4 ms·

I like it when TechCrunch does something like this. This is good journalism. They broke a story that most people didn't even know existed, highlighted the arrog

• seiji 17y ago
  The problem: every company who uses offerpal/gambit knows they are inviting their users to get scammed. The response from management at offer brokers is usually "We know they are scams (and that some of them auto-install viruses and trojans using IE exploits), but you have to make money somehow." When marketing people talk about this scam issue, the response is typically "Video Professor and $9.99-per-month-in-the-fine-print SMS horoscopes advertise on late night TV. We're just doing what they do, so it can't be wrong." We're in a strange time where users aren't customers. They just want to do something online and are exceedingly transient. No matter how much you abuse them, you can still make money if you convince 3% of your traffic to sign up for CPA scams. Mike did a good job of shining a light on the issue, but everybody using an offer broker for a revenue boost knows users will be scammed (and virus'd). Disclaimer: I work at a company offering these scams and free viruses to their users through offer brokers. I'm just a cog in the machine so my moral outrage goes unacknowledged. After all, companies need to make money.