IndustryPace covered the ad business from the inside in 2010 and 2011: affiliate fraud, malware in ad exchanges, invisible video ads and the networks that got paid on all of it. It is back as a home for commentary. The investigations live at ADOTAT.

Commentary

• October 15, 2026IndustryPace Is Back. So Is Most of What It Was Writing About.

  Sixteen years ago this site asked who was getting paid when ad fraud happened. The answer has not changed. The invoices got bigger.

From the archive, 2010 to 2011

The original text of these posts was lost. Each has been rebuilt at its original address from the public record, with what happened next.

• February 1, 2010Marketing War: Affiliate World vs. Brand World. Who Will Win?

  In 2010 the performance crowd and the brand crowd were fighting over the same budget. The money already knew who was winning.

• April 8, 2010Affiliate Marketing's Dirty Little Secret

  Cookie stuffing, free trials that never ended, and the checkout pages that sold your card number. By the end of 2010, the secret was a federal case.

• May 3, 2010MySpace Officially Dead to Advertisers

  The Google deal was running out, the users were leaving, and the ad buyers had already moved to Facebook. The funeral took another year.

• July 22, 2010Facebook Losing Key Demographic of 18 to 35 Year Olds?

  One bad month in June 2010 and a lot of people called the top. The headline was early. The direction was right.

• July 28, 2010Issues in Advertising Fraud: What Is Fraud?

  In 2010 the industry could not agree on what counted as ad fraud. That was not confusion. It was a business model.

• August 4, 2010Who Can You Trust? Interactive Advertising Is Dangerous

  The New York Times sold an ad to a fake Vonage and served its readers scareware. That was the industry's warning shot, and it was ignored.

• August 11, 2010Is Advertising Fraud Funding Terrorism?

  The claim was made loudly in 2006 and repeated for years. Sixteen years later, it is still mostly a claim.

• August 16, 2010Shawn Hogan Speaks Out: Marketer Charged by Feds Claims Conspiracy

  eBay's biggest affiliate said eBay knew what he was doing. He still pleaded guilty. Both things can be true.

• August 24, 2010Are Video Pre-Roll Companies Being Scammed Out of Millions?

  Invisible players, hidden frames and video ads nobody could see. Ben Edelman documented it in 2010. The industry called it minor.

• October 5, 2010Alleged Scam: SwipeBids and SwipeAuctions Tied to Acai Marketer Jesse Willms

  In 2010 consumers complained about penny auctions charging $159 for free bids. In 2011 the FTC named the sites in a $450 million case.

• October 21, 2010ShoeMoney Sucks, According to Fast Company?

  Fast Company ran a contest to measure influence by clicks. ShoeMoney won it. Then the magazine left the winners out of the issue.

• October 26, 2010Facebook Sues MaxBounty, Claims All Messages on Facebook Are Regulated by CAN-SPAM

  Facebook went after the network, not just the spammers. A federal judge agreed that a wall post can be email.

• November 1, 2010SwipeAuctions Shutting Down, Customers Say Refunds Refused

  A month after the first complaints, the penny auction site told customers it was winding down. The FTC case came six months later.

• December 2, 2010Google Changes Its Algorithm to Fight Troll Marketing

  An eyewear seller bragged that abusing customers helped his Google ranking. Five days later, Google changed the algorithm. He kept getting arrested.

• December 14, 2010Mainstream Media Finally Paying Attention to Malware Advertisements on Exchanges? Why Have They Been Ignoring It Until Now?

  In December 2010, poisoned ads ran through Google's DoubleClick and Microsoft's ad network at the same time. It had been happening for years.

• December 31, 2010Is Dan Balsam a Menace or a Hero? Anti-Spam Crusader Defends Accusations and Gives Advice to the Industry

  Email marketers called him a shakedown artist. California's appeals court ended up agreeing with him.

• January 21, 2011LivingSocial.com Overtakes Groupon? Is This Because of Questionable Adware?

  LivingSocial had a monster week in January 2011. The record shows it came from an Amazon gift card, not adware, and it did not actually pass Groupon.

• February 16, 2011Is Content Unlocking the Next Big Scam?

  Want the download? Take a survey first. In 2011 the survey wall was the affiliate business's newest machine for turning curiosity into a phone bill.

• March 3, 2011Right Media Will Kill Facebook Because of Viruses, Malware and Pops

  The exchange with the worst malware record in ad tech was everywhere in 2011. Four years later, Yahoo shut it down. Facebook built its own.

From Performance Marketing Insider, 2011 to 2020

Pesach Lattin's affiliate and lead generation trade site, rebuilt at its original addresses. Full list.

• September 2020NutraClick Fined by FTC

  Settled with the FTC in 2016 over "free" samples. Sued again in 2020 for doing it again. This time the ban was permanent.

• September 2020Amazon Deletes Tens of Thousands of Fake Reviews in the UK

  The Financial Times found Amazon UK's top reviewers flipping free products on eBay. Amazon deleted about 20,000 reviews. Regulators took five years to catch up.

• August 2020Why Evergreen Messages Fail During COVID-19

  Somber piano, empty streets, "we're here for you." By spring 2020 every brand had made the same ad, and someone cut them all together to prove it.

• August 2020Inside Sam's Club's Affiliate Marketing Program

  A warehouse club that sells memberships, not products, runs an affiliate program. That changes what a conversion is worth.

• August 2020Feds Go After Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical for Fake COVID-19 Cure

  A $23,000 "Emergency D-Virus" treatment plan, billboards, and a claim of FDA acceptance. The FTC got a court order five years later.

• March 2019Bot Form Fills Are Destroying the Lead Generation Industry. What Can Be Done?

  Fake leads came with real phone numbers attached, and real people got the calls. Consumer advocates are still citing this post in front of the FCC.

• October 2018$500 Million Android Advertising Scam Busted?

  Someone bought popular Android apps, watched how real people used them, and taught bots to do the same. Nobody agrees what it cost. Nobody was charged.

• January 2017Accenture Just Makes Sh*t

  In early 2017 a consulting firm was buying its way into the agency business and calling itself the biggest digital network on earth. The headline survives. The original text does not.

• September 2011Jesse Willms Assets Frozen

  A federal judge froze the money behind the free-trial empire, some of it already sitting in Cyprus. The affiliates who drove the traffic were never in the dock.

• September 20115 Tips for Better Affiliate Product Reviews

  In 2011 the advice was disclose, use the product and say what's wrong with it. By 2024 the FTC had turned most of it into federal penalties.