The Impact of Cheaters on PTR Programs
AnI4anI has a good post at GPTOutreach talking about the responsibilities of GPT program owners to minimize the impact of cheaters on their programs. After the lack of legitimate advertisers, the impact of cheaters is probably the most-used excuse used by owners whose programs are in trouble.
And there's no doubt that cheaters are a problem. Any time there's something to gain, there are going to be people who are happy to lie, cheat and steal to get it. And unfortunately, often the same things that make a program attractive to honest people also tend to make it attractive to the cheaters. This is, I think, one of the fundamental problems of GPT/PTR programs -- if all, or most, of the emphasis is on how much members can earn, then nobody should be surprised that the bulk of the members are people who only care about the money. And nobody should be surprised that some of those people are going to be willing to cheat to get that money.
I agree that owners need to put together a good business plan before launching their program. I agree that they need to learn as much about cheating as they can, and try to make changes to their programs to reduce the potential impacts of cheaters. A few years ago a lot of the talk about cheaters involved people who'd sign up for the same program, sometimes dozens or even hundreds of times. Then they'd click links, either manually or using automated software, for all the accounts, earning extra money because all the accounts were linked together in the same downline. You don't hear about this so much these days because most PTR programs no longer use elaborate multi-level referral structures with ridiculously high earnings possible from downlines. The weird thing is, these changes didn't happen as an attempt to reduce that particular kind of cheating, but because Paypal was freezing the accounts of owners because it felt their programs were some sort of MLM scheme that violated Paypal's Acceptable Use Policy.
One thing I don't agree with in AnI's post are her ideas that PTR owners collect more personal information about their members. I can see where she's coming from, and I agree that more careful screening of potential members could be helpful, but after seeing how so many of these people (as well as many large, mainstream companies) routinely violate their members' privacy I don't think giving them even more opportunity is a good idea.
And there's no doubt that cheaters are a problem. Any time there's something to gain, there are going to be people who are happy to lie, cheat and steal to get it. And unfortunately, often the same things that make a program attractive to honest people also tend to make it attractive to the cheaters. This is, I think, one of the fundamental problems of GPT/PTR programs -- if all, or most, of the emphasis is on how much members can earn, then nobody should be surprised that the bulk of the members are people who only care about the money. And nobody should be surprised that some of those people are going to be willing to cheat to get that money.
I agree that owners need to put together a good business plan before launching their program. I agree that they need to learn as much about cheating as they can, and try to make changes to their programs to reduce the potential impacts of cheaters. A few years ago a lot of the talk about cheaters involved people who'd sign up for the same program, sometimes dozens or even hundreds of times. Then they'd click links, either manually or using automated software, for all the accounts, earning extra money because all the accounts were linked together in the same downline. You don't hear about this so much these days because most PTR programs no longer use elaborate multi-level referral structures with ridiculously high earnings possible from downlines. The weird thing is, these changes didn't happen as an attempt to reduce that particular kind of cheating, but because Paypal was freezing the accounts of owners because it felt their programs were some sort of MLM scheme that violated Paypal's Acceptable Use Policy.
One thing I don't agree with in AnI's post are her ideas that PTR owners collect more personal information about their members. I can see where she's coming from, and I agree that more careful screening of potential members could be helpful, but after seeing how so many of these people (as well as many large, mainstream companies) routinely violate their members' privacy I don't think giving them even more opportunity is a good idea.
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