>Affiliate links work the same way. Are those also fraud?

IIUC, Affiliate marketing is when an online retailer pays you a commission for traffic or sales generated from your referrals.

That's not fraud or misrepresentation.

In the case of Grubhub, et. al, fake phone numbers, they aren't recommending a restaurant. They are claiming that the phone number is the restaurant. Those who call that number aren't clicking an ad because the "affiliate" promoted it. They are calling that number because they'd already decided to contact that particular restaurant, but were redirected to another entity -- with a monetary interest that harms the restaurant -- that doesn't disclose their third-party status.

And that's certainly at least unethical, if not outright fraud.

No, because affiliates are participating in an affiliate program with the consent of the business.

The phone number thing is also only affiliated businesses. There would be no way to charge them if they weren't.

>The phone number thing is also only affiliated businesses. There would be no way to charge them if they weren't.

Charge them for what? When a customer uses the GrubHub site/app to place an order, they are explicitly choosing Grubhub to service that order.

If I choose to call a restaurant rather than use the GrubHub site/app, I'm explicitly choosing to deal with the restaurant directly. As such, GrubHub isn't entitled to an "affiliate referral" fee.

When a website and/or phone number claims to be an entity that it is not, and does not disclose that fact to the customer, then charges a fee based on that deception, that's fraud.

You're searching on Grubhub and then calling through their app or website. If that isn't a referral, I'm not sure what is.

>You're searching on Grubhub and then calling through their app or website. If that isn't a referral, I'm not sure what is.

No. You're searching DDG or Google or Bing and a website for the restaurant comes up.

It says it's the restaurant. It has the menu and the phone number. But it's not the actual phone number of the restaurant. Nor is the website set up or endorsed by the restaurant.

Both are owned and controlled by a third party (in this case, GrubHub) which claims to be the restaurant, and by virtue of SEO-spamming the site to the top of the search results, you get that site instead of that of the actual restaurant.

I'm trying to decide whether or not you're ignorant or just being deliberately obtuse. Care to settle the controversy?