I understand the fact that the author took the matter in his own hands and claimed what he was owed but this article is just another proof that instead of doing our jobs and spending our time more productively, we always need to play the "lawyer" and the "detective" because some people/company always abuse their position of power. The author did manage to get his money, but at the same time pointed them a flaw (the affiliation page) in their little scheme, which means that he didn't help protect anyone else that wants to start an affiliation with them. And yes, I understand that this is "how the world works" but still, I always get bothered by this kind of behavior. Maybe an alternative maybe, would have been to stood up by just ending the partnership and finding another company that treats its affiliations with more respect AND post the article in order for others to read the bad experience he had.
In another country, like the one I now live in, this would be a job for law enforcement.
You'd just hand over your files to some branch of the government, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, you'd get some money, but also, the site would stop cheating people.
Except that this rarely happens here, because companies know that law enforcement cares about systematic scams.
They might try to cheat you once, to see if you're a sucker, but if you put up any fuss, they'll give you the money.
Based on the fact that I have also lived there, and looking at his comment history, I don’t think you can take this comment as being entirely accurate.
Unfortunately the law does not work that well in all countries. It might take years even for a small dispute and they know that in most cases and they take advantage of it. The important thing here, as you mentioned, is for the company to be in check by the law or else they will just take advantage of every situation, but of course. The law is mostly slow and never helpful unless you spend a lot of money in lawyers.
