Hi guys! I joined clickbank as an affiliate for two weeks ago and have been using a method my brother told me about for creating hops and sales. Now, the method has been working just fine, however it has gotten me a little worried lately. I'm pretty sure everyone in here knows the method; basically, what I do is I write a little story about my experience with a product and provide a short-url where I urge others to try it as well. I then post the story with the link in forums and in comments on e.g. videoes on websites. THE PROBLEM arises in the spamming nature of the post, when I post it in multiple video-comments on the same website. The mods erase my comments from time to time, but I repost them as soon as I find that they are gone. Sometimes the short-url I use gets blocked or my user gets banned, but I always find a way around it by using a new short-url or by finding a new user/pass for the site so I can login again and continue my endeavours. Ethics aside, what kind of trouble can one get in by using such method? I know that the sites (the ones that I apply this method to), can probably track down my home-address through my ip, which is fine because I don't wanna hide behind any proxy. I just wanna know whether or not I can sleep soundly at night, if I keep posting comments the way I do. Any help on the subject will be greatly appreciated.
From what you are describing, it is doubtful you run the risk of legal trouble of any kind. Practically speaking, the sites might complain to your ISP. Some sites are now posting information about spammers and the users then dig up as much online info as they can. That kind of thing.
Thx for the reply. Lets hope I don't get a lot of angry users on my neck then. ) I was wondering though - yesterday when I tried to connect to one of the sites which I am posting on, my browser told me something along the lines "the connection to the site has been set to loop indefinitely", which caused my browser to stop trying to connect to the site. Has this got anything to do with an ip-ban, or has it got to do with server-issues on the site? I'm wondering because I haven't experienced anything similar before, and after repairing my connection (and thereby renewing ip?), I could easily enter the site again. Now I'm a little hesitant to start posting there if it really was an ip ban - circumventing ip-banning to keep posting messages of spammy nature probably won't make the owners and mods of the site very happy ).
If the website owners wanted to cause issues i am sure that they could contact your Internet Service Provider whom may give you a fine for Spamming because it is illegal in most places. ~ Mike
Sort of. The ISP you use would cancel your account if they found cause. You may get into trouble with governments and the like if you over do it.
I see. Thanks for the input so far guys. Do you know if it is normal for an ISP to issue a warning before closing the connection / sending a fine?
Honest answer: Depends on the ISP. Some will even let you come back if you admit that you did so and promise that you won't do it again. It is money and profit for them.
If the company found you they would complain, terminate your account and I agree likely notify your ISP
Yeah I'm not really questioning that part. What I'm interested in knowing is the consequences of them complaining and notifying my ISP. And what if they notify Clickbank? Anyone who knows how Clickbank handle issues like this?
Yea it is true because ISP's really don't like having their ip's blacklisted and it can cause problems with people trying to send out their mail and having it bounce back to them since they ended up with a dynamic Ip that was blacklisted.
ISPs are not the government and thus have no general power to fine you. Nor am I aware of any major ISP whose TOS provides for anything other than account suspension for violating their acceptable use policies.
Actually yes they do because when you sign-up for a ISP you agree to their TOS and if you break their TOS with a serious offense like 'Spamming' they have ever right to fine you and if you don't pay that fine they can take you to court and or file it with a collection Agency. You would be more screwed if they ISP that you were Spamming off from was the only 1 in your area BlackListed 'YOU' and then you wouldn't be able to have internet under your name if not at all.
When you break their TOS, they only have the remedies specifically identified in the TOS. Verizon and At&T have absolutely nothing about fines in their TOS. They list account suspension/termination as the penalty. I can't imagine any major ISP would even try to have a fine provision as I'm not sure that it would hold up in court.
Actually no they don't. They could sue you for the trouble that you caused and the time it took for their employees to clean up and mess and respond to complaints. I believe you're thinking about TOS/AUP clauses where you agree by signing up to pay 'x' amount of dollars for each and every spam you send from their servers or for every complaint they receive pertaining to you. They were really popular a few years back but have fallen out of use because of a case where it was found not to be legal. I'd have to go digging for the reference but I'm tight for time this morning.
I deal with and have to spend my time deleting crap that people like you put on my sites, and Yes I will look for you and you can expect every type of magazine subscription and Viagra ad in your email and calls from telemarketers about the time your sitting down to eat dinner! Thanks for the comments on my sites!