There has been ongoing controversy surrounding scam ads on Zynga and other social games which make up a large percentage of the traffic on the Facebook Platform. While Facebook is going after the ads, most pundits only see what’s right in front of them, missing a much bigger ecosystem of scams which generate millions a day. Facebook is clearly an easy target for these scams but the battle has only begun.

1. Facebook Users Visit Other Websites

Facebook is most definitely cracking down on these scams and Mike Arrington of Techcrunch appears to be closely monitoring Zynga applications. Other developers are also being affected as ad networks get shut down however the ad scams are prevalent around the web, not just on Facebook. Just visit weather.com to find out some Acai Berry ad scams or some great teeth whitening secrets that will solve all your tooth color problems.

2. Affiliate Marketers Aren’t Going Away

While there are plenty of legitimate affiliate marketers on the web, affiliate marketing is known as an extremely aggressive space where marketers will do anything to convert a lead. These affiliate marketers frequently battle to break even on conversions, generating their profits from cash back rewards from American Express and other credit card companies. In other words, they’ll do just about anything it takes to get a customer to make a purchase.

That started with completely misleading landing pages, as well as fraudulent activity among some of the ad networks, none of which have been held responsible, only have been shut down by Facebook. Many of those networks are still running on Facebook or at least powering the ads across many applications. Affiliate marketers are just part of the online marketing ecosystem but there are moral and ethical lines that some of them are willing to cross.

The most recent discussions about Facebook “scam ads” have been around the ethics of some of the ads. Some of them are actually legitimate offers that follow Facebook’s terms. Whether it’s the IQ Quizzes or Video Professor offers, many of them cross the line. They may be gone from Facebook for now, but they aren’t permanently going away.

3. Nobody’s Monitoring The Long Tail

Calling attention to the scams is something the press should be doing a better job at. We spend so much time promoting those that are making millions of dollars that we don’t stop to think about how they’re generating that money. Unfortunately none of the press take the time to monitor the ads across smaller applications. While Facebook is now going after multiple developers, most mainstream journalists (and even many bloggers) don’t have the time to analyze the long tail for scams.

The long tail is present though and it will continue to be a source of scams.

4. Phone Companies Aren’t Doing A Damn Thing

What’s going on with Verizon, AT&T Wireless or any of the other companies responsible for allowing millions of dollars a day in questionable transactions take place? They currently take a hands off approach, allowing people to sell whatever they’d like for the most part through their systems. Reverse mobile billing is a multi-billion dollar industry and the mobile companies aren’t going to shut off this source of revenue anytime soon.

Many of these products use questionable marketing tactics however but the phone companies don’t really care as they keep taking their 50 percent cut every month.

5. Lots Of Finger Pointing

“‘Scam?’ Hardly.” Those are the words of the company behind Video Professor. Video Professor is one of the services that have come under fire as affiliates have set up extremely aggressive marketing channels. However the Video Professor company claims that there’s no way for them to possibly monitor all of the people promoting their service. It’s the customer who’s responsible, they say!

However there has now been hundreds of millions if not billions in fraud over the past two years, thanks to the lack of advertisement monitoring. Fortunately for those who participated, they get to go home, write a blog post about it, and move on with with life. The mother of some kid in middle America who purchased a bunch of stupid IQ quizzes just to get more virtual currency in some online game however may not have been able to pay their rent this month though (a bit extreme but it’s a story that I’ve heard from at least one source).

Conclusion

It’s great to see all the coverage surrounding aggressive advertising on Facebook applications but it only begs the question: where does the discussion end? If it happens off of Facebook does that mean it’s fine? Perhaps nobody really cares and ultimately it’s the uninformed consumer who ends up paying the cost. That would definitely be a free market solution to the problem!