i know a dude who sent appx 500 emails for some weight loss pills to random users .. i think he collected list from some forums or unsolicited source etc... he got 2 replies from 500 email sent .. that they have reported him to ftc .. cause he was scamming them... these weight loss pills dont work etc etc .... now what are the percentage of chances that ftc will contact these networks to get him banned ... does ftc take individuals complaints which r almost of negligible amounts or spam reports ... if yes how do ftc proceed about it .
The FTC doesn't generally get involved unless it is large scale fraud. All this talk and fear of the FTC is a waste of time. Unless you are in a large tax bracket you most likely are not on the radar, and a complaint is no guarantee that they will get involved. If they do get involved they have no real authority to enforce anything without a court order to do so. All the new "hype" about the FTC won't affect most of us. If you use testimonials you can no longer state "Results are not typical" etc., without also posting actual results. You must also inform your audience that if you are an affiliate you make a commission of the sale off the product that you have on your website and of course the testimonials have to have statistical data to back them up. That is really about all there is to it. Small time spammers are probably not going to see much in the way of sanctions. They do, however, concentrate on scams like weight loss pills, etc. If that is what they are.
I agree with you about them probably not going after small fries, but making affiliate disclosures on your website is a pretty big deal. Most people probably don't get enough sales (or high conversion rates) to see it, but when you start disclosing your affiliate relationship your sales will drop drastically. This is a big deal if you run Adwords campaigns. It's not the end of the world, but you've got to add some sort of real value like discounts or bonuses (and cross your fingers). Even then you have to watch what you say. I split test my copy and I can tell you that just one wrong word when you are disclosing will kill your conversion rates. Most consumers don't know anything about affiliate marketing and the first time they read that you are compensated for bla bla bla they will look at it as if you are an employee of the company. They will either move on to the next guy who does not disclose or try to sign-up as an affiliate and buy through their own link.