Serge Birbrair mentioned in MSNBC article helping to scam customers out of millions

And thats the only difference why he is mentioned and others are not.

Only if Serge was still around to see this: he would be so proud.

On another Note...

Visa charges upwards of 30% annual fee's on credit cards sometimes fucken higher!
Thats the biggest racket of all.

But we all use em...

Gov't is slow, scammers now may have a few years. They are still playing catch up from years ago. 9-11 bought people some time.

Ryan, my intelligence is average. But I will put my work ethic up against anyone. I made $, and wanted more. Most webmasters made $, and blew up, and their businessed died.

Like I said, you have very few opportunities in life to make big $. Some people have none, some people have just one.

You had a huge one, and you blew it. That is simply the reality of things. Many many webmasters like yourself. I just happen to be the exception.

Really?

I talked to him 10 minutes ago for dinner plans this week.

Seriously Brad, you need to find another hobby.

Were you the one saying the same thing 7 years ago?

I speak the truth. You can blow smoke up peoples asses all day.

I am a brand, this has nothing to do with ES. As is, we are booked for months on installs.

Oh, geez. We knew this was going to happen 4 years ago.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/08/crescent.htm

For Release: August 23, 2000

Playgirl Web Site Faces FTC Charges

Thousands of Consumers Illegally Billed for "Free Tours" Promoted by Sites

The owners and operators of www.playgirl.com, www.highsociety.com and scores of other adult Web sites have been charged by the Federal Trade Commission with illegally billing thousands of consumers for services that were advertised as "free," and for billing other consumers who never visited the Web sites at all. The FTC and the New York Attorney General have filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking to halt the illegal billing practices and have asked the Court to freeze the defendants' assets, pending trial, to provide for consumer redress.

New York City-based Crescent Publishing Group, Inc., its owner, Bruce Chew, and principal David Bernstein, are named as defendants in the federal court complaint detailing the charges, along with 64 affiliated corporations that operate the adult entertainment Web sites. According to the complaint, the "Free Tour Web Sites" generated income of $188 million between 1997 and October 1999 -- $141 million of which was generated in the first 10 months of 1999 alone.

According to the complaint, the defendants operate scores of adult entertainment Web sites, promoting them as "free." The "Free Tour Web Sites" claim that consumers' credit card numbers are required solely to prove that the consumers are of legal age to view the adult material, and that the credit cards will not be billed. But thousands of consumers were charged recurring monthly membership fees ranging from $20 to $90, the complaint says. Consumers who tried to dispute the charges were met with a variety of barriers designed by the defendants to thwart their efforts. According to the complaint, the defendants use billing names different than the names of the Web sites, so consumers often had no idea who was billing them or why. Moreover, consumers often had difficulty the contacting defendants to get refunds from information provided to them on their billing statement.

According to the joint FTC/ New York A.G. complaint, the defendants routinely change corporate billing names and merchant banks in an attempt to avoid the fraud detection systems of credit card organizations such as Visa U.S.A. When it realized what the defendants were doing, Visa U.S.A. disqualified them from using its credit card system. The defendants moved their merchant banking relationship to Guatemala, adopted several new merchant names, and continued to process credit card transactions.

The FTC and the New York Attorney General allege that Crescent and its principals have violated the FTC Act and New York state law. They have asked the Court to halt the deceptive and unfair practices, to appoint a receiver to oversee the businesses and to freeze the defendants' assets pending trial to preserve them for consumer redress.

The Commission vote to file the complaint was 5-0.

The complaint was filed August 23, 2000 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

isn't being married to brad punishment enough? do you really need to drag her name through the mud?

talking shit about brad's wife is LAME

http://www.letterhead.com/profiles/serge/

you have come a long way baby.

I gotta run and send a wire to juicy, for his legal defense.

I think your ego is running away with you dude.

Colin... take your facts to another board, there is no room here;)

Hey Grimm, my feeble mind didn't get what you meant in that PM you sent. You said you would reply in detail by e-mail but you don't have my e-mail that I know of If you do want to holler, ryan1978 at insightbb.com. Assuming it's a no, I understand your reasons so no reason to get to deep into technicalities

Don't worry Brad, it was just a stupid idea ... one of about 10 I have thought up in the last week. Grimm's pry too busy rolling in the cash anyways :D It actually is a damn good idea, but there are leaglity concerns and some other issues that could cause problems. I came up with it when I was running around on my hamster wheel!

Ryan

I think you are starting to read message boards too much, to the point you believe what you read. This is the internet, and these are my sheep.

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I meant to say private message. or email, just a lot going on right now.

aka winetalk

But his real name is Serge Birbrair and he lives in Boca. Been to his house, over the top modern furnishings.

American dream? Maybe your dream, but not mine.

Made $10-20 million in 2-3 years of working with Crescent on a scam. I call that a nightmare.

What has he done since? Oprano failed, everything he has touched failed. He made $ on his scam, and thats it. We should remove him from the tribe for lack of real business sense.

Just spoke to the guy who wrote the MSNBC article. He is planning on doing a follow up, I pointed him in the right boca direction.

Serge, taking shot at my kid.

Desperate.

Get back to packing those boxes before the feds come a knocking.

Warm that ass up for the slammer. No wine in jail.

Serge, maybe you would like to be interviewed by the msnbc guy? Or for once in your life, you are at a loss for words?

I knew about this a long time ago.
Interesting read though

I just went through an audit, turns out I overpaid by $23k.

I sleep very well at night. In fact, I am off to bed. Early am flight.

You might be right Brad and I am considering it.

I never said he aint on the same team...
I just do not like the way he pitches sometimes.

What's really interesting is someone is willing to volunteer information - makes you wonder what other information he'll volunteer about affiliates of siccash.com, clients, and the such...?

What's really interesting is someone is willing to volunteer information - makes you wonder what other information he'll volunteer about affiliates of siccash.com, clients, and the such...?