Posts purporting to come from the head of Web loyalty firm iPoints on a popular online forum describing its customers as "bloody obsessives" did come from the company but not from its managing director, Chris Simpson.

Simpson said the offending posts to DVD Forums were made from his PC by a staffer - but not by him. He disassociated himself from the remarks and said iPoints would deal with as yet unidentified impostor through its internal disciplinary procedures.

"They were not my words - and don't represent my views," he told us. "Anyone who's spoken to me would know the remarks were out of character".

The posts were made in a thread on DVD Forums (since removed) discussing iPoint's decision to suspend a "large number" of accounts following what the company described as fraudulent activity. The alleged fraud involved gaining extra points by using other users' direct email marketing links.

Simpson confirmed a number of iPoints accounts have been suspended, but wasn't immediately able to say how many nor whether tens, hundreds or thousands of accounts were affected.

Other posters to DVD Forums disputed whether any fraud had taken place at all, and criticised the company for allegedly poor customer service.

Simpson argues that much of this criticism was disproportionate but acknowledges issues involving delays in crediting user accounts, which iPoints is trying to address with its affiliates.

He told us the "main reason" for these problems came from the issues regarding reporting from iPoints overseas casino affiliates. Simpson told us he understood users' frustration over delays in crediting their accounts and said it was building "tighter analysis" to improve its services.

Affiliates failure rates typically run at five per cent for Internet loyalty programmes. iPoints claims its affiliate failure rates are less than one per cent.

iPoints has 850,000 registered users and processed 600,000 transactions last month, according to the company. ®