Developer Accused Of Bilking eBay With Cookie-Stuffing Program

Federal prosecutors have charged a Las Vegas man with conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly creating a cookie-stuffing program aimed at bilking eBay.

In papers filed this week in federal district court in San Jose, the authorities accused Christopher Kennedy of creating the "saucekit" program, which allegedly deposited cookies on the computers of people who visited sites within eBay's affiliate program, regardless of whether those users clicked on an ad. If they subsequently visited eBay and made a purchase, the affiliates who deposited cookies would get referral fees from eBay -- even in cases where the users had not clicked through to the auction site, according to the authorities.

The government alleges that Kennedy sold saucekit from January through November of last year, despite receiving a cease and desist letter from eBay. Specifically, the court papers allege that an informant purchased saucekit last August, notwithstanding eBay's demand that Kennedy stop selling the program.

The court papers also allege that Kennedy once boasted in a post on www.blackhatworld.com that one of his clients had earned almost $17,000 in a two-month span.

For two years, eBay has been battling alleged affiliate-fraud in a separate civil lawsuit in federal district court in San Jose. In that case, eBay alleges that two companies -- Digital Point Solutions and Kessler's Flying Circus -- and their principals engaged in a cookie-stuffing scheme.

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