Newsletter: September 26th, 2008

Fighting Fraud

Welcome to another Friday newsletter. This week, and in conjunction with our blog, we`re going to start introducing you to the team who sit behind the screens and show you exactly who looks after each of the departments here at Bone Fish. Hopefully you`ll soon start putting more faces to more names and understanding where we`re all coming from.

This week we`re also going to take a look at Fraud and Scamming, a topic that`s ever-present in businesses such as ours, and give you an insight into what we`re doing about it and how. Hopefully this will help to put many of your minds at ease and show you that Bone Fish is certainly doing all it can to combat fraudulent activity within its service.

And finally... if you`re looking for free traffic but are not sure where to start, keep reading - because we`ve stumbled upon a fantastic banner network that combines a brilliant team, unparalleled customer support, proprietary ad-serving algorithms and a very smart marketing approach. For Bone Fish affiliates, it`s just about perfect.

Until next week....

Kind regards,



The Bone Fish Affiliate Department



FAQ`s: Scamming and Fraud on the Bone Fish Service

What kind of scamming has Bone Fish been encountering on its affiliate sites?
About 90% of the scamming on Bone Fish`s sites has come from Russian and African scammers. Russian scammers are primarily looking for people to send money to Russian women or to entice members to send airfares and give gifts, etc. African scammers are slightly different in that they send out emails relating tales of woe and stating that they have a great deal of money sitting in a bank account in Uganda and are looking for assistance to transfer it into an overseas bank account for a percentage of the sum (or similar).

Bone Fish has tried to combat this matter by bringing on-board a full time risk manager whose sole purpose is to deal with the scamming issue. At present, this is our number one priority as it affects our reputation with banks, members and affiliates etc, who are obviously being hit by the chargebacks on a weekly basis.


Has Bone Fish ever encountered any types of scamming through its affiliates and has it ever had any scammers sign up as affiliates?
About three years ago, Bone Fish had a person from India register as an affiliate. However, upon seeing his average sales rocket about twice as high as its own, Bone Fish realized that something was wrong. This person`s conversion rate was about 40-50% instead of the typical 10-15%. Fortunately, Bone Fish caught him at an early stage and cancelled his account. Essentially, Bone Fish tries to cut out scammers before they become affiliates (or for that matter, members too). As a result, it doesn`t allow and also heavily screens new affiliates from certain countries, especially those from Russia, India and Africa.


What does Bone Fish think the industry should do to beat scammers?
Bone Fish is always searching on the internet for places that work as "scammer centrals". It has come across a few websites that list 5,000-7,000 members that are known scammers, but does not necessarily think that this is the right approach as they only list the names of the individual members (scammers) that are contacting members on the service - not where they come from!

In Bone Fish`s opinion, what the industry needs is a white list and a black list of IP ranges. For example, here, we use an application on our credit card page that grabs the IP address. As such, we`ve blocked approximately 25% of all IP addresses in the world already. Ultimately, Bone Fish feels that the industry should consider ISP and server-side solutions rather than just creating a large database that`s simply updated from time-to-time. Ideally, a site needs to be put together from a technical point of view that will allow people to share techniques on how to block scamming.


Employee Spotlight: Gareth Beckley

Gareth joined the Bone Fish Team in February 2008 and dedicates his time to providing technical documentation on the Bone Fish systems and processes. Gareth can be emailed at: gareth@bone-fish.com.

Who are you and where do you come from?
I grew up in Liverpool and after being shunned by the first team, I moved out to Spain where I was overwhelmed by the Spanish lifestyle and culture. (I love Spanish potato omelette and paella). I live on the Costa del Sol with my two big puppies. I`m single at the moment... (if anyone`s interested, you`ll be pleased to know that all three of us are house-trained). I cross the border every day to go to work in Gibraltar and have learnt to have patience with Spanish and Gibraltarian drivers alike. However, one ignorant female very nearly killed me yesterday - I ride the world`s second fastest production bike - a Kawaski ZX-12R, so I wasn`t best pleased and my patience is now wavering.

What is it that you do at Bone Fish?
I joined the Bone Fish team in February 2008 after working for the past 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry. I was brought in as a Technical Author but I also assess new technologies and procedures. What else... well... I love to get involved in fault resolution - which here at Bone Fish can sometimes be challenging (to say the least). Hopefully in the future I`ll be an integral part of the development team.

If you weren`t working in this industry what would you be doing instead?
I would be in care.

What`s the best thing about working at Bone Fish?
The best thing about working at Bone Fish is that it gives me the opportunity to work at the cutting-edge of internet technologies and allows me to grow and gain knowledge as the company expands. We also play fantastic music in the office - although this usually occurs when Mike`s in and we`re not being forced to listen to Man 2 Man Meets Man Parish or some of Dolly Parton`s Classics.

What are boss Mike`s good and bad points?
I like Mike because he`s not afraid to show his emotions and indeed often cries when he successfully unites 2 kindred spirits. Really, I can only fault his taste in music and his unwillingness to pin his colours to any mast, be it Man U, City or Stockport County. I believe that with his Irish heritage, underneath his 6`4` muscular frame there`s at least 2 Liverpool supporters fighting to get out.Explain to the world why Bone Fish is the greatest white label dating provider ever!We have a very united team with very specialised and advanced skills, and we actually really care about our members and affiliates.



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The Bone Fish Guide to Online Marketing
This week we`ve found two more videos that should help you to move forward with your online marketing campaigns - one regarding Meta Tags and the other regarding Google`s Keyword Tool. Take a look for yourself at the links below.

Magical Meta Description Tags:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CKvGwNwaMg8&feature=user%22%3eMeta
Good advice on how google will spider your site and pull out information for it`s search results.

New! - Google Keyword Tool Secret!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDB6T_L-mqs&feature=related%22%3eGoogle
Great advice on getting the best out of Google Keyword tools. A very excitable commentary but very good information.