Compliance is an integral part of dot818’s underpinning. Dot818 strives for recognition as a reputable lead generator in the consumer credit space and goes above and beyond the minimum required by the law to ensure its compliance. With regulations within the consumer finance and online lending industries more complex now than ever before, it’s vital that dot818 continues to make compliance a top priority. We do just that.
Dot818 practices responsible conduct in its advertising, marketing, and in its overall business practices. This means honest, non-deceptive advertising efforts on behalf of not just the Company, but also of all companies it works with; enduring business relationships rooted in effective communication and understanding; and an experience tailored to the business partner’s needs. Further, the Company has a thoroughly thought-out and working Compliance Management System incorporating self-policing, self-reporting, remediation, and cooperation with our business partners.
Dot818 has a comprehensive Compliance Management System with policies covering areas like: Vendor
Onboarding, Continued Vendor Oversight, Fraud Detection and Management, Complaint Handling,
Compliance Training, Compliance Oversight, Business Continuity Plan & Disaster Recovery, and many
more. To highlight a few:
1. Compliance Training – All employees are trained at hire and annually thereafter on a variety of regulations applying to our industry to ensure employees have a breadth of understanding concerning the laws of the industry. This includes a comprehensive training in the Unfair Deceptive or Abusive Acts or Practices, the Federal Trade Commission’s Unfair and Deceptive Practices, CAN-SPAM for email marketing, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and more. The Compliance team puts things in perspective by guiding employees to understand why compliance is important and at the root of that, is ultimately the protection of the individual consumer.
2. Vendor Onboarding & Oversight – It is not difficult to find business partners, but it is incredibly difficult to find good and reputable business partners. These hard-to-find business partners are the ones dot818 has its sight set on. The Company is selective when it comes to onboarding business partners – affiliates and lenders/buyers alike. Our vendor onboarding process speaks directly to this. All potential new vendors are put under an onboarding investigation where each must complete our onboarding Questionnaire that probes into their business practices and compliance procedures, respond to our follow-up inquiries, and provide certain documentation (e.g., licenses).
3. Complaint Management – Dot818 cares about consumers. We address any consumer issues head on, investigating each and coming to a resolution. But we don’t stop there. Our Compliance team analyzes issues and/or consumer complaints for potential patterns with the actions of business partners, and brainstorms a workable plan to make sure the situation doesn’t reoccur.
4. Internal Audit – Dot818’s Compliance team conducts an internal audit annually to test the efficacy of its current processes and procedures. We conduct audits of our Compliance Management System searching for potential weak spots so we may remedy any weaknesses proactively before it becomes an issue.
Vendor Onboarding Process – Dot818’s vendor vetting and onboarding process intends to create long-lasting business relationships with reputable businesses in the industry who work just as hard as we do to maintain a high standard of both business practice and compliance.
Affiliate Marketing Resources – All new affiliates are provided an advertising and marketing “Welcome Package” with easy-to-understand guidelines on applicable laws in the industry, like UDAAP, CAN-SPAM, and more.
Compliance team as a Resource - Affiliates are encouraged to work with our Compliance team through any questions regarding applicable laws. Whether it’s “How do I know if my website’s language may trigger a UDAAP violation?” or “What other alternative language can I use to market the product that won’t get me in trouble?” or “How do I know if this email creative draft is CAN-SPAM compliant?” our Compliance team is eager to help.
Web Crawler – Developed over years of watchful observation, monitoring, and tweaking, dot818’s proprietary web crawler combs through affiliate websites, honing in on potential red-flags. Dot818’s Compliance team works with affiliates to improve representations made on their websites, giving them guidelines on how to improve compliance, including proposing helpful suggestions on alternative language that more accurately represents to the consumer the services and/or product. We’ve found most of the affiliates we work with to be extremely open to working together with our Compliance team for the benefit of us both.
Hands-On Account Managers – Whether on the affiliate side or the buyer side, our dot818 Account Managers are responsive, and make each relationship personalized through bi-weekly status calls simply to check-in with you and make sure you’re getting the attention you need, that any issues are being addressed head-on, and ultimately to make certain you are satisfied with the performance of your campaign and our business.
Online Lender’s Alliance member and OLA Accredited – Dot818 has gone through OLA’s rigorous OLA Accreditation program. The process involved both a lengthy self-assessment and a thorough and comprehensive audit conducted by a third party attorney-accreditor. Included in the scope of this assessment were dot818’s affiliate marketing partners’ websites, every single policy and procedure within the Company’s Compliance Management System, a phone interview probing at specific Company policies, among other things. Dot818 proudly boasts of the OLA Accreditation seal, marking it a lead generator that far exceeds doing the bare minimum to be compliant.
Compliance for us means being responsible for our actions, for the actions of our business partners, and looking out for the well-being of the consumer. The weight of the industry hinges on all of our compliance efforts. Be compliant with dot818.
To get in touch with dot818’s Compliance team, email: dorley.y@dot818.com