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I am frustrated, concerned and maddened by the existence of this unfolding situation - but in a bigger sense, not just with one processor. At the same time, I do feel encouraged. I am very happy to see people working together to discover, document and report to billing and hosting entities and appropriate authorities. I think if enough of this is done collaboratively that a difference will be made on the internet. Increased "self policing" efforts will of course better protect children, something this industry has always done but rarely gets credit for. We are collectively positioned to also benefit from dramatic decreases in copyright infringement. We can create a scenario where these sites will have little or no place to go for hosting or processing. If authorities are properly engaged their owners won't be able to go home, either.
I have always done my best to make a positive difference by doing good business. I can say from experience it does get harder in volume of clients and web sites - not harder to "do good business" but absolutely more difficult now that it is not possible for me to have interaction with every new customer, even with amazing staff. I will be reflecting on what more I can do to help.
The most productive actions will be those focused on the people who are knowingly complicit with breaking law. They are the criminals, it is they who professionally obfuscate corporate information, online presence and everything else. Like any thief or criminal mind, every action of theirs is *premeditated* to defraud their vendors and fly under the radar as long as possible in between vendor "change ups".
After a dozen years of friendship with the Cadwells and key CCBill employees I am not overnight going to be a fickle (definition: Characterized by erratic changeableness or instability, especially with regard to affections or attachments; capricious) friend. I do not accept that they are complicit (definition: Involvement as an accomplice in a questionable act or a crime). I will not argue about "could have done this" or "should have done that" differently. I don't believe for a New York second either Ron or Stephanie as owners would not cease processing or hosting upon discovery of criminal activity or any activity which does not meet the compliance requirements of card associations.
Further, that with a group of companies that has more than 400 employees that I will reserve judgment based on their actions to follow. It is logistically, procedurally and organizationally difficult to "know everything" and impossible to root out all future unknown actions by clients IN SCALE. CCBill has scale: hundreds of employees, billions of dollars processed, tens of thousands of clients, hundreds of thousands of affiliates. I believe they have done an admirable job for our industry. Nobody could show me any company with this reach historically who has done better. It seems clear to me that CCBill needs to make a new, concerted effort to proactively find and terminate this type of activity. I think they need to release a more thorough statement to customers and the industry to address what efforts and changes will be made internally and compliment that with educational information to help us all better understand how to effect change.
This type of activity exists at dozens of processors and I would make an educated guess that it more profoundly exists elsewhere. Let's (you, me, everyone) publicly discuss organizing data collection, where information needs to be sent and how information needs to be formatted (presented) so that we can effect change. Thoughts?
Brad
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President at MojoHost | brad at mojohost dot com | Skype MojoHostBrad
71 industry awards for hosting and professional excellence since 1999
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