Have you ever removed an affiliate id from a url ?

Some great responses here, thanks everyone. Its good to see that most people here are ethical. Unfortunately the few spoil things for everyone else, and in many ways. Wish you all the best!

Removing an affiliate id is unethical, underhanded and if I caught you WATCH OUT!!! I would plaster your name all over the internet as a scoundrel!!
I have had this happen to me, I suspected the TE owner where it was happening...
I would have to be certain and able to prove it of coarse.

"I think the real problem lies affiliate companies that allow you to buy from your own link. It's simple, they should not allow that."

@Joe, I agree 100%

It's nice to see the high morale amongst everyone here. I believe that what you want others to do to you, is what you do to them and that means if I like the product, I but from the one who advertised. I do use shortening links, but not so much to hide the affiliate link, but to measure the amount of traffic etc and the long links are just plian ugly - if you'd like to steal the commission, you could always find the affiliate company and register your own membership and cut me out, but there's n

No I don't do that! It's not right and I would not want anyone else to do it to me. In fact, if I come across a site on my own, I always try to check first and see if I can get a link from someone so that they benefit.

Not only did I read about it when I started online, but someone I talked to said he was doing it and recommended I do the same. I terminated the relationship immediately. For sure, he won't respond here.

The guy talks about building business relationships. I wonder, if one of his friends showed him an affiliate link to a product, would he dare say he won't buy it from his friend? I don't think so. It has always bothered me.

It is wrong to do so. I don't do it but it has happened to me a few times...

Never done that and I always try to make sure that credit will be given to the appropriate person.

Why we do such a thing in the first place? It's morally not right.

No, if I didn't want to sign up with a particular person, I would find someone else.

I know, a tricky question isn’t it. I don’t really expect anyone to answer YES. But ever since I started marketing online I have been hearing of this practice. Surely you have come across sites offering cloaking services with the emphasis on protecting your affiliate links. Now if you are someone engaged with tracking your links and experimenting, you will notice some strange results depending on where you distribute specific links and...

Not me. If I didn't want to sign up as a particular person's ref I didn't sign up at all

No I haven't I do not think that it is morally right to do such a thing. Have you? I am just wondering why you would ask a question like this? Has someone done this to you?