question - 'cash for clicks' on multiple cashback sites

Seraphim

Yes, it's fraudulent.
It's not fair on the traders who often don't make good margins anyway. The more fraudulent clicks they have to pay out for, the less their margins are. The problem is 'middle men' sites who sign their users up like this don't care because they get a nice share for doing almost nothing, and the users don't often realise where the money comes from.

Incidentally, both the interim site and the actual store can, and probably do, log IPs. The trader can also see where their traffic is coming from and also how well the traffic converts. The more traffic they get that doesn't convert (even if you do 'browse around the site'), the more likely they are to ban that source.

Because of stuff like this, the industry is slowly moving away from pay-per-click gubbins and moving towards a more affiliate based scheme where the 'middle men' will only receive money if you actually buy something (although this is probably a couple of years away).

bugly wrote:

it is no different to ad words (google) where competitors click on ads to knock other small companies daily profits

This doesn't happen any more, not unless you are very sophisticated in how you do this. IPs are logged, and Google will ban companies using these tactics. Also, although the smaller competitors may pay out in the first instance, Google does refund when it sees fraudulent activity going on.

I'm not having a go, although I think it comes across that way It's just there is no such thing as 'free money'...someone somewhere is paying for it, and unfortunately, it tends to hit the smaller traders a lot worse

save-a-lot

bugly wrote:

i make that equiv £5.81 per hour - the trick is to do it from work , but i didnt say that.
click throughs are advertising, companies cannot use advertising as guarenteed profit return advertising is a risk, it is no different to ad words (google) where competitors click on ads to knock other small companies daily profits. i do it as genuine searches as part of my daily buying needs it makes peanuts but why not (but i already know what the site has and at what price does that make me wrong as well?).
keep clicking folks it makes companies use real price cuts to attract customers, marketing forces in action.

Google will ban fraudulent clickers on competitors ads if they run adword campaigns themselves as their IPs are logged, also, click patterns etc. and Google just issue a ban, no arguments, it is a lifetime ban. So if Google take it so seriously other PPC companies will. There is no justifying fraud, companies large and small use comparison sites and are looking for the value they can offer them. Companies will move to sites that do not offer affiliate schemes so that incentivised clicks i.e. from cashback sites will be wiped out... I am sure of it