There's got to be something more here.  Redirects through seven partners - most likely paying on net 30 terms and taking a cut of the revenue themselves for brokering - would reduce the money torrent to a long-delayed trickle.  Perhaps the intermediary partners are placing cookies for targeting purposes and therefore adding a bit to the revenue stream?<p>I'm also surprised that clicks are being generated from Google, of all places.  Faking the click from an affiliate of a comparison shopping site would be much more lucrative (higher PPC due to higher purchase intent) and much less likely to result in aggressive countermeasures (comparison shopping sites aren't Google.)