I had deluded myself into believing that the percentage of sleazebags in this industry wasn't much different than in other industries.

I just don't understand why anyone in their right mind would do crap like this... or why anyone in their right mind would continue to send traffic to someone that did this. Whether you make money or not, do you really want to support a program that is intentionally trying to rip you off?

As far as I'm concerned, unless the program tells you up front and very clearly that they are going to redirect some of your traffic elsewhere, or only pay you on 20% of your traffic under some circumstances, they're being sleazy.

Maybe I'm just naive, but I believe in treating people fairly and with complete integrity, and I expect the same in return. There have to be plenty of sponsors out there that are completely up front and honest. Perhaps if all the affiliates would vote with their feet and abandon the sleazebags en masse, things would change. Or perhaps that's too much to ask for.