ClickBank Scam Revealed - Learn How to Protect Yourself

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ClickBank Scam

Is ClickBank a Scam?

ClickBank scam problems seem to be on the decline since they started cleaning up their marketplace a few years ago, but sometimes products that may not be 100% legit do slip by moderators and we are here to show you what to look for and how to protect yourself. Fraud and scams in general are becoming ever more prevalent then in years past. If you have been online at all in the last few years you have no doubt seen a ClickBank scam. The promise of making money online from home is sweeping the world, with a new scheme promising varying degrees of success popping up every day. The trouble with these schemes are that they’re often not what they seem, and can sometimes even result in throwing money away instead of making it. One very popular destination for those determined to make money online without any specific area of expertise is ClickBank, an internet marketplace that caters to entrepreneurs wanting to sell their products, consumers looking to purchase anything ranging from software to fitness guides, and affiliate marketers who are looking to simply make money promoting these products made by the entrepreneurs to the consumers searching for them. This sounds simple enough in concept, but if you’re not careful, you’re likely to run across any number of ClickBank scams during your experience with the company. Here are a few concerns to watch out for if you’re interested in becoming a member of one or more of the three categories previously mentioned.

ClickBank Scam to Consider When Buying Products

Online consumers always need to be wary of the products they put their money in, and this is no different on ClickBank. A simple Google search including ClickBank scam will yield results with information regarding the company’s not so great reputation with the Better Business Bureau, and dozens of forum posts from people all claiming to have been a ClickBank scam victim. Although there are plenty of reputable merchants who put a lot of hard work into a product or information packet and sell it honestly, there are plenty of others who do not share those same good intentions. Don’t get caught up in a lot of impressively worded advertising and throw down your money on an ill advised spending frenzy. Do your research first, check outside of ClickBank to see if the product is legitimate, and then give it a shot if it checks out. Even then, if you’re disappointed after you put the money down, exercise your right as a paying customer and request a refund. ClickBank has the power to grant you a full refund even without returning the product if you felt what you paid for did not live up to its billing, provided you put your request in writing within the first two months of paying for the product. Any merchant who knows he’s created a quality product has nothing to worry about by offering a guaranteed refund.

Clickbank Order Page

Ensure that your ClickBank order page matches the following screenshot. Otherwise you could become a victim of a phishing scam. Also be sure to check the URL in your browser. You can ensure that the page is secure by checking that the URL begins with https. Then make sure that the domain is in fact clickbank.com

Scam Check List – What to Look Out For

  • Poorly designed websites.
  • Poor English grammar and or misspellings.
  • Sites that sell popular and expensive products that claim to be genuine yet they are not the manufacturer. Nike, Rolex, Beats by Dre., Microsoft, Adobe. Just to name a few.
  • Prices seem to good to be true. This is especially true for big ticket items. Some of which we mentioned above. If they are selling items for just a fraction of the retail price most likely it is a scam.
  • If it sounds too good to be true it probably is a scam. This happens on ClickBank quite a bit. You will see claims to get rich, or ways to get free power, or learn to play guitar overnight. Use your BS detector folks.
  • If contact was initiated unsolicited via Ebay, a forum PM, AIM, Skype or through a spam email.
  • They have no real online presence. They use free web hosting services or auction websites only.
  • If you find complaints about the seller or their product and the seller claims it’s a competitor posting false messages.
  • Doing a search on Google for the name of the product produces multiple negative reports. A trick to use is to use the name of the product along with “scam” in the Google search. For instance “product name scam”.
  • The website was registered recently. Within three months. You can do a quick search here: whois.sc
  • When researching the sites registration the info is either hidden or clearly fake.
  • They claim to be royalty in another country and only ask for a small fee so they can wire you millions of dollars.

Okay, that last one was a joke, but this stuff really happens. Check out 419 eater.

If you can think of some other signs please leave them in the comments. I would love to see what people have come across.

ClickBank Scam to Consider if You Are Selling Products

Clickbank ScamComing up with a revolutionary idea and putting it together to form a product is hard work. The last thing online merchants want to contend with is having their own ideas stolen from them and sold elsewhere without getting any of the profits they worked so tirelessly on. Unfortunately, this is one of the many forms of ClickBank fraud, and merchants need to be made aware of the risk involved with selling their products online. There are several ways in which online merchants can get scammed out of the money that should be rightfully theirs. There have been numerous reports that if a particular page gets popular on ClickBank , it’s all but a sure thing the idea will be copied and sold on other websites set up by someone claiming to be the creator. In doing so, the profits received in selling the product on all the copied sites do not go to the original merchant, but rather to the scammers who stole the idea. Another common way merchants lose their money is by consumers who request a refund after paying for and downloading a product even if the user has no real issue with it. Still another issue arises if someone finds a backdoor entrance to the merchant’s Thank You page, which assumes the order has already been placed fairly and clears the user to download the product. Thankfully, there are numerous software programs that were made exclusively to better protect your ClickBank products from being taken advantage of so easily. Additionally, with some simple programming, you can also make sure there’s no backdoor entrance to your download page without paying first. The short answer, without getting too specific in the details, is to never list your product files or delivery pages in your site’s robots.txt file

DLGuard Protect ClickBank Affiliate Scam

If you are selling products on ClickBank you are no stranger to customer fraud. DLGuard is one tool that affiliates can use to protect their members area, protect downloads and protect their bottom line. Their are too many features here to list but we will expand upon this in another post or you can click on the link below.

Protect Your Sales – DLGuard

ClickBank Scam to Consider if You Are an Affiliate

It’s just not merchants that lose money that’s rightfully theirs. Affiliate marketers who carefully prepare ads that help generate revenue for the merchants are entitled to a share of the pie, too, and those individuals are just as at risk to have their work taken from them. If someone finds a way to steal the commission for an ad that you created, then all the money you should have earned is going to that person instead of you. This is a very possibility in the world of affiliate marketing, but again, with a little effort, you can avoid being a victim. One of the more popular defenses against affiliate link hijacking is to do a simple system of redirects, either Meta or PHP. This essentially hides the fact that the user has even gone to a different page when they click on your link. If they don’t realize they’ve clicked on an affiliate link, they can’t steal it. There also link shrinking sites available you can use to shorten your link, making it unrecognizable. Others go with cloaking software that will hide the affiliate link’s presence altogether, masking your affiliate id from detection. There are several free programs that will do this work for you and well worth the download. This is a great way to avoid this common ClickBank scam.

ClickBank Scam Affiliate Check

You can ensure that your affiliate link is working properly by clicking on your generated ClickBank hoplink and continuing to the sites order page. Scroll to the bottom of the order page and look for the following. The ID should be your affiliate ID. Not passing the ID could be the sign of a ClickBank scam.

Although any ClickBank scam report will certainly warn the average user of the potential for fraud, the site as a whole has its uses if approached with caution. By taking preventative steps and remembering the dangers involved in any online marketplace such as ClickBank, you won’t have to go through the agony of being victimized by a ClickBank scam.

Start Selling With ClickBank

Leave A Reply (58 comments so far)


  1. peter

    What is the point in doing anything in life, no matter what you do where you go there is someone waiting in the shadows to steal you’re thunder. Everything that should be good for good people turns out bad and everything bad that bad people do turns out good for them. Its hard when you’re one of the good ones cos we are the ones who care and give but get nothing in return. Life is bullshit!


  2. John

    Master reviewer says that Clickbank reviews all products before they go u[ for sale. I purchased what I thought was a good product this morning thru clickbank….. as soon as I purchased the product I was directed to download the item, it took me to a website that was covered in warnings by microsoft stateing that the site was blacklisted. I stupidly bypassed that warning and went to the site and tried to download the product that I had purchased. When i started the download I again received a large warning NOT to download the product…..

    I stopped and contacted the email address on my receipt. I await thier response. I will be requesting a refund within 24hrs and will probably close down my credit card as I dont know if Clickbank gets my cc details or the vendor? I now see complaints on line that the vendor i was purchasing my product from has also been identified as selling cc details on the internet…. I dont know if this is true…. but regardless I am very concerned.


  3. admin

    Can you include the details of the site you are talking about. I would like to have a look at this myself and possibly make a post about this to alert Clickbank and customers.


  4. Lisa

    What I hate is they make you sell 5 items that have to have 5 unique credit cards, this is terrible! My one commission is going down $1 a period now, I won’t see it. Just stupid!


  5. John

    win-spy (dot) com

    I purchased a product using another site ( win-monitoring-software (dot) com /Win%20Spy%20Software%20Contact.html ) which then brought me to this site.


  6. admin

    @Lisa Are you speaking of recurring commissions? I’ve never had a problem with commissions going down a dollar each period. Which product are you having this issue with and what was Clickbank’s response to the issue?


  7. John

    Master Reviewer did you get the same result I did? By the way no one has responded (even an auto-response)to my emails. That includes email to Clickbank.

    John


  8. admin

    The thing about keyloggers and remote spy software is that it will usually be picked up by your computer as a trojan virus. The reason being is that is exactly what trojan viruses do. They remotely spy on your computer. Most if not all antivirus software will try to prevent you from installing such software because they think it is a virus. If you are unsure about the site you ordered from and have decided not to use the software you can get a refund. Just explain this situation to Clickbank. I’m sure they will understand. I would give the software a shot as it seems to be okay however. Here is a link to what McAfee has to say about the site in question.

    http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/win-spy.com

    I hope that helped. I’m sure that Clickbank isn’t facilitating any type of fraud or scam here. If they haven’t answered it’s only because they are giving the vendor time to respond and because it is the weekend.


  9. John

    Thank you, I have 3 computers that my children (11-17) use all with cams. Thru other means I have cfmd that they have in the past down things that I would not have agreed to and one has gotten video’s that I do not believe a child should see. I am concerned about their computer use and wanted to monitor their actions for a few months just to see if they are okay and that my concerns are being acted on.
    Its interesting that this site receives these warning messages yet other similar sites do not.


  10. chris

    VERY interesting and helpful article – thanks for the heads up. I was thinking about joining clickbank – however you have raised many valid and crucial points that I must look into before opening any account and funding money into a sink hole. thanks again


  11. Wilf Staton

    I have just started reading articles on clickbank scams and although I do not think Clickbank itself is a scam only some of the products. Apart from this I understand there is a 60 day warranty anyway on any products sold through clickbank.

    I have used clickbank to sell others product for nearly two years and although I haven’t made a fortune ( $200 – $400 a fortnight) It has been fairly consistent until recently (the last 3 months). I never went more than a couple of days without a sale. I still get sales but I suddenly have periods over seven days and more without a sale. I went 10 days once. Then just as suddenly it all comes back.

    My average hops per sale were in the region of 16 – 18 now it gets up to 45 or more because of this hole that happens.

    What also puzzles me is that I used to get a fair number of sales form impressions without a sale but I do not get any of these when I am in this hole either.

    I started cloaking my hoplinks through redirects created through my site a couple of months ago but this has made no difference.

    Wonder if anyone else has had this happen to them.

    I sell through an article on my blog and have not altered anything except for the hoplink redirect link.


  12. lorie

    what i have encountered right now is the ad saying you can work from home and earn money by answering surveys. they call it paid surveys. i just want to know if this is true or scam. thanks.


  13. Hadi

    @kathleen gallagher I really felt for you. I have been a victim my self once but not through clickbank.


  14. john lacombe

    I was just riped by a company who said I could get a background check for $14.95
    Looks like I am not the only one.Once you pay and click on there then they want more money.
    And I never got my background check.

    The name of the company is:
    Complete Investigation Services
    CSI

    The webb sight is:
    publicrecordssearchonline (dot) org
    clickbank took the money

    BEWARE!!!


  15. el jay

    i purchase affiliate software download from steve iser name commcrusher $47. after processing they were pushing a must have name 10done for you $297. promise to make $20k/mth.i download software witch is a lot of files that i could not open or understand, i email 3 asking for help no such luck, i requested a refund 5 days ago i am waiting.


  16. marcus

    thanks for your articles on click bank, I did hear there were problems with consumers and a lot of refunds or returns being made. thanks


  17. Ahren Lotze

    493,526 impressions… 63 clicks… $70 to advertise… 1 sale later

    I have made a sale but will not see the $11.99 because of this Clickbank condition that Lisa posted about…

    Customer Distribution Requirement
    ClickBank will withhold payment of any account balance until the following criteria is met:

    Sales made with 5 or more different credit card numbers; and,
    Sales made with two different payment methods (either Visa, MasterCard, PayPal or European Direct Debit(ELV)). Note: PayPal purchases do not count toward the minimum 5 different credit card numbers.
    This requirement is in place to help prevent Affiliates from abusing the ClickBank Affiliate program by using their accounts for the sole purpose of fraudulently collecting rebates and/or discounts on their own purchases.

    Once you have met the Customer Distribution Requirement, your account will begin issuing payments normally, in accordance with our Accounting Policy, beginning on the next payment issuing date.


  18. Bent Lee

    Hello, I am a Clickbank merchant. I can say that they are not a scam. I had mediocre sales before I started using them. The thing about Clickbank is they have a huge following of affiliates. Once you are in their marketplace there are thousands of affiliates that are interested in selling your product, granted you have something that is worth selling. I did have some issues with customer fraud at first. People would order my eBook then cancel the order. They had my product and I was out the money. That was before I implemented DLGuard, which I found out about on this site. It dropped my refund rate down drastically. It was at 30% now it’s 2%. The trick to DLGuard is letting the customer know that if they get a refund for the product it will be deactivated. Any refunds you get you can instantly deactivated the users license and they are not able to open the product. Ooops, too bad for you. Their admin tools make it very easy. Anyways, Clickbank is an awesome third party processor to use. Sure they charge more than a traditional merchant account, but are you going to have over 10,000 affiliates instantly with your merchant account? No is the answer.


  19. Kevin Slevinson

    I ordered a product and need to get a refund. I have emailed the vendor over and over with no response. Can you tell me how to go about getting a refund from Click bank directly?


  20. Shawn

    @Kevin Slevinson You can contact Clickbank any time and request a refund for any reason. Of course I suggest only requesting a refund for legitimate reasons. Here is the URL you can use to contact them directly.

    https://www.clickbank.com/orderDetail.htm


  21. jenna catao

    Is clickbank a marketplace.


  22. Paulita Smarsh

    I’ve Googled around but no luck yet. The ones I’ve come across so far all have to do with MP3s, software and what not. If you have any in mind, please provide links to the sources. Many thanks in advance!.


  23. A

    Product: MikeGeary’s FlatBelly Program I have five seperate ClickBank order numbers for one vendor, but I have no information from that vendor on how I can receive my service or product online. HELP! A three day return policy does me no good if it takes four days to find the product I purchased.


  24. Felipa Widder

    I think click bank can really help to prevent online selling on fraud. It will help online sellers to protect them from scam and other problems that may be encounter online.


  25. Quinton Frisch

    Thanks for giving this kind of information. I was about to join click bank to sell my used items. maybe I can start selling things using click bank. hope it will help me to get more sales.


  26. Dotty Timmreck

    Can I just say what a relief to find someone like you who actually knows what they’re talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important.


  27. Hilton Clem

    This really answered my question. I’m glad you posted this blog dude. It’s been a great help for my to know more about click bank. I’ve been expecting more from you.


  28. Rosia Eleam

    I’ve been searching on Google for days now, gladly i found this website of yours. I’m very pleased to meet someone like you that will help not just me but all people who can read this.


  29. Abraham Lanka

    I’m glad I read this article, if not… i might be scammed by others who are also claiming to be a click bank. I wonder how they do it and let other people get scammed. Cheers, this is a great help for me.


  30. Jacinda Jaffee

    I should have known this before. I got scammed by click bank, oh those who are claiming to be one. It’s true that it wont help you to earn money but the other way around. I should’ve check other sites regarding click bank.


  31. Bradford Denk

    Everyone should be aware now of this scam and click bank fraud, better yet.. check the site first to know if it’s the legit one or the one who is scamming a lot of people. The legit click bank can help you earn money but the fraud one can put you down.


  32. Linnie Inclan

    I saw a lot of you get scammed by this. I hope you will be very careful in dealing this kind of things online next time. There are scams and fraud everywhere, you should keep an eye on them and surely, you will catch them.


  33. Mauro Tant

    I don’t think click bank can really help me in gaining more sales of my items. Whether it’s the legit one or the fraud. I better make it my way without this kind of site. Besides, it wont help me at all.


  34. Angele Rutski

    I am often to blogging and i really appreciate your content. The article has really peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your site and keep checking for new information. By the way, i got scammed by click bank before. i hope this will help others.


  35. Elliott Turk

    I discovered your blog site on Google. Actually, I’m just checking if click bank was a scam or not.I’m glad you warned us there. Continue to keep up the very good operate.


  36. Katrice Weigleb

    I’d prefer to use some with the content on my blog whether you don’t mind. Naturally I’ll give you a link on your web blog. Thanks for sharing. It will be great help and will definitely warn online savvy like me.


  37. Jerome Smitty

    You made some decent points there. I looked on the internet for the issue and found most individuals will go along with your website. Thumbs up for you and I hope this will help others not to get scammed.


  38. Jillian Pusey

    I saw this: “I purchased a product using another site ( www (dot) win-monitoring-software (dot) com/Win%20Spy%20Software%20Contact.html ) which then brought me to this site.” Well i guess this will help you not to get scammed.


  39. Jimmie Mapes

    I never tried click bank yet but I think I won’t try it anymore for I heard a lot of bad comments online. I just stick to what I’m using right now and I think It helps me a lot to improve my business.


  40. Penelope Eanni

    This web site is really a walk-through for all of the info you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here and you’ll definitely discover it. Actually, I discovered it and thanks so much for this.


  41. Sylvester Monetti

    Thanks for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. This blog helped me a lot and hope will help others in the future too.


  42. Micah Santoriella

    All online shoppers and online business sellers should read this. This will be a big help for them to avoid being scammed and put in a very difficult situation online. It’s really a warming for everyone.


  43. patty

    I signed up to be an affiliate for clickbank last night. They said they were taking $1.00 out of my account and I would have access to their sight. I checked my account today and they took $87.59. I my bank when I saw the charge and said that I had not authorized that amount. They told me I needed to contact the vendor – the payment had not yet been processed. I called clickbank to cancel and asked why they charged that to my account when they said they would charge $1.00. The answer was totally unsatisfactory – he told me nothing. He canceled my account and said it would be 3 to 5 days before I see a refund in my account. I am calling my bank again as soon as the transaction processes and disputing the charge. I want it on record that I am not dealing with these people and to accept no charges from them.


  44. Scott Ritchie

    ClickBank has opened a ticket for me and I have requested a refund but they just close it saying that lack of activity and then don’t allow you to re open or give a way to proceed further.


  45. David Pilsworth

    ClickBank is a scam?
    We check out financial products for our clients and were asked to look at the Mobile Money Machine requiring a payment from ClickBank of $39 with a 60 day guaranteed repayment? We claimed and were told by ClickBank that the user is not active???

    How can we recover the payment from Clickbank?


  46. Sandra Hicks

    I ordered “The Diet Solution” 11/6/2010 order no. 9H5YEPXM and my credit card was charged but I have yet to receive anything . I am so mad that I trusted this to be an honest website. I will “NEVER” order anything on the computer again, it only takes ones royal screwing for me to learn my lesson


  47. steve mcfadden

    Peter,

    Don’t get too down about most opportunities seemingly to be a pitfall waiting for you. My next statement comes from a Christian perspective.

    After a day of watching the stock market fall 400 points achieving a greater height than the 300 points it fell the day before. This also after a day of listening to negative news about the president (talk radio), bad news about the economy, the world economy, Then watching the rebublican debates and being depressed about that. My wife tells me this morning afterall we are living in a fallen world. Now everything makes sense (see perspective).

    Now I have a friend (very smart) who is so very internet savvy who tells me when I asked a couple of years ago…..why is the internet so scarry with all the devious behavior, worms, viruses, etc. etc. He says, “remember the internet is like the old old west” everything goes! the good and the bad.

    Keep your chin up!


  48. larry

    I been orders from affilates for years , my problem with them they just don t deliver what they say , Paying for what you get is no problem , just don t give me that , added stuff , i would pay the true amount if everything was included .


  49. product46

    I am so glad I put your site in my address bar. MAN I have being wasting my time trying to start up a
    ClickBank account I was trying to find my credit card to order what they call new software to generate traffic. Thank you
    for taking out time to to put a STOP on my madness.


  50. Debbie

    I feel click bank is a scam they charge more than the amount I need to pay.
    I refuse to pay more!


  51. bob

    I went to eVerify ….they showed a price for a year subscription. I put in my card info…then a new page came up saying the price was for one month and they would be charging me that amount every month.
    It’s like dealing with “THE SOPRANOS”.

    Tried to phone them…they cannot answer my call right now….I’ve called over 50 times…I guess they are out burying the bodies.


  52. John

    you can’t accuse them as a scam. read this blog carefully before commenting on it. clickbank has tried to clean out the garbage vendors but they cant help it if one or 2 get through. If you have a clickbank product advertised to you and it says something like ‘lose weight in 3 days’ and you buy it then claim to be scammed….well no i think your just an idiot for buying something that’s obviously too good to be true.

    anyway this was a great blog and very informative. i will be posting a link of your listing on my blog :)


  53. bob

    Clickbank advised me that they would not charge me for the upcoming 11 months. I explained that I had NOT finalized the transaction….
    yesterday I received notice that the initial charge on my credit card would be canceled within 5 working days.I’ll keep my eyes open and let you know. As for Everify, all of their responses indicate that I should read their ‘Legal Terms”, which I did before attempting my purchase. I told them that their stupid ONE SIDED “Legal Terms” (obviously written by some Bostonian Lawyer, oooooooooo) did NOT concern me since I had not completed the transaction.
    I told them that they should spend more money on a good programmer than wasting it on some Bostonian lawyer.

    I’ve been on the NET since before the existance of the world wide web, I had done winsock programming since Trumpet winsock was available to
    allow Windows (last of the major operating systems to have connectabilty to the internet). I know how simple it is to write a program to avoid the web page trap on their site. ( I do know alot about winsock DLL programing using VB, API, java, IP/works etc.) I played with it for years as a hobby, and one of the basic concepts of programing is not to alllow traps. I learned of such things as when a customer connects to a web page and is unable to back out….It is such a basic concept that I wondered if it could possibly be unintentional.If it was they should get a new programmer.


  54. Dorothy

    Greetings, Admin:

    Is the ClickBank website down today? Can’t access even the basic Marketplace page–or anything else. Thanks. Dorothy


  55. Sally

    Greetings again, Admin:

    Is the ClickBank website down again today? I haven’t been able to access even the front page for the past few hours. Thanks.


  56. Ken Weill

    I got scammed by http://allanimedownloads.com
    They use clickbank for ordering their services with false informations.
    With “money back guarantee without question”, yet I don’t get any reply from them.

    I will never ever buy a product if it’s via clickbank as I can’t get a refund from them if I get scammed.


  57. vaneza

    Sometime in February I went to a website offering jobs at home. After giving some information they charged me the amount of $47.48. Can I recover my money?


  58. shayne

    I am an affiliate. I have yet to even receive one commission from ClickBank products, but then, I’m just starting out. My concern is that most of the products there seem cheesy and or ridiculous, coupled with singular column, long-winded sales websites that supposedly convert. I’m not seeing it yet, but I have no reason to think CB is a scam. My friend makes some chump change here and there and hasn’t had any trouble doing so. CB is just a hub where vendors can go to find sales people to market their products. That, by itself, is just typical middle man scenario.

    CB is legit. The vendors are the suspects.