Zynga changed their lead gen scam policy this morning (the whole Scamville background is here, see updates at bottom as well). And now RockYou is taking steps to clean up their act to, according to an email we’ve been forwarded.
In an email to RockYou’s publishers, they say that they will begin complying with Facebook’s rules on offer scams (and like you, we’re not sure why they haven’t been complying all along, but lax enforcement is likely the cause).
Two interesting nuggets from the email though. First, RockYou says that from now on you’ll only see “clean, safe surveys from top tier brands advertisers.” All of the surveys we’ve seen are mobile subscription scams, so I’m not sure there’s such a thing as a clean, safe survey.
Second, the email says “the Facebook compliance team will be keeping a very close eye on offer walls starting tonight.” We’d heard that Facebook is coming down hard on app developers around scams right now, but Facebook won’t comment about it other than to say that they have always been monitoring application offers and enforcing the rules. From what we’ve seen, that enforcement didn’t bring much in the way of results, but perhaps they’re more serious about the situation now.
The full email:
Subject: RockYou Offers: Facebook Offer Wall Compliance Update
Hi RockYou Publishers,
You may have heard the recent controversy around the types of offers that are being run by most offer wall providers (Offerpal, SuperRewards, etc.). If you haven’t heard, take a look at this post on TechCrunch:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming-ecosystem-of-hell/
The Facebook compliance team will be keeping a very close eye on offer walls starting tonight.
Since the RockYou Ad Network is the largest display network on the Facebook platform, we have a long history of working directly with the Facebook compliance team to ensure that we always maintain the highest standards of compliance and ad quality.
We will apply the same level of quality assurance to our RockYou Offers platform.
Some thing to keep in mind that set us apart from the other offer wall providers:
* 100% Facebook compliance starting this evening, and on an ongoing basis
* Clean, safe surveys from top tier brand advertisers
* High quality brand campaigns ranging from video ads to free sample offers
* Cost-per-install campaigns for other Facebook applications
We believe we will continue to outperform the competition based on our diverse advertiser base, and we will do so while always maintaining full compliance with Facebook policy.
Our technology provider for RockYou Offers, PeanutLabs, has also posted an interesting research study they ran over the weekend that clearly outlines how users feel about the scammy offers that have been so prevalent on offer walls:
http://peanutlabs.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/survey-finds-arrington-has-a-point-given-choice-users-overwhelmingly-prefer-direct-payments-and-research-surveys-to-cpa-offers/
We believe the new Facebook policy enforcement is in the best interest of Facebook users and the entire platform ecosystem, and we look forward to working with you as a safe and effective monetization partner.
If you have not yet switched over to RockYou Offers, all you have to do is:
1. Log in to your publisher account at ads.rockyou.com
2. Click on the RockYou Offers tab
3. Follow the 4-step integration process
If you have any questions or issues with integration, please contact Chris or Aaron:
Chris Akhavan
[redacted]
Aaron Choi
[redacted]
Thank you,
RockYou Offers Team
Nice
Well Michael, you didn’t have much luck with the Facebook Hate Speech pages, but you’ve definately struck a nerve with this one, and looks like the companies involved were listening.
It is unfortunate that they would allow these scams until they got called on it, but at least they are getting things straightened out, and by the appearance, very quickly.
Facebook compliance team will have hard time, for sure.
Don’t see why. Just make sure it’s *really* simple for users to report scams, and automatically perma-ban the publishers. Then all the compliance team have to do is run an appeals process for the few honest marketers who get falsely targetted for lulz.
The problem is that the users themselves are simply not reliable. A major problem all across Facebook is users not reading whats on screen, for example we posted on our Apps fan Page and our external forums about an item we are going to be adding that would be purchasable for ingame cash that they have made and it would then unlock some of the Credit(Real Money) items to be bought with ingame cash.
The Fan Page was quickly filled with “This Sucks, We shouldn’t have to spend real money” type comments from people who hadn’t read our clear post. The forums however didn’t get a single response like that.
And this is where so many of the problems with Offers stem from, your Average facebook user simply doesn’t read fully what’s on page and as such end up agreeing to things that if they read it they wouldn’t, not fulfilling the requirements that are laid out or paying for things they don’t need to. If someone reports to us a problem offer I often try to go through it myself (Or if its geo restricted so I can’t go through it like a normal user I find someone to go through it for me) and more often than not you quickly realise why the user has had the problem they are reporting and while it sometimes is that its a bad offer, theres as many that get reported to us that are down to users trying to rush through and not reading the offer correctly (Most reports go directly to the offer company so I’m not sure what the spreads like for them)
I really don’t think users going to Facebook to report it is the way to go. There reports are just going to be too unreliable and will be the first port of call rather than going to the offer company to try and get to the root of the problem. And Facebook have a history of being heavy handed and punishing the developers rather than working with the developers to improve it and it will be bad across the board (Especially as they seem top let those who spend mass amounts with them on ad purchases off lightly while penalising the smaller devs)
Ultimately the offer companies MUST be the ones who take issue seriously and try harder to clean up their act (It won’t ever be perfect, just as problem banner ads slip through ad networks. After all these Fraudsters are usually fairly smart people who are always looking for enhance methods or come up with new ways) to protect the developers who place their trust in them as well as the users BUT the users themselves have a part to play too and have to show a bit of common sense and take some care with them and then if they have taken care and have read everything and then have a bad experience then they need to raise it with the offer company to help them weed the bad ones out (And maybe let the developers of the app know, although I would personally recommend using an applications forums to do this rather than email or posting on the wall, its just easier to keep them all together that way and if there seems to be a major problem gives them an easy way to take it up with the offer company)
Facebook is up to aiding and abetting scams. That’s what Arrington is trying to say, but he is being passive-aggressive in phrasing it as a question.
Ah glad to see another scam company following the “now that we’re big we’ll start to play nice” parade.
Just like Facebook, RockYou’s founding began from from IP theft.
Maybe leopards do change their spots. Once they’ve killed the other leopards around them.
+1
don’t you find it funny that everyone is making this shift all of a sudden? especially after word comes down that fb will start disabling apps that run non-compliant ads next week?
Ah but is it also not weird that all of this comes before the Dec 1st deadline for when the FTC will start going after large companies ?
Mike and his staff at TC knows what is about to happen, thats why you see them post what they post, because come the start of 2010 things will be really different.
Prior to this kerfuffle, Facebook had already warned their game publishers to clean up their act and threatened to ban them starting this week if they didn’t.
I doubt you can claim credit for changing anything with the game manufacturors.
I do congratulate you on your ability to time your grandstanding to go off just before Facebook’s ultimatum changed behavior though…
- W
Good going Michael..!! I am bit suprised on how this scam has resulted in millions without getting noticed..
Anyways just waiting to see how Anu Shukla reacts to the whole scamville now..?? Shit or Double shit or may be bullshit..
I am excited ain’t I?
I cannot wait for Anu’s reaction either.. I’m going with another four letter word not shit though!
Keyword here: Anu’s
Anu Shukla will do as most politicians do over here; give an answer without giving a proper answer. Even in her cringeworthy reply to Michael at the conference, she used aggression & dismissal without answering any of the key points.
Keep up the pressure Sir Arrington. This has certainly raised the bar on investigative blog posts & shows the power certain blogs possess in getting things moving…fast.
I know you hate handshakes, but I’d definitely give you a pat on the back, hell, maybe even a manly hug.
Indeed amazing that it took so long for someone fluent enough to raise this question and actually defend it. To make a point against a demagogue like Anu is no easy task.
It seems to me though, that it’s just the tip of the iceberg. I hope there will be Mike Arringtons in a lot of the business areas to reveal similar unethical practices.
I find it funny that all these companies running the scams are now openly against it. I guess they made their millions and if the well dries up, they have plenty stocked away.
me thinks facebook apps will no longer be profitable based on my experience with running legit ads
At the end of the day, mobile offers, which make up the vast majority of offers and promotions on networks like OfferPal and SuperRewards, are deceptive, unethical and injuriuous. They are social media’s version of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. And, just like Madoff, Anu and other execs at these companies should be taken to task and investigated by the FTC for improper business conduct.
Someone mentioned this before, but it bears repeating:
It is nearly impossible to run apps at the scale of RockYou, Zynga, etc. without using scam ads. The CPMs on regular ads are not nearly high enough.
TechCrunch did an amazing job pointing this out, but there is still so much more in this.
Don’t let these companies pull wool over your eyes Mike. They may be powerful, but don’t let them scare ya.
Facebook is in bed with all of these big app developers.
This changes nothing. They will find new ways to deceive users and scam people. The only way to really end this is to BAN ALL OFFERS pages. It’s simple.
It’s sad, but I’m starting to wonder if the entire internet isn’t built on rebill scams and pr0n. Forget Facebook, Google has made enormous money from scam ads. They’ve tried to clean things up, but a quick check shows they have plenty of diet ads up:
http://www.goog...ch?q=acai+berry
The top sponsored link was “CNN.com,” and I’ll bet it doesn’t land on CNN.com. I know competitive terms like that are like $3 a click, proceeds going to Larry, Serge and Eric.
This is hilarious. RockYou has no market share in the Offer Wall space. This is a great PR move to start winning some new business and chipping away at the bigger guys. RockYou is primarily low quality banner Ads.
Didn’t want to sound biased, but to be fair the vast majority of banner Ads within applications are low quality.
I wonder if this is why my ecpm is down under $1.00 for the first time in a month (usually 1.50-3.00)
Very cool to see the positive developments occurring.
Although now kids will knowingly scam their parents phone bill with pay by mobile and pay by landline services. These companies have to be loving this development and carriers continue to benefit on somewhat questionable commerce.
Also you don’t have to look far to find fake blog ads on most any site – You should not stop at bad offers but also bad ads. Appears fb is going that direction which is great but larger sites continue to enjoy the CPMs they get from google, aol, etc ad servicing of very questionable content and products.
This doesn’t surprise me as every interaction I have had with RockYou! has been very professional. Great company.
Well done Michael, you have exposed what most of the super users have been noticing for months on these apps and YOU have became the voice for all of us. It is good to see companies such as Rockyou and Zynga cleaning up the act and platforms like facebook taking measures to stop the scammers.
Alternatively Peanut Labs is one of the companies which I have seen using a transparent mechanism to monetize apps inshape of surveys from top tier brands in US. We need good ethical companies like these stepping ahead.
I hope to see Shukla admitting her shit, double shit openly soon.
Housekeeping note: the link to http://www.tech...system-of-hell/ has a tag accidentally included (ergo dead link page).
Please target the scammy people search guys next! I know that none of smoking hot chix in the FB ads (”Look who searched for you”) really searched for me! Mylife.com, findmyschoolfriend.com just hook you into the claws of intellius etc.
My friends keep getting had by the twitter girl models who are all by themselves and oh so lonely lol
Here is a thought; the broadcasters all do the same thing, I watched a video professor ad last night on Fox.
Why isn’t anyone going after those guys?
Again, just curious where the wireless carriers are in all this. They are facilitating the billing of these scams. Seems to me not only do the game companies and Facebook need to own up to this, but so do the players in the value chain that actually reach into the consumers’ wallets.
I was just going to ask the same thing. In the end, wireless carriers are taking upwards of 40% of the revenue.
Anyone who gets billed should contact the wireless carrier directly to ask for a refund – this counts against the scamming company in the same way as a credit card chargeback, which could get their premium SMS privileges revoked. It also costs the wireless companies in customer service fees, and they hate that.
Force the wireless carriers to pay for these transactions, and they’ll cut ‘em off.
I just put in fake information on all the offer things. Even fake phone numbers if you have to, hah