I have caught companies shaving in the past ..tbh, I wasn't too shocked. It's basically free money on the table and so a lot
of companies will do it ..if not most of them.
If you have control over your install packages you can do some postback/hit-counter.php/geo-tracking
but if you are using webstats I'd be careful about relying on that as any indicator.
You need to factor into it that most PPI is hit heavily with scantime/runtime AV detections that make it
near impossible to track actual completed installs unless you employ some nifty coding to check post install machine state.
And then there's always the "untimely uninstallation" factor to consider as well.
It absolutely does effect the advertisers ROI, which in turn affects the PPI-middlemans' profit margins,
-so shaving can and probably is partly due to that "buffer" they leave themselves to keep the advertisers smiling
In fact, imo -it's a standard practice "built-in" to the system to greater or leser degrees.
Far worse than shaving though, some ppi companies randomly rip aff-payments to improve the bottom line or cover operating/overhead costs when things get a bit shaky
It's happened to me and others I know and for decent amounts ranging 1k to 6k and for reasons as flimsy as "poor traffic quality"
..ofc those net-30/45 periods make it a nice fat sum usually and if you taper off installs to the company you tend to run a higher risk of this happening
I've been in PPI many yrs now and it's a great/profitable business but for sure, a very risky one.
Just read any standard PPI TOS out there:
"..we reserve the right take (steal) your earnings and ban your account for whatever excuse we feel like ...you agree to have ZERO recourse against this"
..so if you click the "agree" button
then just take counter-measures -put your eggs into many baskets, run multiple accounts, always be ready to switch traffic to secondary option, be wary...and watchful..develop the best relationship with your AM as you can and if they're not helpful seek out the owner...talk to others in this business for info regarding companies and aff managers....and if you get ripped by a company for some scammy excuse: SCREAM BLOODY HELL!!
Come here to this forum and let it be known to others..we affs/pubs need to stick together and send a mssg: "there will be blowback"
..it's the only recourse you really have and make sure they know you will do it if they don't come clean/provide data of claims, or at least offer a partial % payment and act in an upright manner.
If you'd rather not say it in public, feel free to PM me your data, I may be able to offer some insight
If it's solid evidence though then you really should post your findings here, it's no big secret that the PPI industry is just a 1-degree step from pure "TROJAN-NIGHTMARE"-style criminality so nobody will be too shocked/offended I'm sure
