One of the challenges for affiliate managers is recognizing when an affiliate account has changed hands. This will usually accompany a change in tactics and usually for the worse. The same can be said for new accounts or newly active accounts.
There is actually a very developed market for the sale of affiliate accounts. One poster on Pace Lattin's AdScam Google Group pointed to a 'job' on freelancer.com that was looking for affiliate accounts (mostly CPA). As it turns out there are 60+ similar jobs:
Here is a sample description:
I need someone could help me approval CPA network account.(like affiliate.com neverblue.com hydra.com ads4dough.com, etc.), my list over 40+. (I will provide individual info ,example: skype number&password, name, address, dob , domain, etc.. ) I have following conditions:
1), You should be familiar with CPA approval and should have the experience about CPA approval. You need CALL them.
2), You help me do the application of account and have them approved, I'll pay a good commission per account to you.
YOU should know how to use socks5 soft3), You should keep on-line according to the United States Time from Monday to Friday during the day time.(Otherwise, how do you answer the telephone or make a call?)
4), Please PM me what networks you are good at, your price for specific website and your online time so that we can talk about some details further.
5), You should be honest,trustworthy and work seriously.
6), You will get paid if the application is approved. ***The Accounts MUST BE APPROVED!***
If you are good at CPA approval, you can PM me the details (price, your experience, your contact INFO SKYPE MSN Yaho.o etc.,), I will give you a good price for each account approval! I hope to find people who can have long-term cooperation with me!
Some of the posts have 20+ bids. The going rate seems to be from $30 to $60 per account depending on the network. Most of the accounts requested for purchase were for CPA networks. The buying and selling of traditional network accounts (CJ, GAN, etc.) seems to be less frequent or less public.
The sale of affiliate accounts isn't anything new. I expect the prices have increased over time as networks have placed increased checks on new account approvals (phone calls, cookies, IP Address, etc.).
