[jtoskey]

Has anyone else seen this? I guess I was pretty surprised to see Firefox promoting a piece of software like this:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5495

[Mr. Sal]

Originally Posted by jtoskey

Has anyone else seen this? I guess I was pretty surprised to see Firefox promoting a piece of software like this:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5495

Nice!

There is no free meals!

How is works: CashAddOn has set up affiliate programs with hundreds of e-commerce sites. When a user goes to a supported website, we redirect and refresh the page so that the user will enter through our affiliate link. If a purchase is make there will be cash back available. We share the cash back with user. It all happens in the background and it wont slow the user down. Our status icon lets the user know when they are on a website that offers cash back.

I still remember when a lot of IE haters here, started to promote Firefox for free on their sig last year.

So go ahead people, keep promoting FF, and No-r-ton software too!

[Snib]

Hmm, somebody definitely needs to investigate this one. Here is a list of stores they support:

http://www.cashaddon.com/stores

I read the FAQ and it says the toolbar changes color when you visit a supported site, but I'm not sure if it'll automatically set the cookie.

- Scott

[Mr. Sal]

Originally Posted by Snib

Hmm, somebody definitely needs to investigate this one. Here is a list of stores they support:

http://www.cashaddon.com/stores

I read the FAQ and it says the toolbar changes color when you visit a supported site, but I'm not sure if it'll automatically set the cookie.

- Scott

BTW, I just check that stores list, and I would like to know what's the difference between:

Ebates and Firefox new toy?

[Cheesehead]

Only 68 pages of stores! Sounds like the makings of a MEGA-PARASITE to me!

I am not seeing any Share-a-Sale merchants and am assuming Share-a-Sale would not allow Fire Fox in their network. The problem would be if a SAS merchant were also at CJ and FireFox signed up with them at CJ. A redirect will still steal the sale. Brian have you checked on this list?

This seems like it could have HUGE effects!

Glad I have focused most of my new efforts with SAS lately.

[Trust]

It's not FireFox, it's somebody that has a FireFox add-on for people to get.

Yeah, that's straight up stupid for any merchant that gets in with them.

"When a user goes to a supported website, we redirect and refresh the page so that the user will enter through our affiliate link."

[Cheesehead]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sal

BTW, I just check that stores list, and I would like to know what's the difference between:

Ebates and Firefox new toy?

This is about a 100 times worse! They have a trust factor that ebates does not have. Currently FF is prompting me every month or two to update their browser. How long before someone gets the bright idea to include an invitation to use this feature in their next update. The user trusts FF and says "Yes".

[Cheesehead]

Oh, I see Trust. That makes it a little better in that it will not be pushed by Mozilla.

You are right about Merchants being stupid to sign up. It's giving these guys commissions when commissions should not have to be given, like in direct type-ins.

Just plain theft if someone pays good PPC money for a sale only to have it stolen at the merchant site.

[Trust]

I would fire each and every affiliate manager that got me into something like that if I was ther merchant. All it does it just redirect all traffic to the merchant thru their affiliate link for anybody that downloads that.

[cbsturg]

I agree, Trust. But I wonder how many of the merchants know that they are part of this promotion? Perhaps a couple of well-intentioned emails from members at ABW (to both the merchants involved and Mozilla for supporting this add-on on their homepage) could help put an end to this.

I love FF - especially because it is extensible. I don't know how I lived without Adblock. But I am a bit surprised that Mozilla would allow promotion of this Addon from their homepage.

[Trust]

I would love to get the actual email addresses to the merchants, somebody who hired the affiliate managers. I think most affiliate managers probably love it because it pads their numbers while delivering zero value to the merchant. It just sit there in the browswer redirecting traffic thru their affiliate link. The usual, direct type ins, merchants own PPC, merchants newsletters, merchants free traffic from the search engines and other affliates traffic too.

[cbsturg]

I might get burned for saying this, so let me first state that I DO NOT CONDONE AUTOMATICALLY OVERWRITING AFFILIATE COOKIES. That said, at least this program is installed purposefully by the user - no one is infested unawares and removal is simple.

That said, perhaps it makes it that much more difficult to fight.

[Mr. Sal]

Little Red Riding Hood?

Little Red Riding Hood is a famous fairytale about a young girl's encounter with a wolf. The story has changed much in its history, and been subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings. Source

wolf or fox?

In the meantime, he goes to the grandmother's house and gains entry by pretending to be the girl. He eats the grandmother whole, and waits for the girl, disguised as the grandmother.

[Eric Ewe]

Originally Posted by Trust

It's not FireFox, it's somebody that has a FireFox add-on for people to get.

What is the likelyhood of FF adding this as their standard download in their next FF update/upgrade?

If they see the growth potential, i doubt that it would be very hard to bundle it with a new download.

[Trust]

Originally Posted by cbsturg

I might get burned for saying this, so let me first state that I DO NOT CONDONE AUTOMATICALLY OVERWRITING AFFILIATE COOKIES. That said, at least this program is installed purposefully by the user - no one is infested unawares and removal is simple.

That said, perhaps it makes it that much more difficult to fight.

And when looking at the COC:

Non End-User Initiated Events. Publishers may not use methods to generate non end-user initiated impressions, clicks, or transactions. All click events must be initiated by an affirmative end-user action. Consent of software installation and acceptance of an end-user License Agreement that includes a disclosure that the software will perform click events on the end-user's behalf for the benefit of both the end-user and the publisher who owns the software, is considered an affirmative end-user action.

So it looks like it's acceptable as far as that but:

Interference with referrals. No Web site publisher or software download technology provider may interfere with or seek to improperly influence the referral of an end-user to the Web site of an online advertiser unless the end-user knowingly and explicitly consents to that behavior by taking an affirmative action.

It does interfere if someone comes to my site and clicks a link and that thing just automatically intercepts my traffic and redirects in thru their affiliate link. But is that consent by taking an affirmative action by the user?

But it still redirects my traffic to the merchant.

"

Originally Posted by WyndhamVacationR-EricEwe

What is the likelyhood of FF adding this as their standard download in their next FF update/upgrade?

If they see the growth potential, i doubt that it would be very hard to bundle it with a new download.

Doubtful, it would be lawsuits galore and they would lose, straight up parasitic. And then merchants would really take a look at that because they would have like (whatever percentage of users have FF) traffic redirected. Not a good financial move.

[Nabz]

I think I don't have to worry about it, because I have 4.97% traffic from firefox. This traffic is for shopping sites.
For Tech sites I own, the figures go high, upto 40%.

It seems nontech people use the default Browser (IE) more than tech people.

What are your % of Firefox traffic for Shopping sites.

[Rhea]

Just a regular guy with dreams of world dominance. Or something.

http://whois.domaintools.com/cashaddon.com

Whois Record

Registrant:
cashaddon
1229 Arborvista Dr
atlanta, Georgia 30328
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: CASHADDON.COM
Created on: 18-Jun-07
Expires on: 18-Jun-08
Last Updated on: 23-Sep-07

Administrative Contact:
Fisher, Jon http://source.domaintools.com/email.pgif?md5=68710b1b856633b88e4ed131c2be6644
cashaddon
1229 Arborvista Dr
atlanta, Georgia 30328
United States
2128102133

Technical Contact:
Fisher, Jon http://source.domaintools.com/email.pgif?md5=68710b1b856633b88e4ed131c2be6644
cashaddon
1229 Arborvista Dr
atlanta, Georgia 30328
United States
2128102133

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.DREAMHOST.COM
NS2.DREAMHOST.COM

[TFAW.com]

32% of our traffic comes through Firefox.

I looked through their store list and didn't see our program listed. However, I did see at least two electronics SAS merchants who also have programs at CJ.

So, this IS a potential problem for SAS merchants on multiple networks...

-Dale

[Rhia7]

I saw a cosmetic merchant with programs on SAS & CJ on the list of merchants.

[davidh]

This could be a good thing. Just as habitual drunks need to "hit rock bottom" in order to get jarred hard enough to finally come to their senses, It will take more and more of these referral poachers to get the proper attention from merchants; IMO there are not enough of these yet!

When merchants start to scratch their heads and look into why 50% or more of their own PPC and type-in traffic is getting commissioned to "affiliates", they might finally decide to get their arteries unclogged..

[Jorge - JRami]

Well, just saw our EverythingFurniture and EverythingOfficeFurniture listed, but if you click-though you get the cj expired page.

But, no worries, no fear not on sas.

[Chris - AMWSO]

The only surprise here is that it has taken so long for one of these add ons to get to prominence , there are number of software packages around that allow anyone to create tool bars for FireFox with cash back systems built in to them.

Would be handy if those with this guys CJ affiliate ID (or other IDs) could post them so that everyone can search for and remove them quickly.

Cheers

Chris

[lookingfortips]

Absolutely nuts when the customer is already at their site.

[chetf]

Originally Posted by WyndhamVacationR-EricEwe

What is the likelyhood of FF adding this as their standard download in their next FF update/upgrade?

If they see the growth potential, i doubt that it would be very hard to bundle it with a new download.

OMG LIKE 4 SURE... this kind of silly sky is falling reaction/firefox bashing is just silly.

Anyone can make an add-on and get it listed, someone did.

Start contacting merchants, they obviously did not check with merchants first since sites like amazon are listed.

Chet

[chetf]

Looking a little further, things seem a little odd... a GA address and NYC phone number.

Another company shares that setup (and same guy)
http://whois.domaintools.com/mailamp.com

So it is a mailbox in GA with a phone number in NYC for a guy in Israel.

That sounds like a legit company, I mean that is how everyone does it right?

Has anyone signed up to see where the payment is coming from?

Chet