatever was there with your new hoplink.

    Anyhow, maybe someone can explain ONE example of how a hacker would hijack your commision.

    Thanks.
     
    digitaldownload, Nov 14, 2010 IP
  2. otrap

    otrap Member

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    #2
    Hiding an affiliate ID helps keep people from noticing that it is an affiliate link. That's all.

    With Clickbank, the cookies operate off a "last-cookie-wins" principle. All someone has to do is, find the vendor ID (often in the CTA links on a Clickbank page) and if they know the basics of a Clickbank affiliate link, they just revisit the page through their own affiliate link. Cookie overwritten, commission stolen.
     
    otrap, Nov 14, 2010 IP
  3. digitaldownload

    digitaldownload Peon

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    #3
    I still don't understand. For EACH computer, when that user visits an affiliate page, a cookie is placed on that persons computer. Thus, even if the purchase is made 40 days later, the commision is given to the vendor associated with the original cookie placed on that person's machine. I don't see how you would PLACE a different cookie on that particular persons machine. If what you are saying made any sense, no one would send users to affiliate pages containing mailing lists, because then you would never make any money. But I emailed clickbank and the way it works is that FOR EACH computer a cookie is stored on there with the associated affiliate name so if they purchase within the next I think 60 days, the original affiliate gets the sale. The only way to hack the commision would be to change the cookie on a users machine who goes through with a purchase. Maybe I am missing something, but maybe an explanation if I am wrong, thanks.
     
    digitaldownload, Nov 14, 2010 IP
  4. otrap

    otrap Member

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    #4
    Okay, when you send a "hop" or "click" in Clickbank, you do place a cookie. That cookie looks the same as the affiliate link:
    affiliate.vendor.hop.clickbank.net

    For our example, let's use the affiliate ID: aff1, and the vendor ID: vendor1.

    So, I send someone to my affiliate link: http://aff1.vendor1.hop.clickbank.net. My cookie gets place for that vendor. This means that if the person ever goes back to the site without the affiliate link, I'll still get credit because of the cookie.

    HOWEVER, if that person who I sent there, and who has my cookie on their PC, is on someone ELSE'S email list, and that person sends them to the site through THEIR affiliate link (for our example, we'll call it http://aff8.vendor1.hop.clickbank.net). His cookie actually REPLACES mine. It kicks mine off that PC, and it replaces mine.

    So, if the person buys after this happens, HE will get credit for the sale. That's what it meant by "last-cookie-wins." The last person to place a cookie prior to the sale is the one who gets credit for the sale.

    So, if someone sees this website that 'vendor1' has on Clickbank, they might decide to revisit the site through their own affiliate link, and in doing so, they will kick out all prior cookies and replace them with a new one ... one that will give them credit for their own sale.
     
    otrap, Nov 14, 2010 IP
  5. digitaldownload

    digitaldownload Peon

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    #5
    So hijacking basically gets done only by the purchases of the product? And if this is the case, I guess it would equate to a discounted product cost. This is specifically what you are referring to? Or is there anyways to do this when you aren't the purchaser and the hijacker both?
     
    digitaldownload, Nov 14, 2010 IP
  6. digitaldownload

    digitaldownload Peon

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    #6
    So what they you are hijacking their own commissions. I don't see how this takes away from anyone or hijacks anyone else's sales. Yeah, so this would be a problem if someone could get a particular customer to go to some other website later and replace the cookie. But how would you get someone else to click on a link that would overwrite the existing cookie? Trick them into clicking or something? I don't understand how you would even know who to do this to, and if you did, how you would even get them to click on the replacement link. Thanks.
     
    digitaldownload, Nov 14, 2010 IP
  7. Iwind

    Iwind Active Member

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    #7
    If someone hacks your site they can change the hop link though, same as some people hacks sites to change out AdSense with their publisher ID. I do think this is pretty rare though.
     
    Iwind, Nov 14, 2010 IP
  8. zaito21

    zaito21 Peon

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    #8
    mybe some one hack your sit/blog...maybe there is other affiliater come to you visitor
     
    zaito21, Nov 15, 2010 IP
  9. floodrod

    floodrod Well-Known Member

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    #9
    You can't literally steal someone elses sales unless you hacked their site and changed their hoplinks.

    Often people associate "Cookie Stuffing" with "stealing sales". But in reality, cookie stuffing is not stealing.

    Cookie Stuffing= Loading your clickbank affiliate cookie to visitors with the use of an iframe. So say you sent a hop to a vendor, but the person didn't buy immediately. Instead the surfer decided to google around and research it first. The surfer ended up on my landing page that I use to stuff cookies.. I would cram like 100 cookies for many many different clickbank products.. So whatever the surfer ended up buying, I get credit even if they don't click on my link... I got the credit for the sale because I stuffed his browser with lots of cookies and got lucky..

    BUT.,,,. Don't do it... You WILL get banned..
     
    floodrod, Nov 15, 2010 IP
  10. digitaldownload

    digitaldownload Peon

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    #10
    And what you are talking about has nothing to do with knowing the URL of the clickbank hop. Because you are replacing the hop with your own, you don't care what it was before. I don't see why it is such a big deal to encrypt the clickbank hop url. When you land on the landing page you get to see who gets the commission anyways.
     
    digitaldownload, Nov 15, 2010 IP
  11. JimBoom

    JimBoom Peon

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    #11
    I think the problem is more of a long-term concern for affiliate marketers. The more people become wise to the idea of what an affiliate link is, the more likely they are to open up their own account with Clickbank or whomever in order to change the affiliate link to their own every time their order something. It's one of the disadvantages of aff marketing... it only works as long as the public remains oblivious to how much commission they are paying into the price of the item. If they only knew, many people would not buy the product at all out of contempt (I mean, 75% commissions, c'mon!), or they would do the few steps it would take to get this commission for themselves. I know that most people won't do that, ever, but as the general population gets more and more web savvy, it's bound to undercut AM effectiveness down the line.
     
    JimBoom, Nov 15, 2010 IP
  12. digitaldownload

    digitaldownload Peon

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    #12
    Well, Clickbank should require that the vendor hides the hoplink then. There is absolutely no reason at all to have it displayed in the form of GET, it should be displayed in the form of POST so that it isn't in the damn URL!
     
    digitaldownload, Nov 15, 2010 IP
  13. Eston55

    Eston55 Peon

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    #13
    If you directly link to the order page it should eliminate the ability for affiliates to steal your ID.
     
    Eston55, Nov 15, 2010 IP
  14. digitaldownload

    digitaldownload Peon

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    #14
    Clickpoint told me I could get permanently banned for doing that.
     
    digitaldownload, Nov 15, 2010 IP
  15. topcash

    topcash Peon Affiliate Manager

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    #15
    In the past download programs like zango used to change the affiliate id to theres. If you hide your affiliate link then you will be fine. Hide it with a shortener url service like bit.ly
     
    topcash, Nov 16, 2010 IP