Facebook ads are trying to scam me(trailbehind.com)
trailbehind.com
Facebook ads are trying to scam me
http://www.trailbehind.com/user/blogpost/34/
6 comments
Yea, those grant offers are run by affiliate marketers. It's a major scam. Basically they offer to send you information on grants for the cost of shipping (like $4.99 or so) and then charge your credit card for $90 a couple weeks later.
FB banned diet related scams from their ad programs a few weeks ago, so I'd expect them to ban these types of offers as well once the word gets out. These types of scams are the internet's dirty little secret. Google, Yahoo, et al have no problem letting people advertise them either.
FB banned diet related scams from their ad programs a few weeks ago, so I'd expect them to ban these types of offers as well once the word gets out. These types of scams are the internet's dirty little secret. Google, Yahoo, et al have no problem letting people advertise them either.
You know, I am always surprised there isn't more of this going on. Not just online, everywhere. CCs are just not a great solution to remote or cashless payments.
They are when you use a good CC company. I've had AMEX charge-back numerous deadbeat merchants and automated payment BS. They even got me $1,500 back from Paypal, which is basically a black hole for your money.
Which is the other end of the problem: deadbeat customers charging back.
Ironically, that is probably one of the things keeping back ecommerce. The cost of this purchase security is a very high cost to retailers. I've heard some say that chargeback costs (including software, security mechanisms customer service staff calling customers, verifying liaising with police, etc.) amount to about 10% -20%.
The CCs, being oligopolistic monstrosities can secure customers, but that doesn't mean the system works well.
Ironically, that is probably one of the things keeping back ecommerce. The cost of this purchase security is a very high cost to retailers. I've heard some say that chargeback costs (including software, security mechanisms customer service staff calling customers, verifying liaising with police, etc.) amount to about 10% -20%.
The CCs, being oligopolistic monstrosities can secure customers, but that doesn't mean the system works well.
This one is a monthly re-occurring charge of $58.61 (sort of an odd number, maybe they hope it blends in?):
> "If you have not cancelled the free bonus within the 7 day trial period (if offered on product purchasing), you are agreeing to purchase the bonus material and/or service at a monthly reoccurring cost. The resource center is billed at $58.61 monthly."
(That's hidden in the terms, not on the sales page.)
> "If you have not cancelled the free bonus within the 7 day trial period (if offered on product purchasing), you are agreeing to purchase the bonus material and/or service at a monthly reoccurring cost. The resource center is billed at $58.61 monthly."
(That's hidden in the terms, not on the sales page.)
FB banned diet related scams from their ad programs a few weeks ago,
Do you have any links on this? I'm seeing more and more info about the scams ... just wondering if FB has issued an official statement.
Do you have any links on this? I'm seeing more and more info about the scams ... just wondering if FB has issued an official statement.
This thread on WickedFire mentions the post on HN and predicts Grants offers with soon be banned too:
http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/50846-get-your...
It was on the same forum I read about diet offers getting banned. I don't think there was any official statement by Facebook on the matter.
http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/50846-get-your...
It was on the same forum I read about diet offers getting banned. I don't think there was any official statement by Facebook on the matter.
Hey there hypocrite. You have your own weight loss domains. And ever better, you have several spammy websites about online colleges.
They may not be right, but neither are you.
Evidence?
These are all just restructured wiki articles. Not selling anything yet, though probably eventually going up for sale since there's no other plausible reason for their existance.
http://abutterdish.com/
http://bodyfatgone.com/
Also owns Affiliatehunt.com if there was any doubt he's an affiliate. He has a fair number of domains so I'm not going to list them all. They're pretty much all the same thing as those 2 though.
There's a few like http://degreeaccess.com/ that are just markoved text.
I'm not going to out any real domains, but those are enough to get the idea.
But how do you know they are jwesley's?
Jwesley has 1 submission in his history. universitiesandcolleges.org.
I have a domaintools account that shows in the past it had the whois of "John Wesley"(it's on private whois now). But w/o the paid service,just to prove my point: Check the IP of the other domains I mentioned (abutterdish.com for example). Those both resolve to the same IP as universitiesandcolleges.org and are not on private whois. And what do you see as the registrant? "John Wesley". He's a fair amount of the domains on that IP actually.
Some crazy comments getting left there...
Are these people for real? How did they see the post? Is it getting attention anywhere besides Hacker News?
Are these people for real? How did they see the post? Is it getting attention anywhere besides Hacker News?
Maybe YouTube got ahold of it. Seems like similar commenters.
They say Facebook will do anything to monetize its traffic - even scam its users.
Well, they say to me that Facebook ads ain't worth squat and advertisers know it.
Well, they say to me that Facebook ads ain't worth squat and advertisers know it.
Which is weird because FB knows a lot about you and can target its ads perfectly. I mostly get ads for stuff related to things in my interests/activities (e.g. diving/snowboarding shops, geek stuff) and dating services (since I am listed as single). But occasionally I see one that's completely off the wall, there's no need for it really. I just downvote them, if everyone did the same they'd disappear.
The conventional wisdom is that big ad agencies don't want their clients' ads get stuck next to a picture of you puking at a party.
Well, yes and no. It depends on the product I guess. They just need to be smart and include (say) the name of the album or the caption of the photo in their ad targeting algorithm.
I get a lot of bizarre adverts on FB. I'm listed as married and I get ads for dating services, also I get ads asking if I want to make $80/hr and crap like that. Ironically I never got any diet pill adverts and I'm possibly their perfect market right now since I gained a lot of holiday weight.
Well, they say something like 35% of people on dating sites are married so that might have something to do with that.
Personally, I use GreaseMonkey scripts to hide the ads on Facebook.
Personally, I use GreaseMonkey scripts to hide the ads on Facebook.
Facebook has done a horrible job with their ads. --Most of the ones they show me are in Norwegian. I may live in Norway, but I don't speak Norwegian (yet), so the ads will never be relevant to me.
Facebook ads have always been relevant to me. Just this weekend, I was browsing profiles on Facebook, and the ads were all, "DO YOU NEED A GIRLFRIEND?"
Totally targeted.
Totally targeted.
That level of targeting is actually kind of creepy, in my opinion.
Try changing your status from in a relationship to single or vice-versa and see what kind of adverts you get. (Never mind what your privacy settings are...)
Try changing your status from in a relationship to single or vice-versa and see what kind of adverts you get. (Never mind what your privacy settings are...)
Facebook ads annoy me, because no amount of negative ad feedback seems to stop the deluge of diet, wedding, diamond, or diaper ads. The wedding planning ads are particularly annoying, since my relationship status is set to married.
Did you contact facebook directly about this ? I'd be very interested in their response, if any.
I contacted a friend within Facebook, so hopefully the word will trickle up.
This particular ad links to one of several duplicate/fake blogs touting a dietary supplement and then linking to a free-trial. If you don't cancel before the end of the 14-day trial (by phone), you are charged $89 (for a supplement that costs $7 at a health food store). Of course, no one answers the phone number you must call to cancel. It took a lot of paperwork with my bank to get the charges refunded–quite a pain.
It's a well-known scam and my wife takes much of the blame for not doing the proper due-diligence ... however, I think FB and MySpace would be wise to screen their advertisers better.
We did submit the info to FB and were told they would "look into it"