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03-18-2003, 04:47 PM | #1 |
Fuck Checks, CASH only!
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Porn Site Bilked Users Out of $230 Million
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...orn_site_fraud
NEW YORK - A mobster, two executives and five companies bilked Internet users out of $230 million by running bogus "free tours" of adult entertainment Web sites, federal authorities charged Tuesday. Thousands of users who thought they were taking a free peek at the sexually explicit material actually were charged $59.99 a month, according to Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf. Authorities arrested Richard Martino, who they described as a member of the Gambino organized-crime family; Bruce Chew, the chief executive of porn Web site operator Crescent Publishing Group; and Norman Chanes, a businessman. The men tricked customers into submitting their credit-card information for free visits and then made it nearly impossible for them to leave the Web site, Mauskopf said. Some users discovered that the "go back" button on their browser was disabled, while others couldn't find an "exit" button and racked up fees, the U.S. attorney said. "The defendants created a web of lies and deception to trap unwary consumers on the Internet," Mauskopf said in announcing the indictment. "Millions of dollars went from consumers' bank accounts and into the defendants' pockets." The government will attempt to seize the men's multimillion-dollar homes in New York and California, she said. Martino, 43 years old, of Harrison, N.Y.; Chew, 50, Lloyd Harbor, N.Y.; and Chanes, 56, of New York, were charged with a number of offenses including money laundering, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Martino and Chanes are charged with using three companies they controlled ? Mical Properties, Dynamic Telecommunications Inc., and Westford Telecommunications Inc. ? to launder illegal profits. The companies were named on the federal indictment along with Lexitrans Inc. and Harvest Advertising, which controlled or designed the adult Web sites, authorities said. Martino is charged with funneling more than $8 million of the proceeds to a high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family.
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Spanking, Medical Fetish, Sleeping, Strap-on Anal Lesbians, Girls Fucking Guys, Handjob site REAL HOT, Shemales, Anal and Ass Licking sites 100% Real EXCLUSIVE with amazing retention, ccbill payouts, lots of content FREE FTP HOSTING Promote the largest and oldest member paid escort site, Converts 10 times better then any dating site, CCBill payouts ICQ# 158802076 |
03-18-2003, 04:53 PM | #2 |
aspiring banker
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what sites?
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03-18-2003, 04:54 PM | #3 |
Fuck Checks, CASH only!
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Spanking, Medical Fetish, Sleeping, Strap-on Anal Lesbians, Girls Fucking Guys, Handjob site REAL HOT, Shemales, Anal and Ass Licking sites 100% Real EXCLUSIVE with amazing retention, ccbill payouts, lots of content FREE FTP HOSTING Promote the largest and oldest member paid escort site, Converts 10 times better then any dating site, CCBill payouts ICQ# 158802076 |
03-18-2003, 04:55 PM | #4 |
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Some users discovered that the "go back" button on their browser was disabled, while others couldn't find an "exit" button and racked up fees, the U.S. attorney said.
How do you rack up fees cause you cant find an exit button? |
03-18-2003, 04:56 PM | #5 | |
Fuck Checks, CASH only!
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Quote:
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Spanking, Medical Fetish, Sleeping, Strap-on Anal Lesbians, Girls Fucking Guys, Handjob site REAL HOT, Shemales, Anal and Ass Licking sites 100% Real EXCLUSIVE with amazing retention, ccbill payouts, lots of content FREE FTP HOSTING Promote the largest and oldest member paid escort site, Converts 10 times better then any dating site, CCBill payouts ICQ# 158802076 |
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03-18-2003, 04:56 PM | #6 |
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$230 mil? Good lord...
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/11/crescentstlmt.htm The websites are: www.playgirl.com, www.highsociety.com, and more. |
03-18-2003, 04:58 PM | #7 |
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03-18-2003, 05:01 PM | #8 |
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Luke Ford covered it back in the day, read all about it:
http://www.lukeford.com/stars/male/carl_ruderman.htm
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03-18-2003, 05:02 PM | #9 |
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Someone please confirm this, is Black Bayou associated with this?
If so, why does ClickMojo have ties with this? Care to explain, Brujah? |
03-18-2003, 05:04 PM | #10 |
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Nice chunk of change lol
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Choopa.com Colocation | Cloud Servers | Dedicated Servers | CDN 1000 Gbps Network | NJ DataCenters |
03-18-2003, 05:05 PM | #11 | |
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Quote:
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03-18-2003, 05:14 PM | #12 |
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This place is for RENT |
03-18-2003, 05:15 PM | #13 | |
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Quote:
If Brujah is a gangster, than I'll eat his pinstripe suit and antique violin.
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03-18-2003, 05:17 PM | #14 |
Too lazy to set a custom title
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$230 million? ...crime does pay
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03-18-2003, 05:27 PM | #15 | |
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"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." --H.L. Mencken |
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03-18-2003, 05:28 PM | #16 |
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how is this different than what the 'free avs' sites are doing besides the -1 disclosure
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<font size="2" face="Tahoma"><a href="http://www.18blowjobs.com/webmasters/?640" target="_blank">Get paid $25 per signup</a> listing over <a href="http://galleries.18blowjobs.com/hosted.html" target="_blank">100 free hosted video galleries</a> - <a href="http://www.18blowjobs.com/webmasters/?640" target="_blank">Check it</a> » </font> |
03-18-2003, 05:30 PM | #17 |
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wow mafia
i bet corleone family would make elite tgp family to list their galleries top for free |
03-18-2003, 05:30 PM | #18 | |
Fuck Checks, CASH only!
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Quote:
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Spanking, Medical Fetish, Sleeping, Strap-on Anal Lesbians, Girls Fucking Guys, Handjob site REAL HOT, Shemales, Anal and Ass Licking sites 100% Real EXCLUSIVE with amazing retention, ccbill payouts, lots of content FREE FTP HOSTING Promote the largest and oldest member paid escort site, Converts 10 times better then any dating site, CCBill payouts ICQ# 158802076 |
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03-18-2003, 05:39 PM | #19 | |
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Must be why they have those 5%+ CBs
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03-19-2003, 03:20 AM | #20 | |
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Quote:
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03-19-2003, 03:49 AM | #21 |
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Still no word on why you dragged Brujah in this. I don't see his name, company name, or anything on the article you linked to.
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Photos by Ian X.: Distinctive photos of goth babes. Blood Money:Your traffic, my sites, our money. MojoHost: Still the best. |
03-19-2003, 04:01 AM | #22 |
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Hmm, wonder if a certain russian someone is gonna go down with this...
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03-19-2003, 04:02 AM | #23 | |
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Ouch. |
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03-19-2003, 04:20 AM | #24 |
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LOL, have you read the site's reviews on Alexa?
credit card fraud, 10/29/99 Reviewer: benthere They billed my card for $60 on the "your credit card will not be billed" site and refused to take it off when I called them. These people should be in prison. High Society page-STAY AWAY!, 7/8/99 Reviewer: Zena DeSucker If you were lucky enough to keep your Alexa page open when finding this site (it bumps off Alexa when found through some search engines) and read these reviews before going for the "Prove youre 18 with your credit card number" scam... STAY AWAY! Real sites just have you click on "I Accept" terms that certify youre 18 or over... You only wind up on another screen asking for your credit card and same info as on the last page! FAIR WARNING! PLAYGIRL FRAUD, 7/4/99 Reviewer: Maypowder DO NOT ENTER THIS SITE. PLAYGIRL OPERATES A SCAM. THEY TELL YOU THAT YOUR CREDIT CARD WILL NOT BE BILLED THIS IS A LIE. ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN DEFRAUDED BY THIS SITE SHOULD CONTACT <http://www.fraud.org/ifw.htm> AND REPORT IT Check out those dates....these guys were at it for quite a while, no wonder they racked up so much small change
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Converting like a mofo |
03-19-2003, 04:35 AM | #25 |
Too lazy to set a custom title
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And the same scam basically is going on today and many people who are familiar to all are part of it. One day the same thing will happen to those involved in today scams but when you're making 10's of millions of dollars a year worrying about jail isn't big on your list of priorities. Nobody gives a shit, nope. And as I've always suspected organized crime is involved in this one you can bet. The ability to run through hundreds of merchant accounts from all over the world isn't something Joe Webmaster can do - it takes people from the criminal underworld to get that job done.
Very dirty business. Serge brokered traffic, he had nothing to do with the people who ran it, probably never met Chew. They bought traffic from all over, probably got it from Alta Vista, Yahoo and lots of other sources. It was dirty though, amazing how many people i've met who got the 60 dollar charges on their credit cards from that operation. I got a few until i realized what it was. Don't think I ever got a chargeback, back then my bank made you go through a whole process, filling out forms, to contest a charge, wasn't worth it to me.
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I moved my sites to Vacares Hosting. I've saved money, my hair is thicker, lost some weight too! Thanks Sly!
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03-19-2003, 04:42 AM | #26 |
Too old to care
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So we can cross them off our list of potential clients.
The thing is with their content they could have made a lot of money and kept it legal. Whether they would have turned over $230,000,000 in a few years is another matter. But they could have been doing it legal and not worried. Turn over $230, no content costs. So hosting and design only. All they got fined was $30, seems crime does pay. |
03-19-2003, 04:56 AM | #27 |
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its the mob what do ya expect
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03-19-2003, 06:50 AM | #28 |
Beer Money Baron
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Don't none of youse fuckers even look at me. I been hearin tings. Fatti i cazzi tuoi.
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03-19-2003, 07:45 AM | #29 |
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Watch out for Brujah, he'll make you an offer you can't understand !
farbie
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03-19-2003, 09:21 AM | #30 |
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I'm surprised this thread isn't staying at the top of the list. This is amazing news. We don't send traffic to sites that are supposed to be free. We don't even send to the ones with the disclaimers. These guys need to be prosecuted. I'm sure that there are many people out there who were scammed that will no longer buy porn over the Internet with their credit cards. We have all lost money today.
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Regards, Rick Latona http://latonas.com Latona's - We Sell Money Making Web Properties Note to buyers of websites and traffic: please check our inventory at http://latonas.com/websites-for-sale. If you would like to make an offer on something, just let me know. |
03-19-2003, 09:30 AM | #31 |
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230M sounds kinda bullshit to me.
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03-19-2003, 10:32 AM | #32 |
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Psssst? There is no money in porn anymore? Or perhaps is just that selling a wank to a horny surfer is a concept that newbees just don?t understand?
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03-19-2003, 11:06 AM | #33 |
l8r
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Sheeeezzzzz...
This is the criminal indictment part of the whole Crescent thing that the FTC took down..... Not new stuff..... FTC took them down 2 years or so ago... Now they are done investigating on the criminal side..... From what I can tell, it does not involve any Currently operating sites... Which does'nt mean they still arent in business.. But doesnt mean they are either..... Highsociety, Playgirl, etal have not (from what I can see in the archives) been taking any new members since the FTC came down on them..... It just took them a hell of a lot longer to put together the criminal side of the whole thing (imho of course) |
03-19-2003, 11:09 AM | #34 | |
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Quote:
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03-19-2003, 11:19 AM | #35 |
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$230,000,000.00 Holy Shit!
That is absolutely amazing. When is this story going to make CNN, Fox or the networks? This is the type of story Ashhahahahaha's love to jump all over and make every webmaster look bad. |