Networks begin sharing information on fraudulent partners

Back in June of this year, the Japan Affiliate Service Kyokai (JASK), an organization of Japanese affiliate service providers, announced that starting in October 2007, they would begin sharing information to identify affiliate partners with which member companies have discontinued agreements due to fraudulent activities. Member companies will refer to a common database of partner information when taking on new affiliates or examining the continuation of an affiliate agreement with a pre-existing partner on their network. No doubt, this is a move in the right direction for the Japanese affiliate industry. Though the level of fraudulent activity is no where near what it is in the USA, Japan might be seen as virgin ground for future scamsters, so this kind of inter-network cooperation should help both the providers and those whose money is most at stake, the advertisers. The following types of information will be used to identify affiliate partners that have committed fraud:
1) Name (company name) of affiliate partner
2) URL of registered website
3) e-mail address
4) Details of fraudulent activities
5) Industry of relevant advertisers
6) Seven-digit registered bank account number
7) Name of Member Company

One thing that wasn’t clear in all of this was if JASK member companies plan to create some kind of appeals process to allow affiliates an opportunity to defend themselves if they feel they were unfairly placed on the blacklist. I speak from personal experience when I say that there are times when an affiliate provider will kick you off their network over a simple misunderstanding that could have been cleared up with one phone call. Now with all JASK member networks working off the same blacklist, a professional affiliate marketer may find himself banned from network X due to some SEO practice that is not necessarily looked down on in network Y. In addition, has JASK clearly defined what falls under “fraudulent activity”? Unless there is a clear and common set of standards among all member networks, I fear that we may see good affiliates unnecessarily prevented from doing business.