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Shocked to learn that Brian Dunning has done this. I've been listening to his Skeptoid podcast for years. I always pictured someone of modest or middle class me
by celticjames 13y ago
Shocked to learn that Brian Dunning has done this. I've been listening to his Skeptoid podcast for years. I always pictured someone of modest or middle class means because he solicits donations to help keep the podcast going. I didn't think he was also making millions from fraud. Ironically, 'consumer frauds' is one of things he has listed on his website as a target of his skeptical inquiry.
Found this blog post with court documents and background:
http://www.skepticalabyss.com/?p=291 http://www.skepticalabyss.com/?p=291
EDIT:
Found this old blog post by Brian Dunning:
http://skeptoid.com/blog/2011/10/05/a-partial-explanation/ http://skeptoid.com/blog/2011/10/05/a-partial-explanation/
"Cookie stuffing refers to a web site writing a cookie to your browser without your knowledge or permission. ... It’s a scary-sounding term, but it’s fundamental to the way Internet advertising works. ... Cookie stuffing is more than just a standard practice; it’s an essential component of the mechanics of serving ads effectively."
- qeorge 13y agoWow, that's a whopper. (the bit about cookie stuffing being normal) As I understand it, they would do something like this: on every 1 of 10,000 page views (to Digital Point's forums, or other sites), they would embed a page from eBay (as the source of an image), which had their affiliate code in it. The visitor was none the wiser. Keep in mind digital point gets a ton of traffic. Though only a small percentage had a cookie dropped, it added up to many. Purely through coincidence, some of these people would later buy something on eBay in the next 30 days, earning them a commission. Its hard to argue they earned the commission, TOS or otherwise.