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.

what sites?

Holy shit read this

http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4189324,00.html

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?

$230 mil? Good lord...

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/11/crescentstlmt.htm

The websites are: www.playgirl.com, www.highsociety.com, and more.

Ouch, look at the ratings at Alexa:

http://www.alexa.com/data/details?url=highsociety.com

Luke Ford covered it back in the day, read all about it:

http://www.lukeford.com/stars/male/carl_ruderman.htm

Someone please confirm this, is Black Bayou associated with this?

If so, why does ClickMojo have ties with this? Care to explain, Brujah?

Nice chunk of change lol

Sounds like they were also using diallers and people were too dumb to be able to switch the PC off when they were being screwed by that company.

Archives tell all

http://web.archive.org/web/200005111.../playgirl.html

Where are you getting that from. Those sound like strong words, given without context.

If Brujah is a gangster, than I'll eat his pinstripe suit and antique violin.

$230 million? ...crime does pay :1orglaugh

Lexitrans, eh? Very interesting indeed...

how is this different than what the 'free avs' sites are doing besides the -1 disclosure

wow mafia :glugglug

i bet corleone family would make elite tgp family :winkwink: to list their galleries top for free

You said it, Disclosure

heheh when the surfers gets bombarded with crazy samples and +2 font 'get it all FREE', I doubt too many take the time to read the -1 disclosure when they enter CC info.

Must be why they have those 5%+ CBs :2 cents:

Why do you say that? Brujah might be a little strange sometimes (who on GFY isn't?), but he's always been straight up to us.

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.

Hmm, wonder if a certain russian someone is gonna go down with this...

Why would he? He had nothing to do with the members areas.

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 :)

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.

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.

its the mob what do ya expect :BangBang:

Don't none of youse fuckers even look at me. I been hearin tings. Fatti i cazzi tuoi.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/380000...dfather300.jpg

Watch out for Brujah, he'll make you an offer you can't understand ! :1orglaugh

farbie

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.

230M sounds kinda bullshit to me.

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? :1orglaugh

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)

Ya really!

$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.