Disclosures & Copyright Notice

1. FTC Affiliate Disclosure (16 CFR § 255.5)

In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, Bustathief.net (bustathief.net) provides this comprehensive disclosure detailing our financial relationships, referral links, and monetization methods.

Bustathief.net provides free investigative fraud reports, scam directory advisories, and triage recovery guides to all consumers without requiring paid subscriptions or paywalls. To fund our research desk, forensic domain investigations, server hosting, and technical operations, we participate in selective affiliate marketing programs.

2. Affiliate Commissions & Reader Costs

When you click outbound referral links on our website and purchase a product or subscription (such as Identity Theft Monitoring, Antivirus, VPNs, Password Managers, or Data Removal tools), Bustathief.net may receive a referral commission or compensation from the merchant partner.

This compensation comes at zero additional cost to you. In many instances, our editorial partnerships allow us to provide readers with negotiated promotional rates, extended trials, or exclusive discounts.

3. Strict Editorial Independence Guarantee

Our financial relationships never compromise our editorial standards or investigative findings:

• No Pay-to-Remove Policy: We never accept payment, sponsorship, or advertising to remove, alter, soften, or silence a scam warning or threat indicator against any company, platform, or individual.
• Objective Research: Recommended security solutions are evaluated based on consumer protection merits, threat telemetry, pricing transparency, and independent performance testing.
• Upfront Badges: Every article containing commercial referral links displays a clear, prominent disclosure notice at the top of the content.

4. Search Engine & Technical Link Compliance

All outbound commercial referral links on Bustathief.net utilize standardized machine-readable search relationship attributes (rel="sponsored nofollow noopener") in full conformance with Google Search Central and international advertising standards.

5. Intellectual Property & Copyright Protection

All original investigative content, scam taxonomy frameworks, proprietary threat indicators, triage playbooks, editorial graphics, and downloadable guides published on bustathief.net are protected under the copyright laws of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code), the Lanham Act (15 U.S. Code § 1125), and international intellectual property treaties.

• Prohibition of Automated Scraping & AI Extraction: Automated web scraping, content harvesting, bulk extraction, or unauthorized ingestion of Bustathief.net content for commercial Large Language Model (LLM) training or republication without express written authorization is strictly prohibited.
• Fair Use Quotations: Journalists, educational researchers, and non-profit organizations may quote brief excerpts provided that explicit, clear attribution and a direct hyperlink to the original article on bustathief.net are included.

6. DMCA Notice & Copyright Takedown Protocol

Bustathief.net respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that your copyrighted work has been reproduced on this website in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please transmit a formal DMCA Notice of Infringement to our designated agent at contact@bustathief.net with the following statutory requirements:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized representative;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
3. Identification of the specific URL or location on bustathief.net containing the material;
4. Your direct contact information (full name, address, telephone number, and email address);
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
6. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

7. Questions & Legal Desk Contact

For inquiries regarding our disclosures, commercial partnerships, licensing requests, or copyright matters, please contact our desk at contact@bustathief.net or submit via our Contact Gateway.