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Originally posted by sperbonzo
I'm sorry to tell you but there is no conspiracy. I have been dealing with VISA from the point of view of the banks and processors for a number of years now.
The simple fact is is that this industry does not account for all that much money in the overall VISA universe. On the other hand, this industry does account for a HUGE number of chargebacks and fraud. This out of all proportion to the revenues that we generate for VISA, and it ranges from lack of disclosure of the actual fees charged to customers, and selling them memberships that they don't even know they have, to outright theft by webmasters who "bang" customer databases for millions of dollars.
For years, these activities were being screened and hidden by the use of third party processing, (which is why VISA hates IPSPs), and jumping from one offshore shell corp to another to avoid the TMF (terminated merchant file).
As the internet started to mature in the last couple of yearsand the smoke and confusion started to clear, the new head of VISA USA, Martin Elliot, started to take a look at this "problem child" of an industry (us), that was causing so many problems.
They are now taking steps to eliminate those problems.
Sorry, but this is our own fault. The party is over now, and everybody is going to have to run their business like a business.
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I agree with all you have said but let me be the devil's advocate for a moment. The conspiracy theory that has been outlined by Carrie as well as the one where the Bush Admin offers the card associations relief on anti-trust issues in exchange for restricting pornography are widely circulated for a simple reason, the pieces of that puzzle fit. The fact that the adult industry has provided so many reasons why the card associations could restrict or eliminate adult wholesale is the true beauty of this conspiracy theory. Not only could the card associations do this and reap rewards from the Bush Administration, but they could also offer legitimate business reasons why they did it, insulating themselves from litigation.
For the record, I also believe in UFOs, that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone, and that oil is the reason why teenagers from our country are dying on foreign soil today. What are the chances I also believe the government is capable of a conspiracy to crush the adult market without ever requiring a single hearing before an appellate court on first amendment issues?