GRRR! (order fraud)

[techbear]

I haven't gotten a check from Regnow in a while, so I checked my account, and saw that they will soon pay me $250. Woo-hoo!

But what's this???

There's an order for 10 of my game, and another for 5, and another for 3. and they're all from the same affiliate. :( I smell a big rat.

This has happened to me before. I get several of these multiple orders, each from the same affiliate in Asia. I e-mail the customers and get no reply. I e-mail the affiliate and get assurances that sound smarmy even through the poor english.

I e-mail Regnow, and they reply, "You're right, the orders are fraudulent", and debit my account. :(

Has anyone else seen this business? How can I avoid it in the future?

Thanks!

[Diodor Bitan]

Do you lose money on these fake orders? I know that for a refund, Regnow keep their $3.2 fee. Does that mean you lost $32 on that 10x order? What if they would have ordered 1000 of your game?

I'll try to disable multiple orders with Regnow now. EDIT: I can't seem to be able to do that. Ideas?

[Robert Cummings]

Don't use regnow. I don't know why people do use regnow. It's hardly compelling.

Not a troll, but I can't see the benefit so perhaps you would explain why you're using them at all?

[cliffski]

an affiliate in asia?
I am very picky on my affiliates. I rejected maybe 80% of them now, and haven't approved one for maybe 6 months?
Unless a site looks very proffesional and has a good traffic rating, I don't think an affiliate setup is worth it. And obviously I've never had any similar problems.
Unless I sign a portal deal, my website will be the only place to buy Democracy.
Just my opinion.

[Diodor Bitan]

Don't use regnow. I don't know why people do use regnow. It's hardly compelling.

Not a troll, but I can't see the benefit so perhaps you would explain why you're using them at all?

I use Regnow and Plimus (the first for a couple of years, the latter for a couple of months). The jury is still out on which I'll use for my non-affiliated sales.

[Jack Norton]

A thing is sure: fraud protection of Regnow is really LOW.
Add to this the higher fees, and I agree with R.Cummings, I see really no valid reason to use that service... :eek:

[Davaris]

I would love to go with Plimus but they don't seem to have any affiliates at all.

[Jack Norton]

LOL and that's a good motivation? you think that is better 1000 crap affiliates or 5-6 very good ones?
I have from my affiliates: Terragame, Phelios, Download3000. Check google ratings of the first 2 and then we can talk again... ;)
5-star shareware, a very popular UK site, has added Plimus to their vendors (if that's not a good sign of their services...) check the submit page.

But if you prefer to use Regnow or other vendors, I won't insist much... :rolleyes:

[Davaris]

I should say only one or two affilates approached me when I was with them. What can I say. I felt lonely. ;) My game is hard core so it probably wouldn't appeal to the big download sites.

But this fraud protection problem at RegNow has me worried and 90% of my sales are through my own site anyway.

I was wondering did you approach the affiliates at Plimus or did they find you?

[arcadetown]

Unless I sign a portal deal, my website will be the only place to buy Democracy.Hey now that's not very democratic... ok bad joke. :rolleyes:

[Jack Norton]

But this fraud protection problem at RegNow has me worried and 90% of my sales are through my own site anyway.

I was wondering did you approach the affiliates at Plimus or did they find you?
if your sales are only thourgh your own site, why use Regnow?! :confused:
The affiliates found me and asked me, this isn't so uncommon...

[techbear]

Aaaannd... Bam! The refunds for fraudulent activity came down today. Now my balance with RegNow is $-88.

Ouch! :(

I'ma gonna listen to you guys from now on.

Curiously, I got a reply from the customer who bought 10 copies. It was terse, but clear, and said he needed to register 10 copies for his Japanese shop (I assume it's a cybercafe). It still got refunded, though. :(

[Jack Norton]

Better remove USM from there before some asian soccer maniac orders 22 copies for his soccer amateur team then refunds :D