From the above link, you should now have an understanding of how the AirMiles toolbar works.  Essentially, AirMiles are awarded based on your search data and FreeCause is compensated accordingly (affiliate marketing).

So what does this mean exactly?  Well, frankly if you are a webmaster and involved with affiliate ads or links, you are potentially being hijacked of your referrals!  It’s time to put matters into your own hands… well sort of.

Before reading any further, please ensure that you have read and acknowledged the Disclaimer.  Under no circumstances is alanwashere.com endorsing nor responsible for any actions or consequences for the material below.  This post is for illustrational purposes only.

USE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION/RISK.  This constituates as Fraud and is for educational purposes only.

Let’s start with the basics: a long time ago when the Internet began to boom, a company called AllAdvantage had dominated the market by paying users to surf the web!  Just imagine:  getting paid to surf the net — sound familiar?  The AirMiles toolbar pretty much does the same job, but you get “paid” in AirMiles instead of receiving a check.

Going back to the whole Alladvantage subject, eventually programmers discovered how the program had actually worked.  The Alladvantage program simply kept track of mouse-clicks and movements.  In turn, these programmers/hackers developed very basic applications to simply automate mouse-clicks and movements.  (This repetition is also known as a macro (or a programmed set of instructions).

With the use of macros, users all across the globe were banking on this ‘loophole’ or flaw with the AllAdvantage software.  People were now getting paid to leave their computers running and letting the Macro run overnight, during the day, or throughout the entire day!

More info:

Fraud and Abuse

Many early AllAdvantage users attempted to utilize spamming techniques to artificially build up their referral numbers. In the first months following the company’s launch, email service providers and anti-spam services identified emails referencing AllAdvantage as spam, resulting in wide-spread blocking. Shortly after hiring an anti-spam expert as the company’s Chief Privacy Officer, the company implemented significant changes in its affiliate promotion and referral policies, including a system to enable quicker reporting and termination of spamming accounts. By 2000, the reported volumes of AllAdvantage-related spam had reduced significantly.

AllAdvantage was also the target of other fraudulent activities, such as attempts to simulate surfing in order to accrue credit. These techniques were based upon the manner in which the AllAdvantage “Viewbar” tracked the time that users actively spent browsing the web, through the detection of which applications were “in focus” as well as keyboard and mouse movements. In an attempt to defraud the company, several client-side applications were created that attempted to simulate surfing-related interactivity, including one called “MyAdvantage.” Initially, such applications were successful at simulating a user’s 20 hours of surfing, however those applications were limited in their negative impact on the company for several reasons: their usage was limited to relatively few “hacker hobbyists”; fraudulent users received no direct compensation beyond the established minimum surfing time while the company received advertising revenues based on average surfing times of the entire user base. The AllAdvantage software was frequently updated with detection algorithms derived from analysis of many of the simulators and was able to flag “suspect” surfing accounts for withholding of any payments while giving users the appearance of still accumulating their fraudulent hours.

Now that all that has been said, the same concept can be applied with the AirMiles toolbar.  The flaw or the loophole with this toolbar is that it simply tracks the volume of searches that a user makes and can easily be manipulated.

How it’s done:

1.  Install the AirMiles Toolbar

2.  Download and install some sort of Macro plug-in for your browser.  For example:  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863

or http://www.sharewareconnection.com/download-iopus-internet-macros-from-sharecon.html

3.  Restart your browser, open the macro and let it run.  (You may need to do some background reseach on each of the above to understand how to execute them.)

If executed properly, you can easily making 300 searches within a 20 minute time period.  Rinse and repeat every month to earn a very easy 360 AirMiles per month.

Please note:  you may encounter an AirMiles page that prompts that you are running potentially malicious software on your machine.  Simply, pause the activity and resume at a later time.

• Must install the AirMiles Toolbar
• Must use Yahoo search as your search medium

For full details on how to use the toolbar, please visit:  https://www.airmiles.ca/arrow/ToolbarInstall

Pay particular attention to the FAQ on the above link.  Namely the following:

Q. Who is FreeCause?
A. FreeCause is a private company we have partnered with to bring you the AIR MILES® Toolbar.

Q. Why am I accepting a FreeCause End User License Agreement (EULA) when downloading the AIR MILES® Toolbar?
A. Because AIR MILES® has partnered with a FreeCause, a private company, to bring you the Toolbar, it’s necessary that you accept their End User License Agreement.

This should be an indicator that AirMiles has partnered with a 3rd party company to collect data and send/receive potentially secured information involving everyday searches and/or purchases made online.  The toolbar itself works in an interesting factor:

1. Tracking the number of unique searches made within the cycle (1 month).
2. Alert messages when accessing sites that do not earn AirMiles and suggesting alternatives (partnered companies).
3. Listing your previous month’s AirMiles balance.

This all sounds like a great idea, but what’s the catch?  There has to be a catch, right?

The simple answer is No.  However, more realistically there is a catch.   As I noted earlier, the 3rd party EULA (end-user license agreement) allows FreeCause to collect data which the toolbar is in use.  What this translates to is that your search criteria and habits are all being tracked by the toolbar software.

Other Concerns?  (For webmasters)

The AirMiles toolbar is a nightmare for affiliate marketing.  The problem with the toolbar is that it hijacks all purchases made through various links and/or websites and treats them as their own.  In simpler terms, referral links and affiliate companies will not given credit for links that were used on a pariticular website.  That is, if you have your own website with your own affiliate links, you are not being credited for links that are being clicked on — EVEN on your own site!

In summary, the AirMiles Toolbar is a great tool for everyday consumers that use the Yahoo search engine on a regular basis.  For others that prefer using the Google search engine, the Yahoo search is a bit hard to get used to.  Personally, I found it frustrating to ’switch over’ to the Yahoo search because it does not match my searching needs as much as Google.  However, for earning up to 30 AirMiles per month, this is a small sacrifice to pay.

The disadvantages of the toolbar that I could find are:

1. Hijacking of affiliate links/referrals
2. Alert messages can get irritating after a while
3. Seems to slow down “the interet experience”

Overall, I think it’s a great way to earn AirMiles.  If you maximize your searches each month, you could potentially earn up to 360 AirMiles per calendar year!