Fortune Lounge Masquerading as own Affiliate for Spamming Purposes?

[bernynhel]

Was getting those New Sign Up emails all day long like from every FL Casino in the FL group. Worse even than ROGUE spam, to me, is spam for Sign Up Deals for a group like FL where I've had an account at each of their casinos ever since Bryan was a Junior Moderator at GG and drinking Near Beer! AND this dreck in my MAILmail NOT in my JUNKmail! Think I was mad? The return address said "Donna Summers" but, of course, it wasn't really from her! It was from one of the spammy hell parallel universes. So, I reported every piece to SpamCop.net and also forwarded each one to the FL spam-control/ affiliate sheriff Bryan provided, which is:

spam@fortuneaffiliates.com

There were about 4 or 5 every day for over a week and while I never got any reply the FL spam stopped. For almost a week. Everything was great! Until this arrived in my MAILmail, NOT my JUNKmail:


Open New Player Account and get $300 Free
From: Angelina J
Sent: Tue 8/05/08 5:46 PM
Reply-to:reply@dicetheroll.com
To:bernynhel@XXX.com

OK, hmmm. Just like the other ones weren't really from Donna Summers I'd be willing to make a Gentleman's wager that these (YES there ARE more of them! All from different FL casinos!) aren't REALLY from Angelina J! Ha! While E Coyote....etc!

The only main difference (besides the celeb names used and the spammy addresses - the Donna Summers ones were from news@crapyerpantsorsomething.com) was that NOW the source view is all DOUBLE SPACED! Great. So, I don't report em to SpamCop yet cuz I foget, if I ever knew, how to covert em (quickly) to single-spaced but I forward em to FL and here's my bright idea in a note I added to the forwarded spam:

This affiliate is an ASSHOLE! FW: Open New Player Account and get $300 Free
From: William XXX (bernynhel@XXX.com)
Sent: Wed 8/06/08 1:10 AM
To:FortuneLounge Spam report here FL Spam report here (spam@fortuneaffiliates.com)


Attachments:
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I'm starting a new thread at CasinoMeister.com about this issue of the large volume of sophisticated spam touting FL. Less than a week after "Donna Summers" stopped now THIS SHIT! Huh! Whodda thunk it! Know what I think? I think FL is masquerading as their own affiliates!! Now the fox really IS watching the the henhouse, or, SPAMhouse and after a week or so, we'll just SEE, won't we? After it runs it course! Ha!

Before it was Donna Summers, now its Angelina J??? This particularly nasty spammer, if not aka Donna Summers, is double-spacing, Donna Summers single spaced. so Spam Cop cannot source them unless I submit it single spaced! Spammers that take extra lengths to defend themselves from me NOW I'm getting from YOU, Fortune Lounge??? So it wasn't bad enough I have to forward this shit to you and report to Spam Cop, now I have to re-format the source view? See! I was only waiting til the WEEKEND to see if the B.S. had stopped and, if so, I was gonna deposit $50-100. NOT another NICKEL deposited in any FL casino until you decide that you will pay more than just lip service with regards to your spam polices and how your affiliates OBVIOUSLY ignore them. Shit rolls downhill. Roll more, faster.

William J. XXX
Los Angeles

OK so why would FL go through all the trouble to pretend to be some lame spammer just so they could get away with spamming their own, known customers, customers with long established, active accounts with New Sign Up promos that couldn't possibly benefit FL in any way, whatsoever, you ask? Well, I haven't quite figured that part out yet. OK!, ok! its probably just some lame, Chinese spammer from Kazakhstan. Or whatever. It still sucks, right?

And its only 2:38 AM here. Call that late? What time does Mommy put YOU to bed? Milk n Cookies:30 PM?

[anniemac]

I thought I was the only one getting this crap from "Donna and Angie". Oh and wait there is some guy too. I never open it so I didn't know what it was about. Fortune Lounge is getting as bad as that "other" casino.

[chiggerbyte]

I get the same ones, and I have accounts there also. Oh, don't forget Oprah.(and I thought she had enough money without taking on a second job) Today I got a new one for World VIP Fortune Casino. Is that a mouthful? It promised 'enormous money for everyone' Bonus $(euro) 2700. Then another from someone else for same place 'World VIP Games' new bonus 2500 dollars! Then yet another, 'HOT gamblings in World VIP Fortune Casino!' I assume this is spamming?
Oh, I forgot about the one from Winaday Casino. Supposed to be a new place launched by Slotland. $10 freeplay. A new 3D casino. So I googled winaday, and found a thread on casinoaffiliateprograms.com. This guy wanted to know if Freeslots were doing their own affiliate work. The answer from the company's affiliate rep to him was, "we are acquiring new players from our Freeslot.com database in order to verify functionality & performance of our new software & to get feedback from some real players." Anyone ever heard of this place? And was this spamming, or just a legit way for them to get players? I'm still learning.

[vinylweatherman]

FL were in trouble a while back for failing to control their spammy affiliates. There is NO benefit to FL from sending new player offers to existing players, if anything, it does them damage.

It looks very much as though behind the scenes there was some action taken against "Donna Summers", but all this rogue affiliate did was change domains and set up as "Angelina J" and design the mailers so that spamcop could not deal with them. This shows intent to spam, and is no "misdirected enthusiasm", that can be dealt with by them apologising and promising not to do it again. The affiliate should be identified, and have their account closed, and measures put in place to prevent them from simply opening another. These measures should be possible up to the extent of measures that can be put in place to prevent fraudulent players from opening up multiple accounts & getting paid. Opening multiple accounts as player OR affiliate is easy, but the problem is in reaping the benefits. Given all the ID hoops that PLAYERS go through to receive their withdrawal, it would be the same for affiliates - wouldn't it?

[KasinoKing]

Originally Posted by vinylweatherman

There is NO benefit to FL from sending new player offers to existing players, if anything, it does them damage.

Someone should TRY to explain that to the Casino Rewards group.
I've had numerous e-mails & about 5 CD's though the post all encouraging me to take a $500 (new player) bonus with Blackjack Ballroom - all sent to the exact same e-mail & physical address that I already have registered on my account at... Blackjack Ballroom.

Casino's 'spamming themselves' is all too common - even among the otherwise reputable ones. One of the worst offenders was the Palace Group, though they seem to have dried up now.

Nothing we can do about it I'm afraid. Just complain to them & hope one day the message sinks in.

[bernynhel]

Originally Posted by chiggerbyte

I get the same ones, and I have accounts there also. Oh, don't forget Oprah.(and I thought she had enough money without taking on a second job) Today I got a new one for World VIP Fortune Casino. Is that a mouthful? It promised 'enormous money for everyone' Bonus $(euro) 2700. Then another from someone else for same place 'World VIP Games' new bonus 2500 dollars! Then yet another, 'HOT gamblings in World VIP Fortune Casino!' I assume this is spamming?
Oh, I forgot about the one from Winaday Casino. Supposed to be a new place launched by Slotland. $10 freeplay. A new 3D casino. So I googled winaday, and found a thread on casinoaffiliateprograms.com. This guy wanted to know if Freeslots were doing their own affiliate work. The answer from the company's affiliate rep to him was, "we are acquiring new players from our Freeslot.com database in order to verify functionality & performance of our new software & to get feedback from some real players." Anyone ever heard of this place? And was this spamming, or just a legit way for them to get players? I'm still learning.

I'm the wrong gender for Oprah and all those other fem interests, thank God. You ladys out there must have junkmail such as I would only expect to receive in nightmares or in hell. Thankfully, the other casinos have not noticed me yet or I have never opened their spam as whatever akas they may be using as return addresses and subjects are probably so lame I have yet to be duped into opening one!

Fortune Lounge, by contrast, should know better and is NO FUC(edited HERE for CM forum posting purposes)ING LAUGHING MATTER!!!

I have long past closed all CR accounts and, I like to think yet I fear I am naive to believe, that the shi(edited HERE for CM forum posting purposes)storm I have rained down on them in the past has been sufficient, to date, to keep even the vilest of CR spammers at bay. I pray every night upon retiring.

[vinylweatherman]

Originally Posted by KasinoKing

Someone should TRY to explain that to the Casino Rewards group.I've had numerous e-mails & about 5 CD's though the post all encouraging me to take a $500 (new player) bonus with Blackjack Ballroom - all sent to the exact same e-mail & physical address that I already have registered on my account at... Blackjack Ballroom.

Casino's 'spamming themselves' is all too common - even among the otherwise reputable ones. One of the worst offenders was the Palace Group, though they seem to have dried up now.

Nothing we can do about it I'm afraid. Just complain to them & hope one day the message sinks in.

I have, and all they can offer is to unsubscribe from EVERYTHING. It is either receive the crap among the decent promos, or receive nothing. Nothing is a good option if you have uninstalled all the CR casinos - the problem is, they keep buying up more

[bernynhel]

Every day I've forwarded this crap to spam@fortuneaffiliates.com and it just keeps coming. Now the return address says Samantha Fox. I was nearly fooled into thinking Samantha fox was really promoting FL.

Hey! What if we made up an email list of all these casinos the dickhead spammers are promoting and every CM member sent one email a day to all on the list. We could attach pics of our asses made from scanners. Don't put your entire weight on your all-in-one or flat bed scanner though! And definitely do not turn your backside towards your copier or scanner then attempt to "hop up" backwards onto your desk or copy cart (mines on a glass top desk! OUCH!) intending to have your butt land on the copy/scan surface!!!!Better to set it on the floor and then gently squat until your ass meets the glass! Believe me - best learn from MY mistakes on this one!

[maxd]

For what it's worth I've contacted the FL rep re: this spamming and ... like VWM says, not much happening.

To be fair they know that it's not their people sending the spammy stuff out but I think we all guessed that it wouldn't be that simple. What we really want is for them to hunt down the crappy affiliates + friends ... but that seems to be somewhere down on their priority list, somewhere after "Learn Portuguese" one suspects.

[bernynhel]

Originally Posted by maxd

For what it's worth I've contacted the FL rep re: this spamming and ... like VWM says, not much happening.

To be fair they know that it's not their people sending the spammy stuff out but I think we all guessed that it wouldn't be that simple. What we really want is for them to hunt down the crappy affiliates + friends ... but that seems to be somewhere down on their priority list, somewhere after "Learn Portuguese" one suspects.

I'm still receiving THE SAME SPAM - promotional emails with sign up offers for new customers. I have had accounts at every FL casino for nearly 5 years!. Today I forwarded another piece of this crap, again, from my regular mail inbox, after editing the double spaced header to single spaced and reporting to SpamCop.net, to spam@fortuneaffiliates.com as I have, with ZERO, response for the past three weeks! I should think they could easily track these yay-hoos down, if they don't already know who they are, which I seriously doubt, as all the addresses, whether from Donna Sommers, Angelina J., Samantha Fox, Tiffany Towers, et al, are gameanalyze.com and similar nonsense.

I say:

BOYCOT FORTUNE LOUNGE UNTIL THEY START ENFORCING THEIR OWN ANTI-SPAM POLICIES!!!

They haven't made one dime from me since they ignored my first spam report!! I urge all so nclined to do the same. After all, there are DOZENS of GOOD MG operators out there whom I NEVER have received spam from and, I'd say, out of all the MG operators, none comes to mind quicker, spamwise, than FL!