I am not trying to start an argument. I am just playing devils advocate and don't think anyone of us will be prosecuted.
If I buy gift cards and socks from Target, I'm entitled to ebates on the socks. It's not my fault ebates/Target can't figure out how not to pay the ebates on the gift cards.
Yes, but you are buying the socks only because you know you will most likely get the CB on the GCs because you have identified a glitch in the system. That in itself is fraud.
This reminds me of the guy on the
Disney cruise Facebook page who says paying with gift cards but getting the redcard discount online is fraud--although we probably won't be prosecuted.
It is not fraud, the terms clearly state that we are entitled to the 5% except on prepaid cards. Click on Targets prepaid card list and they are mostly Visa and MC gift cards. Disney and Ebay are not in that list.
More than likely Fatwallet doesn't see the purchases. It's up to the merchant to determine if the order qualifies for commission and how much. Some affiliate programs do show purchases, but many only notify that a sale has been made and the amount of the sale. I belong and have belonged to several affiliate programs and I can't think of one that shows me a person's name and their order details. It's all tracked by cookies. Most merchants also don't pay out right away (to take into account cancellations and returns) which is why some portals have a waiting period before your points/cash credit or a threshold before you cash out.
They won't be able to see the details of the purchase. But they will be able to see the total or qualifing amount, the rebate amount, and which customer (an identifying code issued by the rebate portal) made the purchase. Cookies are only used to hold the affiliate info for a few days and is replaced if you come from another affiliate link or expires outright.
Unless the boys, men, guys, whatever, created many accounts, Fat wallet can see that an extreme amount of commissions is being generated.
How do I know all this? Before ebates, I was part of a project to create a site just like ebates. We were using Commission Junction (now called CJ.com). We would supply them a code we generated per member and they would give us reports of purchases made by that member through our affiliated links. We would then give a portion of that commision to the initiating member. We never completed the project.
Peace, Love & Cash back.
