Central Desktop & Commission Junction Deceptive and Misleading Affiliate Marketing Program.

Commission Junction (“CJ”) is an Online Advertising medium that links advertisers with Publishers (affiliate marketers). An Affiliate Marketer publishes links to CJ advertisers’ programs on their websites and based on the offerings of the CJ advertiser a publisher’s website visitor clicks on a banner link which is directed to the advertisers’ website. The website visitor follows the instructions, signs up or makes a purchase. The Publisher (Affiliate Marketer) is then paid a commission for the lead and/or the sale (if a purchase is made.)

Below are some exact excerpts from the accepted agreements for the aforementioned companies:
Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement [Excerpts]

This Publisher Service Agreement (”Agreement”) is made by and agreed to between Commission Junction, Inc., a Delaware corporation, located at 530 East Montecito Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93103, USA (”CJ”), and you (”You”). As an application service provider, CJ facilitates “Performance Marketing Programs” by providing services (”Network Service”) via the Internet. A “Performance Marketing Program” (”Program”) is where a person, entity, affiliate or its agent, operating “Web site(s)” (internet domain, or a portion of a domain) and/or other promotional methods to drive traffic to another’s Web site or Web site content (”Publisher”) may earn financial compensation (”Payouts”) for “Transactions” (actions by Visitors as defined by the Advertiser) referred by such Publisher via an action made by a “Visitor” (any person or entity that is not the Publisher or the Publisher’s agent) through an Internet connection (”Link”) to a Web site or Web site content operated by another person or entity (”Advertiser”) from an Advertiser authorized promotional method used by such Publisher. The Advertiser compensates the Publisher, in accordance with this Agreement and the Program Payout specifications.

1. Participation in Programs.

(a) Acceptance by Advertiser. During this Agreement You may apply to Advertiser Programs for the opportunity to earn Payouts by promoting Advertisers in accordance with the Advertiser’s Program terms and complying with this Agreement. Upon approval by the Advertiser for acceptance into its Program, You may display (and remove) Links to Advertiser’s Web site or Web site content in accordance with the Advertiser’s Program terms and this Agreement. An Advertiser’s acceptance of You extends only to the entity, or individual, that enters into this Agreement with CJ.

(b) Program Terms. The details of an Advertiser’s Program shall be available through the Network Service. Transactions qualifying for a Payout are defined by the Advertiser. Advertisers may change any Payout rate upon no less than 7 days written notice through the Network Service with effect from the 8th day (or such later date as specified by Advertiser).
Central Desktop Affiliate Marketing program terms.

Description: Refer your web site visitors, friends and clients to sign-up with Central Desktop - the collaboration solution voted “Best of the Web” by Business Week.
$10 per Lead (no-risk, free 30-day trial) PLUS
$15 to $75 per Sale (lead-to-sale conversion rate, CR, driven pay)

What is Central Desktop?
Central Desktop delivers the best Web based collaboration solution by enabling users to create online workspaces, to share files and documents, manage task lists and engage in group discussions. A feature that yields quick adoption is its ability to tie email and project management together. This eliminates a ton of headaches for team projects and it’s also a more affordable intranet alternative for small businesses.

A couple of rules:
* No incentivised traffic without express written approval from Central Desktop. Contact cja@centraldesktop.com.
* Only promote Central Desktop to English speaking audiences since other languages are not yet supported.

Program Term: $10 p/ Lead + $15 to $75 p/ Sale
1. Action: 30 Day Free Trial
ActionCriteria The customer must complet a signup for a 30 Day Free Trial.
Action Referral Period 90 day(s)
Action Referral Occurrences Unlimited
Commission $10.00 USD
Locking Period - Standard Actions lock on the 10th of the month, unless extended.

2. Action: Paid Membership
ActionCriteria The customer must complete membership purchase on our website.
Action Referral Period 90 day(s)
Action Referral Occurrences Unlimited
Commission $15.00 USD
Locking Period - Standard Actions lock on the 10th of the month, unless extended.

All advertisers with CJ publish the criterion about their affiliate marketing program terms and offerings and each publisher needs to understand and follow these criteria when applying to become an affiliate marketer with any advertisers.
Consequently, based on the information I had gathered on CJ and their advertisers programs, I joined their network as a Publisher. I am a businesswoman and Grandmother with many years experience in business consulting, investment, employee recruitment, marketing and other areas.
Central Desktop (CD) is an advertiser on the CJ Network.
Clearly, an individual with my proficiency and experience would certainly understand the criteria as outlined by the advertisers and within the CJ Publisher Service Agreement.
It is quite alarming, however, that by following the rules my account was blocked and subsequently deactivated. I received the following notices from CJ via email:

Message #1
Date Sent: Monday, July Time Sent: 10:57 p.m. EST
Date accessed: Time Accessed

Email Message:

Commission Junction is currently investigating your account and has the following inquiries regarding your promotional methods:
Please explain in details how do you promote advertisers in our network and how do you drive traffic to your site. Do you offer any incentive to your costumers?
Please respond by replying to this specific e-mail within 48h of the mailing date.
Failure to respond shall be deemed an admission of liability and acceptance of this letter as 15 days notice of termination, and may result in Commission Junction exercising its right to terminate the Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement 15 days from the date of this written notice or sooner.
Please note that current or pending payout(s) may be placed on hold pending notification from you and Commission Junction’s confirmation of your full compliance.
If you have questions regarding this notice, please reply to this email using the provided reply-to address and leave the subject line intact.
Network Compliance

Message #2
Date Sent: Monday, July Time Sent: 10:59 p.m. EST
Date accessed: Time Accessed

Email Message:

Your affiliation with Central Desktop has been terminated due to your violation of the advertiser’s program terms and/or violation of the Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement with respect to your promotion of that advertiser. Specifically, it has been determined that you are sending fraudulent leads to this advertiser. As a result, the advertiser has been notified and the advertiser may, in its sole discretion, reverse all relevant transactions.

Should Commission Junction discover the same or similar violations with other advertisers, your account is subject to deactivation. Promotional activities that are in violation of the Publisher Service Agreement or an advertiser program terms must cease immediately. Furthermore, current or pending payout(s) may be placed on hold pending your notification to Commission Junction and our confirmation of your full compliance.
If you have questions regarding this notice, please reply to this email using the provided reply-to address and leave the subject line intact.
Network Compliance

Message #3
Date Sent: Monday, July Time Sent: 11:04 p.m. EST
Date accessed: Time Accessed

Email Message:

This letter shall serve as notice that your publisher account has been terminated and removed from the Commission Junction Network and transactions may be reversed (”charged-back”). This termination and removal is the result of non-bona fide transactions performed on your account in violation of the Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement you agreed to follow. Non-bona fide transactions include, but are not limited to, false, self inflated, and/or duplicate leads or transactions.
You are not eligible to rejoin the Commission Junction Network and any attempt to do so shall be null and void.
If you have questions regarding this notice, please reply to this email using the provided reply-to address and leave the subject line intact.
Network Compliance

Based on the time lines between the emails, Commission Junction allowed me [the Publisher] no time to respond to their allegations and requests. The messages were sent out only minutes apart.

Given that Central Desktop appeared to be the advertiser whose terms “I violated,” they were contacted directly and the program manager responded with the following message:

Central Desktop: Email #1

Please know that we take our CJ program very seriously and we are more than happy to pay out on any and all transactions that fall within our CJ program terms.
We contacted CJ regarding your involvement in our program because your site requires job applicants to sign-up for a trial in order to be considered for a job position. This is incentivized traffic which is clearly excluded from our program terms.

This claim is utterly false. My website unequivocally, does not require any visitor to sign up for a Central Desktop free trial to get a job. However our site did promote their workspace as a very useful web meeting tool.

Central Desktop: Email #2 (Excerpt)

Central Desktop does NOT pay any commissions in any affiliate program for the referral of employees. Employees, if required to use Central Desktop for their position, should be invited as internal members of a workspace …

Central Desktop is being deceptive and misleading. This is not mentioned in the Central Desktop program terms and criterion does not indicate who cannot sign up. It clearly states website visitors - which is a very general term – but does not exclude an employee, relative etc. A website visitor is anyone who visits a website. It appears that they make-up the rules – as they see fit – during the game.

I referred and promoted Central Desktop to all my website visitors which included friends, clients, acquaintances, etc. At least eight hundred (800) visitors to my site signed up with Central Desktop’s workspace sharing tool. Most of them appeared to have opted for the 30-day free trial promotion. However, a couple of clients said that a credit card was required for signup and they would return to complete the signup at a later date. The majority of persons will not give their personal credit card information for anything that is supposed to be free. Thus they halt the registration process by closing out the page and exiting the Central Desktop web site.

These persons were later sent emails from Central Desktop with a link to sign up without a credit card. Therefore, Central Desktop had already captured their information in their database as a LEAD.

How are these leads fraudulent when Central Desktop offers them the opportunity to sign up for the free trial without a credit card? It appears that they had captured the persons’ basic information even after the persons postponed the sign up.

NOTE: If you go direct to Central Desktop’s site from a browser by typing their address and without clicking on a banner link from an affiliate publishers’ website you are directed to a web page with that does not have the figure #1 image. When you click on their free trial link you are directed to figure #2. When my website visitor puts in the information required from figure #1, Central Desktop stores it in their database.
When you postpone Step #2, (possibly, because of the credit card) you are sent the following email [Excerpt]:

Fig. 3: Message Title: Free Trial No Credit Card

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for visiting Central Desktop

We noticed you were about to start a 30-day Free Trial, but then you didn’t. We figured it was asking for the credit card that drove you away. We’d like another chance to win your business.

Please start your Free Team Plan Trial here with no credit card required.
…

Therefore, if this signup is indeed free – based on the aforesaid – why does Central Desktop need the visitors’ credit card? If they have the persons’ information that they can send an email to and the persons accept the offer and sign up how are they “invalid leads?”

Now, let’s – for argument sake – say that my company is registered with Central Desktop and I invite one of my employees to join an internal workspace; in order for this employee to join the work space, they are required to register by creating a member profile.

Naturally this person becomes a lead for Central Desktop and that they will send marketing information to.

By stating that the lead is “incentivized” is a pre-determined tactic that Central Desktop is using in order not to honor their legal commitment for paying commission on the leads. They are trying to get out of paying over $8,000 worth of leads that were sent to them and practically on a daily basis they have continued to market their products to these so called “fraudulent” leads.

Whenever I promote CD to my friends and clients it is promoted as a very useful tool that can save them a lot of money. They are told that they can stay at home and have meetings anywhere in the world with their counterparts or contacts. I advise them to take the free trial and see how it works for them. My friends and clients have never heard of Central Desktop, and may only register because they may want to maintain their friendship and positive business association with me and my company. Is this an incentive?

If I am allowed to encourage my website visitors to register, as directed by Central Desktop, doesn’t this mean that anyone that comes on to my website and registers for the free trial is a valid lead?

Evidently, CJ and Central Desktop are engaging in unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business acts or practices and/or unfair, deceptive, untrue or misleading advertising in violation of California Business and Professions Code section 17200.

As aforementioned it is indeed obvious that some CJ advertisers, advertise a particular stipulation in their program terms that I undoubtedly followed, nevertheless when it came to leads generated from the traffic of my website visitors and the amount I earned I was deactivated within a six (6) minute timeframe of CJ’s notices to me. It is imperative that I reiterate that CJ and its advertiser – Central Desktop – is being unlawful and unfair and should ensure that the commissions I earned honestly, be forthcoming.

Other Publishers appear to be experiencing the same problems as I am. Central Desktop is not an ETHICAL company and Commission Junction / Value Click is a platform for these unfair and illegal practices.

Publishers beware! If you are currently promoting Central Desktop through CJ or any other affiliate marketing programs, please pay close attention to your account. Central Desktop will deny and revoke credit for leads stating they are invalid. We have this fully documented and they are unaware that they were being monitored closely.

There are many other individuals / web site owners that are not being compensated for leads; clearly a fraudulent system is in place by Central Desktop and Commission Junction / Value Click (a public traded company) to steal leads.
I am currently working with the BBB, FTC, SEC and State Attorney Office on this case.
I have an attorney that is currently organizing legal action against these companies; if any one is a victim of any of these companies, contact me.