Rewards Affiliates Cross Marketing Without Aff Tags

[AussieDave]

Hi All,

I spoke with Jeremy earlier today asking if it was ok to post some facts about Rewards Affiliates and how Casino Rewards are unethically cross marketing, to tagged players. I'd like to personally thank Jeremy for allowing me to add this information.

NB - links to CR in the email evidence in this post, I have added XXX to these.

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To prevent this becoming convoluted, I'll keep this as brief as possible and include relevant facts and evidence to support my claims. It should be noted, these issues was first brought to light at the GPWA in March 2011. All 22 casinos in rewards player emails and links to CR website

As you can see from the above thread it took many, many pages and a discussion/vote in the private members area to have CR/RA agree to remove the untagged links from the casinos logos and promos listed on weekly promotional mailers sent to tagged affiliate players. However the larger issues still remain, which, CR/RA refuse to budge on. These are:

• Removing clear links from their Casino Rewards logos attached to mailers in footer, sent to tagged players.
• Contacting tagged players with direct links to Casino Rewards or CRHelpdesk - whilst vigorously promoting their gaming properties on these web-sites.
• Enticing tagged players to sign-up at their other casinos but not accrediting the sign-up to the affiliate who the player is tagged to.

Put simply, Casino Rewards is the Loyalty program for their gaming venues. Players login to CR to cashin their comps...etc...etc. However in addition, casinorewards.com and crhelpdesk.com/main/index.asp heavily promotes, entices and blatantly encourages tagged players to not only cash in their comps and loyalty points at their other casinos, but also to sign-up and claim new player bonuses at these gaming venues also.

Evidence of this Group trying to hoodwink players away from affiliates can be viewed on both XXXhttp://www.casinorewards.com/main/index.asp and XXXhttp://www.crhelpdesk.com/main/index.asp, where "The Lord of the Rings™ slot" links to both XXXhttp://www.crhelpdesk.com/lord-of-the-rings-online-slot/ and XXXhttp://www.casinorewards.com/lord-of-the-rings-online-slot/

The newest addition to the impressive games list is the highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings™ slot. Be the first to play this exceptional online slot game at one of the popular Casino Rewards casinos.

The issue which should be of concern to all affiliates, CR are effective doing their utmost to lure players away from the referring affiliate. Which ultimately means no income for you.

This point can be clearly seen by a test player I asked to sign-up via my Captain Cooks banner at one of my sites. Within less that two hours, he received a mailer from Casino Rewards.

NB - CR would not have this player if I did not refer him via my site. However, they contact him without my aff tag and direct him to casinorewards.com, which as you can see from the following email received, the actually active link was crhelpdesk.com which was phished to look like casinorewards.com

I have specifically highlighted blocks of text which should be of concern to all affiliates promoting gaming venues through the Rewards Affiliate Program.

--
Tim Xxxxx
tim_xxxxx@fastmail.com.au
----- Original message -----
From: "CR Help Desk" <xx-xxx-xxxxx@casinorewards.com>
To: tim_xxxxx@fastmail.com.au
Date: 10 Apr 2011 16:04:32 +0000
Subject: Tim - Your Membership Details for CasinoRewards


Dear Tim,

Thank you for registering at Captain Cooks Casino and welcome to the Best Gaming Loyalty Program online!

As a player at Captain Cooks Casino you have received free membership with our loyalty program CasinoRewards. This loyalty account has automatically been created for you when you registered at Captain Cooks Casino.

At CasinoRewards you will be rewarded VIP points for your game-play. With many promotions, competitions and more giveaways than any other program online, you will enjoy great prizes and many bonuses!!!

If you wish to open an account with any of our other partner casinos, these accounts will also be part of your personal CasinoRewards loyalty account. So if you like to play on different casinos, you can accumulate all your VIP points in one personal CasinoRewards account faster!!

Please note that each Casino provides different account numbers. However you will only be given one username and password for CasinoRewards.

CasinoRewards login details

Username: Tim_Xxxxx
(remember the '_')
Password: xxxxxxx
(case sensitive)

Accessing CasinoRewards

You can access your CasinoRewards account in two ways:

Visit FastMail.FM WARNING: URL text and host don't match, possible phishing attempt. URL disabled. Original URL='XXXhttp://www.crhelpdesk.com'. Original text='XXXwww.casinorewards.com'. For more information on phishing click here. and enter the above details Click on the login button in the green CasinoRewards box in the lobby of the casino software.

Prizes, Promotions and Points

Be on the lookout for the many great offers that CasinoRewards has running. With regular emails, newsletters and games, you can take advantage of at least one new offer every week!*

Add any emails from CasinoRewards and CR Help Desk to your email “Safe List” so you never miss out!

All bonuses, comps and promotions will be credited to your CasinoRewards account as VIP points. You can log in at any time to check your account balance, or cash in your points for casino chips at any of our 19 partner casinos.

When You Need Help...

Our 24/7 Support Center is always on-hand to look after you, whatever your query:

Email: xxxxxxx@casinorewards.com
Phone (look below for a Toll-Free number closest to you) OR
Look for our “Live Chat” symbol in the casino or on our sites, to connect instantly with one of our helpful operators

Stick with us for the best in online gaming!


Byron Riley : CasinoRewards

*Conditions Apply. Please read ALL Terms and Conditions carefully before playing


Toll-Free Numbers


Your privacy is extremely important to us and we adhere to a strict Email Policy. If you feel you were sent this communication in error and wish to unsubscribe, click the link or email xxxxxxx@casinorewards.com. Further queries will also be attended to at this address.

Report any email abuse.
Phone numbers removed

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To save matters getting convoluted and confusing, I will make another post or two to display the facts and proof that my tagged player Tim, when following the above untagged link to CasinoRewards.com and CRHelpDesk.com and consequently clicking on Casino Share and Aztec Riches Casino, instead of my affiliate tag being acknowledged as the referrer, a Direct Typein from both casinorewards.com and crhelpdesk.com are given credit for delivery on my player.

[AussieDave]

Hi,

The following screen captures where taken as a result of my tagged player Tim, visiting both URL's in the above email. As you can see at the footer of both Casino Share and Aztec Riches, the Afiliate ID, is not mine but registered as a direct typein from the proceeding pages of both casinorewards and crhelpdesk.

[AussieDave]

Hi,

If anyone knows me from other forums, you'll know I've been a vocal and tenacious advocate of fair play, honest business ethics and just treatment of both affiliates and players in the 11 years I've been involved in the online gaming industry.

As some food for thought...How do you think Casino Rewards Group has managed to acquire so many online casinos? Currently they have 35 of them. The way I see it, I like other affiliates, our revenue which has been unethical scammed from us, have paid for these casinos.

These issues, touch me personally as I was heavily promoting the Casino Rewards Group since mid 2008 - I have sent literally 1000's of players to their casinos. However, discovering my players have been enticed, encouraged and directly marketed to void of my affiliate tags, makes me quiet sick in the stomach. This is especially true when I factor in the same unethical cross marketing has been unleashed on my fellow affiliate peers, who also market for this casino group.

I shudder to think how much of my rightful revenue has been scammed (cough stolen) from me. On a very conservative figure, I estimate this amount to be some where in the region of $200,000US. However, this figure could rise to over $350,000 or more. Obviously if that kind of money is being stolen from one affiliate; my back pocket, however may other affiliates have been robbed blind and to what amount of money does this represent?


NB - I have tried on many occasions to discuss these issues with my affiliate manager Renee and also with Yaniv her boss. However, not only does she and Yaniv refuse to enter into any dialogue with me, Renee has now publicly announced she has muted me on forums.

Renee has also refused to comment on these matters further.

I have tried to bring this to affiliates attention and to warn others of what is taking place. At the end of the day, what Casino Rewards is doing aided by Rewards Affiliates is nothing short of theft. I would hope that anyone reading this thread, can also acknowledge and post their condemnation of what is taking place at Rewards Affiliates and the Casino Rewards Group and demand that this unethical cross marketing void of affiliate tags is stopped and all affected affiliates are duly compensated for their loss of income as a result.

NB - Before CR purchased CasinoShare and those of the PlayShare Group, I was making a consistent income with them. That income dried up and came to an abrupt halt, within weeks of Casino Rewards purchasing these gaming venues. Other properties they've purchases have had the same dreadful outcomes.

I'm not the only affiliate who has been vocal about revenue drying up at the hands of CR. I will add, numerous players I signed up at Casino Rewards venues, mysteriously vanished, only to turn up 2 or 3 years later, apparently making their first (1'st) deposit at the casino they originally were originally tagged to. Whilst some may see this as coincidental - it's hard to believe when these players dropped many deposits over the weeks and months following.

I'll also includer, Renee my affiliate manager was always quick to point out that even though a player may not deposit, it's all good because they have joined up. Yeah...Her push to emphesis this point now is obvious. Each new player I signed up was being contacted within hours and directed without my affiliate tag to their other casino properties...Yeah good one!

Given the above evidence, I'm going to conclude these players were hijacked within hours of signing up and enticed to join another Casino Rewards gaming venue, thus cutting ties to my affiliate tagging of them in which every casino they joined from following my untagged links in the emails they received.



Cheers


Dave

[Randy Ray]

This is disappointing to see. Has Rewards responded to these complaints anywhere?

[AussieDave]

Hi Randy,

Responded yes, given excuses and played semantics yes, faced up to their responsiblities, no.

A pretty good example of this comes in via:
xxxhttp://www.affiliateguarddog.com/forums/cr-issue-t4308.html

What really surprises me (frankly with all this proof and proof from other affiliates), for whatever ever reason, some affiliates want this swept under the carpet. Point in question, over at AGD it was promised an audit would be done on CR/RA well over 13 weeks ago. When I enquired to it, I was attacked. Which waiting a month or so later I posted the following:

XXXhttp://www.affiliateguarddog.com/forums/ra-cr-audit-t4591.html

Incidentelly, the AGD forum still recommends them as a stand up affiliate program. Whilst Renee who has taken on the role of spokesperson for Casino Rewards, flately refuses to comment about these issues. Yet uses the forum to post promos and such, go figure.

[AussieDave]

Hi All,

To furnish the facts and trying to avoid a bad taste on my part, I wanted to let everyone know, I was informed earlier today in a thread at AGD that Casino Rewards and Rewards Affiliates have agreed to change their linking strategies. This was agreed to about two months ago.

As anyone who is anyone knows I don't associate with the GPWA anymore.

Announcing this important information was a staff member of AGD (and GPWA Private Member - Engineer) in the following post: RA/CR Audit??? Engineer Response

My interjection in relation to the forum not be advised by him earlier to these changes, can be see here:
RA/CR Audit??? - AussieDave Retorts

I personally feel, if this information was made available, even if only first mentioned in my latest thread over at AGD (when that thread commence) instead of Engineer trying to stir the pot so to speak, it would have saved a lot of anguish and wasted time on everyone’s part, especially mine.

As it stands now, I feel like I've been set-up and made to look foolish. Hopefully if you read the above posts following the above link, you guys wont think badly of me for standing up and taking a stand on this.

Even if the above has been amended, there is still the subject of compensation. CR/RA have been unethically cross marketing for years, all at the cost of affiliates and their income.

In closing, whilst it maybe almost impossible to work out which players actually belong to whom, I do feel affiliates who have been affected by these events, should received some form of compensation for lost income. I would hope others feel this way too.



Cheers

Dave

[Hazo]

Any follow up on this AussieDave or anyone?