Can Affiliates Get In Trouble?

libertygone

New member
Nov 12, 2008
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Seattle, WA
A lot of these "free trial" offers are linked to scammy advertisers. My question is - can the affiliate be held responsible for fraud, etc. if the advertiser:

- Doesnt let them cancel
- Bills their card beyond the agreement
- Uses false advertising

?

Get what i'm saying? Is anyone else worried about this?
What should we be doing to make sure we're safe.

Thanks
 


A lot of these "free trial" offers are linked to scammy advertisers. My question is - can the affiliate be held responsible for fraud, etc. if the advertiser:

- Doesnt let them cancel
- Bills their card beyond the agreement
- Uses false advertising

?

Get what i'm saying? Is anyone else worried about this?
What should we be doing to make sure we're safe.

Thanks

Not do it and you'll be safe.
 
Not do it and you'll be safe.

wow what an incredibly intelligent answer.

and for the record, i've never heard of anything like this, because you are simply the middle man between the customer and advertiser. You did not sign any contract with any advertiser or customer. If anyone, I think the network from which you promote the offer would be held liable.
 
wow what an incredibly intelligent answer.

and for the record, i've never heard of anything like this, because you are simply the middle man between the customer and advertiser. You did not sign any contract with any advertiser or customer. If anyone, I think the network from which you promote the offer would be held liable.
You don't know what you're talking about.

To the OP:

You need to follow FTC guidelines if you are promoting via flog or farticle. Don't use Dr. OZ or Oprah because Harpo will sue you. You won't be held liable for fraud but the FTC or your state's AG (if you are in the U.S.) will come after you eventually if you do not put disclaimers and such.
 
You want to always have a negative option billing TOS on your webpage. That would take care of the billing thing.

But if they don't cancel or other shit it's publishers fault. That's how I look at it, but I don't know if legal shit follows that logic
 
wow what an incredibly intelligent answer.

and for the record, i've never heard of anything like this, because you are simply the middle man between the customer and advertiser. You did not sign any contract with any advertiser or customer. If anyone, I think the network from which you promote the offer would be held liable.

Thanks. I know I am intelligent. On the other hand, you just made a fool out of yourself. Oh ya there is a 7 pages thread discussing about this. The thread starts with Attorney General... If you can find it, I'll give you a cookie. :smilie_weihn_winki:
 
wow what an incredibly intelligent answer.

and for the record, i've never heard of anything like this, because you are simply the middle man between the customer and advertiser. You did not sign any contract with any advertiser or customer. If anyone, I think the network from which you promote the offer would be held liable.

Coming from some "corporate" company running has offers with not drop of ANY contact info on their site.

Everyone listen to NewBizMarketing, he is a god.
 
Sheesh. Just be sensible, don't do anything you know is fraudulent or an outright scam; don't do fake celebrity endorsements etc, don't make totally false claims. Then you should be fine.

Rebilling / problems cancelling issues are the responsibility of the advertiser. They will be the first (and likely only) target, then possibly the networks. Going after affiliates is almost unheard of; but it does happen.

Best advice I've heard in this area is that if you are doing something that's really causing you to worry, then don't do it.
 
Just don't live in the country where the FTC squeezes your balls everynight to make sure you still squeel like a little girl...legal big corporations screw with us every second of every hour of every day of every year...so whats the difference? Well they have lobbyists strapped with wads of dough to their nutsacks to shut the people involved in these petty rules up...

What it all comes down to is money, don't be fooled to think for one second that these rules are to protect people. The internet is wide open space were anyone joe can make money, so something had to be made up to scare-off the average joe into submission..

I see no difference in a flog and in a commercial were fake doctors start telling you the benefits of Sensodyne or in a Verizon commercial that show amazing mobile phone screens but in the last 2 seconds in the smallest font ever state "screens simulated"..it's all smoke and mirrors and the players with the most smoke and most mirrors are the ones sleeping with the regulators
 
Kevin Hoeffer is my lawyer and he says I can say whatever I want as long as I mention that Oprah's a dirty slut and link to the harpo site using "sue me" as my anchor.
 
I see no difference in a flog and in a commercial were fake doctors start telling you the benefits of Sensodyne or in a Verizon commercial that show amazing mobile phone screens but in the last 2 seconds in the smallest font ever state "screens simulated"..it's all smoke and mirrors and the players with the most smoke and most mirrors are the ones sleeping with the regulators

Agreed.

I saw a BowFlex commercial the other day, you know, the one with the ripped muscular guy using it? Why is nobody going after them, are we supposed to really believe he got that way using BowFlex? I see no difference between these type of "scams" and web pages. And worse, the BowFlex commercials are televised and seen by millions.
 
Hello friend,

I no think can get in trouble. But if lawyer come say you just do work for affiliate network and advertiser.

Lawyer always want sue those with lot money. If let them know about affiliate network and advertiser who have lot more money then you they sue them because can get more money.

Good luck bro
 
Well really, if you do enough research you should pretty much be able to figure out what companies are legit, and which are of a scammy nature. Thus eliminating the worry factor. You should be comfortable with the people or companies you decide to do business with before well, doing business with them. If doing research is too time-consuming try sticking with companies you actually know and are well aware of and have been in business for years. There are plenty of those alone in which you can use.

I don't believe however that if you're just a middleman that you can really be held accountable for anything, really. In fact, if you don't make loads of money from them noone would even waste their time with you. Most people that sue aren't necessarily after justice but the plenty of money they might be able to syphon out of someone. It's quite horrible, really.