Adware & Hijacking

[swecs]

i've notice this section for "Adware" in this and other affiliate forums, and I've never really understood why. I see references to commissions being hijacked etc, but i've never understood how that happens.

If i've built a website which contains affiliate links to a merchant, are those links capable of being hijacked so that someone else gets the commission? or is hijacking referring to something else?

wondering if anyone is able to briefly explain the problem, coz i don't get it yet.

Graeme

[ikonic]

If i have adware on someones PC (and its monitoring markup or links) when they go to click a link that contains your affiliate id in the URL I can simple replace that id with my affiliate id meaning i get paid and you don't.

[swecs]

OK I get it, so the end user's computer is infected with your Adware, and it manipulates the code to alter the affiliate tracking ID to yours?

I don't suppose there is much we can do to protect ourselves against this kind of problem?

Cheers
Graeme

[MarioJohnston]

Originally Posted by swecs

OK I get it, so the end user's computer is infected with your Adware, and it manipulates the code to alter the affiliate tracking ID to yours?

I don't suppose there is much we can do to protect ourselves against this kind of problem?

Cheers
Graeme

Your dead right, but with modern anti virus and internet security software most end users are picking the adware up.

[bcl]

A lot of adware is bundled with "free" screensavers, games etc which users deliberately install so anti-virus etc doesn't stop it.

It can be used to target URLs - so often the merchant site or even the merchant's shopping cart is the target, and then forces open a window (in front, behind or even off-screen) in which one or more affiliate links opens and sets cookies or overwrites existing affiliate cookies. So the affiliates using adware claim commissions that genuine refferring affiliates should get, and also commissions where no affiliate was involved and the user went straight to the merchant website (IMO much like ppc brandbidders - it's just that one uses software, the other exploits user behaviour).

The only way to really get an idea of how it works is to deliberately download a few adware programs onto a computer and go browsing to see what comes up. Running a program to show you http requests and/or cookies written also helps. I'd recommend using an old sacrificial computer.