Nelson Vergel
Founder, ExcelMale.com
Great article to understand how supplement scams spread quickly on the Internet.
"Meet Lucifer, a 19-year old college student. He has some computer skills and wants to make some extra beer money by messing around on the internet in his spare time. He doesn't want to invest any money or worry about manufacturing, warehousing or shipping physical products. He decides that affiliate marketingis the way to go.
Lucifer spends some time researching various “offers” in the supplement industry. He finds one called “Maximum Shred” (https://maximumshred.com) that will pay him $32 for every customer he sends. He signs up to their affiliate program, and they give him a unique affiliate link to start marketing, so they know which customers are a result of Lucifer's efforts.
Lucifer creates a website and writes a blog post about Maximum Shred (http://www.strongmenmuscle.com/maximum-shred/). The post is guised as an “honest review”, but is really an underhanded attempt to get you to sign up to the “free trial”. Lucifer has never actually used the product. His post is sprinkled with his unique affiliate link so that he gets credit for any customers he refers to the Maximum Shred free trial. He adds big “Buy Maximum Shred Now” buttons to get you to click through.
Meet Stewie, a 41 year-old father of two who hasn't had time to hit the gym in 10 years, and has since put on about 30lbs from his prime. He's getting back into a workout routine, but wants to see results a little faster. He has heard of a product called “Maximum Shred” so he does a Google search for the product. He see's Lucifer's site in the search results and read's his entire blog post.
Stewie clicks through to the Maximum Shred site, and is enticed by the product claims and the “free” trial where he only has to pay $5.99 Shipping and Handling. Money is tight right now so he figures that six bucks can't hurt. He enters his credit card information, but doesn't realized that he will be automatically billed $89.99 a month for a subscription after the 14-day trial expires.
Once the transaction goes through, Lucifer immediately earns $32. Two months later, Stewie sees that he was billed almost ninety bucks the last two months and is outraged! He contacts Maximum Shred and demands a refund. They tell him that they can cancel his subscription but they can't refund his prior payments.
Stewie will never buy from Maximum Shred or trust Lucifer's site again, and rightfully so. Maximum Shred and Lucifer don't care. They've squeezed money out of Stewie and know that there will be other unsuspecting customers to lure in."
http://supplementreviews.com/articles/supplement-scams/what-is-an-affiliate-scam-88
"Meet Lucifer, a 19-year old college student. He has some computer skills and wants to make some extra beer money by messing around on the internet in his spare time. He doesn't want to invest any money or worry about manufacturing, warehousing or shipping physical products. He decides that affiliate marketingis the way to go.
Lucifer spends some time researching various “offers” in the supplement industry. He finds one called “Maximum Shred” (https://maximumshred.com) that will pay him $32 for every customer he sends. He signs up to their affiliate program, and they give him a unique affiliate link to start marketing, so they know which customers are a result of Lucifer's efforts.
Lucifer creates a website and writes a blog post about Maximum Shred (http://www.strongmenmuscle.com/maximum-shred/). The post is guised as an “honest review”, but is really an underhanded attempt to get you to sign up to the “free trial”. Lucifer has never actually used the product. His post is sprinkled with his unique affiliate link so that he gets credit for any customers he refers to the Maximum Shred free trial. He adds big “Buy Maximum Shred Now” buttons to get you to click through.
Meet Stewie, a 41 year-old father of two who hasn't had time to hit the gym in 10 years, and has since put on about 30lbs from his prime. He's getting back into a workout routine, but wants to see results a little faster. He has heard of a product called “Maximum Shred” so he does a Google search for the product. He see's Lucifer's site in the search results and read's his entire blog post.
Stewie clicks through to the Maximum Shred site, and is enticed by the product claims and the “free” trial where he only has to pay $5.99 Shipping and Handling. Money is tight right now so he figures that six bucks can't hurt. He enters his credit card information, but doesn't realized that he will be automatically billed $89.99 a month for a subscription after the 14-day trial expires.
Once the transaction goes through, Lucifer immediately earns $32. Two months later, Stewie sees that he was billed almost ninety bucks the last two months and is outraged! He contacts Maximum Shred and demands a refund. They tell him that they can cancel his subscription but they can't refund his prior payments.
Stewie will never buy from Maximum Shred or trust Lucifer's site again, and rightfully so. Maximum Shred and Lucifer don't care. They've squeezed money out of Stewie and know that there will be other unsuspecting customers to lure in."
http://supplementreviews.com/articles/supplement-scams/what-is-an-affiliate-scam-88
