We gathered the most nasty scam schemes used in traffic arbitrage and we will tell you how to identify them and avoid them. You will learn they operate so you can dodge them and save budget.
Traffic Arbitrage Scam: Training
One of the most used scams is directed at beginners. An amateur webmaster gets an offer for paid training, nevertheless, the information provided is out of date or was simply taken from the web or public sources.
Clearly, such training is not useful or worth the time and money. But sometimes there is actually value information that will help novices. You can distinguish if a training is a scam or not by the following:
- Publisher: Training or causes from experts on CPA or any other specialist in the field will be more relevant and useful than a post coming from an Instagram user or a no-name nobody. Check the author of the person doing the training and make sure it’s actually coming from a well-known webmaster or someone trustworthy.
- Social proof: Check the reviews from the course, and make sure there are comments from real people, check the feedback and make sure the comments/feedback doesn’t need the admin’s approval. Ask colleagues, chats, or well-known groups.
- Promotion methods: Good and worthy training won’t be promoted or advertised through spam campaigns. Look for well-advertised training.
- Quality of information: Ask for a demo or to join the training for 1-2 days for free and review the content, if the information seems to be easy to obtain online then it’s not worth and you can the rest of the content by looking up on the internet.
Remember: experienced traffic arbitrators know how to profit from traffic, and they don’t really need to share their information and knowledge. Nevertheless, Traffic Arbitrage teams might share their information or teach new people in order to get workers and make them join their team.
But scammers can also pretend to be them. Be careful.
Fake commands
A scammer can create fake accounts for a fake Traffic Arbitrage team, in order to promote it and trick webmasters.
The deception scam strategy focuses on the fake team offering the arbitrator training or a job. Telling you that you will need tools for the job, tools they offer. They will offer you that you can acquire them by buying them from their “trusted” sailor. After paying, the store and the team will vanish from reality, leaving you without tools or money.
To identify if a team is a scam or not, check the following rules:
- Check out the links: Check out the links: Check the links to the accounts you will be working with. Scammers usually use the same links to hide.
- Explore publications: Check the posts from the team, confirm that they have case studies, and open comments and these comments are coming from over a period of time, not suddenly in the last week or days.
- Offer your resources: Talk with the “team” and let them know that you have your own tools, that way you will scare the scammers immediately.
You should not buy anything through links from strangers. Use trusted stores and do not cooperate with teams that no one knows.
Fake managers
This scam is directed at webmasters and Traffic Arbitrators with experience. The scammer disguises as an affiliate network manager and asks you to join him with certain conditions, like a high payout. Their tricks can vary, from proposing an interesting offer to any other shenanigan to deceiving you.
If you agree and start to generate leads and traffic, the scammer will get paid and then they will disappear, thereby getting traffic at your expense. They may even pay you for the first few leads in order to trust them and get more volume, but in the end, it will scam you sooner or later.
The only way to protect yourself against this scam is to upload only to links received directly on the PP website. Do not trust managers or other people’s links, don’t even trust from any “company profile”. Those can get hacked or faked.
Shave
On this one, the program itself is a scam. They simply don’t pay for some of the leads, and they justify by using several excuses. Even large PPs can also do this kind of scams, identifying them is extremely complicated.
This scam has several signs that might be useful:
- The program says you’re providing low-quality traffic.
- Leads are getting wasted because the program’s conversion rate is low.
- Traffic increases, but payment isn’t.
- The tracker data and affiliate statistics are different.
- Conversions are counted at the end of the month when there’s no more budget.
Conclusion
Scammers fear an aware person because they can’t be their victims. Check their credibility, evaluate reviews, and don’t work with those you don’t trust.