telcoweb and FTC outcome - GoFuckYourself.com

GotGauge · 06-22-2002, 08:23 AM

IF anyone uses them this should be nice to see.
This was taken from another board, link at the bottom.

Telcoweb Announcement! Please Read
The following information is being provided to all resellers, webmasters and account managers to serve as a documentation of the recent events with the FTC. We apologize if it seems we were not communicating as much as expected but because of the nature of the case and the specific accounts involved, we were unable to put a statement out through the newsletter or on any boards until all parties involved were notified accordingly. Please read through this message carefully to ensure that any questions you may have aren't already included in the text before you contact an account manager for additional information.

Section 1: Case History

FTC v. BTV Industries et al.

(Telcoweb is the brand name of the product/dialer program that is run by BTV Industries)

On March 27, 2002, the FTC filed a complaint alleging that BTV Industries was responsible for an $11 Million dollar scam via Spam/UCE defrauding consumers using a 1-900 number. The alleged offense outlined that BTV Industries purpotrated a scam by bulk emailing messages posing as Yahoo promising a prize of a Playstation 2 system. The Spam redirected the recipient to an imitation Yahoo webpage instructing them to reconnect to a "toll - free" number to claim the prize. Consumers who followed the instructions were connected via a premium rate number and into a members area with pornographic content ending up with a large phone charge to a 1-900 number.

*The following was taken from the FTC Site describing the exact charges filed against BTV and is available at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/04/btv.htm for full review*

The Commission charged the defendants with violating the FTC Act and the Pay-Per-Call Rule, which implements the requirements of the Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act of 1992. The FTC's complaint alleged that the defendants' practices were deceptive and misled consumers, through their claims: 1) that consumers had won a prize; 2) that Yahoo sent the e-mail; and 3) that the connection to the Web site was toll-free. Additionally, the FTC said the defendants violated the Pay-Per-Call Rule by not disclosing the cost of connecting to the Web site and by not providing an audio introductory disclosure message when consumers connected to the Internet through the 900-number.
In its complaint, the FTC is seeking a permanent injunction and other equitable relief, including consumer redress. The Commission vote authorizing staff to file the complaint was 4-0, with Commissioner Sheila Anthony not participating. The complaint was filed under seal in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada on March 27, 2002. The seal was lifted on April 22, 2002.
In addition to the charges brought against us, a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) was placed and froze all incoming revenue from all US carriers and prevented BTV from receiving or making any payments. Full details are also available at the above link in .pdf format.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Section 2 Case Relevance

As most of you who have been working within the industry know, this was a ground breaking case by the FTC in an effort to start addressing Internet Scam and fraud. This case was one of many that they have used to permanently change the market, which could wipe out the US involvement for everyone in the industry, not just us.

BTV Industries/Telcoweb had a choice to make and based on the facts of the case we were confident that they didn't research the facts to their full extent and we chose to protect the integrity of the organization by going forth with all of their requests. We have always worked within the guidelines of all International, Federal, and local regulatory agencies and were able to prove it and chose to fight to have our money released to pay our accounts and protect our name. We felt that we would be able to supply more than adequate documentation to prove our lack of involvement in the scam and protect the integrity of the dialer program BTV Industries developed.

Staff members worked diligently to put together any and all proof or evidence of our zero tolerance policy, our content police system, a complete dateline of the events of the scam and our efforts to halt and terminate the offending account s . In addition the best legal representation available for this type of case was brought in for our defense. Through the combined efforts of our staff and legal team and countless hours of work and commitment, we were able to provide the FTC with all of the information needed to prove that rather than Instigating the scam we were actually the party who shut it down. This was a costly endeavour, but our confidence in a positive outcome helped the group choose to go forward with the case quickly and efficiently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Section 3 Final Outcome

BTV Industries prevailed as promised. In addition we also proved how effective and diligent we work to protect consumers from fraud such as this and any other violations dictated by all governing bodies. We have had our dialers approved for continued operations by showing that we adhere to their guidelines. Telcoweb is now the safest dialer company in the world!

A settlement was reached and the TRO has been lifted effective Friday, June 22, 2002. All final documentation is in transit and we expect all funds to be released within the next 7 days. As soon as confirmation of the date of fund transfer is available to us a follow up message will be issued going over the date of payroll processing.

We appreciate your patience and support during this time and assure you that Telcoweb will always fight to protect the interest of our account holders.

If you have any further questions, do not reply to this message and contact the staff online or by email at the addresses listed on the Telcoweb site under the 'Contacts' tab.

Regards,

The Telcoweb staff

Last edited by Telcoweb on 06-22-2002 at 03:49 PM

http://bbs.adultwebmasterinfo.com/sh...threadid=33400

Pete · 06-22-2002, 09:39 AM

Thats fuckin ground breaking!

Slick · 06-22-2002, 09:41 AM

WOW, I'm estatic now !!! I can't wait to get paid !!!

qdtobbe · 06-22-2002, 09:46 AM

Quote:

WOW, I'm estatic now !!! I can't wait to get paid !!!

eider can i !

[

PissOff · 06-22-2002, 12:17 PM

Damn.....We were that close to having all the low life scum that operate dialers put out of business. Oh well, one of these days.

Until the day that dialers prominently display that the service is not "FREE" and that if you choose to use a dialer you will pay $XXX then it is fraud, a scam and theft.

If you went to BurgerKing and were offered a "FREE" burger...and then when you went to pick up the burger you were charged $XXX a minute for cooking time, you would scream bloody murder.

Call yourself what you want...you are crooks!!

Jon · 06-22-2002, 12:30 PM

fuck dialers and fuck telco.

pr0 · 06-22-2002, 12:39 PM

candidpublishinginc · 06-22-2002, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PissOff

Until the day that dialers prominently display that the service is not "FREE" and that if you choose to use a dialer you will pay $XXX then it is fraud, a scam and theft.

It's going to happen now. The FTC will now require clear and prominent display of the price in large font.

Most dialers that used 900 already had the price on clearly, but now it's in larger sized font and bold.

We've already been testing our large font priced dialers and the drop in minutes is about 10%. So there goes your lame "fraud" theory. Truth is that most people realize the service costs money.

candidpublishinginc · 06-22-2002, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NiteChatDotTV
fuck dialers and fuck telco.

Wow what an educated post. Your 2 cents really made a difference in this thread.

kmanrox · 06-22-2002, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by candidpublishinginc

Wow what an educated post. Your 2 cents really made a difference in this thread.

ahahahaha

pr0 · 06-22-2002, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by candidpublishinginc
Truth is that most people realize the service costs money.

Yup, go to any hotel & ask the girl working at the front counter, how often a guy will call downstairs & say he didn't order the porn movie, exactly 3 minutes after its starts.

The fact is, the people realize it costs money, they aren't stupid. They just don't want to pay for it later, after the nut has been busted.

But anyways, dialers should have had big ass font from the start, & a audio warning. Just to let the idiots know for sure.

Pete · 06-22-2002, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Damn.....We were that close to having all the low life scum that operate dialers put out of business. Oh well, one of these days.

Until the day that dialers prominently display that the service is not "FREE" and that if you choose to use a dialer you will pay $XXX then it is fraud, a scam and theft.

If you went to BurgerKing and were offered a "FREE" burger...and then when you went to pick up the burger you were charged $XXX a minute for cooking time, you would scream bloody murder.

Call yourself what you want...you are crooks!!

Who fuckin cares? Fuck the surfers, fuck'em all. I make money off dialers thats all that matters. If your too fuckin stupid to read the part that says $4.99 per minute than you should be fucked hard up the ass. This is what seperates kids and mature Adults from surfing porn legitimately.

NOWHERE should it ever say a dialer is FREE! because its not! That is THE biggest rule when promoting one.

Maybe if you read the fucking rules and werent so fuckin naive you wouldnt have said something so fuckin stupid

Now sit down and shut the fuck up!

Pete · 06-22-2002, 05:31 PM

Whoa, did I say that out load??...I have an attitude now

PissOff · 06-22-2002, 09:55 PM

Pete:

Your little speech was presented with intelligence and wit. (Insert sarcasm here!)

And I suppose where all of the dialers advertise "Absolutely No Credit Card Needed", this isn't meant to be misleading....Normal business ethics and acceptable practices would see the people pushing dialers using good marketing techniques to advertise a dialer... "Don't have a credit card...You can still view hot adult material and bill the charges directly to your phone...Only $XXX a minute".

Justify it any way that let's you sleep at night. The current way most of the dialers operate is still fraud and carried out by people who don't have the intelligence to make a business successful using simple ingenuity and creativity.

candidpublishinginc · 06-23-2002, 12:29 AM

Even AOL uses the "No Credit Card Needed" phrase, so your argument falls flat. And what's wrong with that? It's true isn't it?

You're wasting your time with this lame argument. You obviously know nothing about Dialers or the Audiotext business, so do what your name suggests and pissoff.

With the new dialers that show the price in large font and bold, you have nothing to complain about...and they really don't convert much worse than the "old" dialers either.

[Labret] · 06-23-2002, 12:34 AM

At five dollars a minute, tell me a paysite that is worth 300.00 USD an hour.

Tell me tell me tell me tell me.

You cannot.

Dialers are a fucking scam. Eveyrone knows it.

Gee I wonder if Candid is launching a dialer network?

I dont consider this a victory, I consider this a loss to our industry. Great, bring us more scrutiny.

PissOff · 06-23-2002, 12:53 AM

Candid Publishing:

Thank you for confirming that your company actively engages in questionable and fraudelent activities. Your statement at the very start, that "Large Font had caused a 10% decrease in business" shows that at least 10% of your users have opted out now that you have tested the large font option. An open admission that 10% of your users were being mislead in the past. .00001% in my books is to much for an HONEST business.

And yes AOL does use No Credit Card required type promos...but they also CLEARLY state that this is for a set time period trial and then also clearly state the per month charge if you choose to continue your trial. You are not comparing apples to apples.

Plus, I tried one of your links. I lost count of the pop-up windows I was presented with. At what must have been about window 10 I was presented with a dialog box for All-In-One Telcom. Hummm, I suppose if I had let this intrusive program download to my computer, there would have been a "Large Font" disclosure telling me that I had just downloaded a dialer, RIGHT!!?? (And of course all of the costs would have been clearly stated...

The Machine · 06-23-2002, 12:56 AM

who cares about dialers? dialers are dead snd should have been born dead.

PissOff · 06-23-2002, 01:03 AM

Ok, this time I counted. There are 20 pop-up windows. (More if I had let dcgirls go through their cycle). Plus 4 Windows dialog boxes.

Yep, you should be proud...showing our industry's surfers that if they click on a link that they will be bombarded with an endless cycle of windows...this will certainly encourage them to click on links in the future.

Geez, people complain that TGP's are a danger to our industry...I would think that treating our CUSTOMERS to this sort of pop-up onslaught (and don't forget the misleading dialer) certainly does more damage then any free sampling ever could.

06-22-2002, 08:23 AM	#1
GotGauge Confirmed User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: USA Posts: 3,072	telcoweb and FTC outcome IF anyone uses them this should be nice to see. This was taken from another board, link at the bottom. Telcoweb Announcement! Please Read The following information is being provided to all resellers, webmasters and account managers to serve as a documentation of the recent events with the FTC. We apologize if it seems we were not communicating as much as expected but because of the nature of the case and the specific accounts involved, we were unable to put a statement out through the newsletter or on any boards until all parties involved were notified accordingly. Please read through this message carefully to ensure that any questions you may have aren't already included in the text before you contact an account manager for additional information. Section 1: Case History FTC v. BTV Industries et al. (Telcoweb is the brand name of the product/dialer program that is run by BTV Industries) On March 27, 2002, the FTC filed a complaint alleging that BTV Industries was responsible for an $11 Million dollar scam via Spam/UCE defrauding consumers using a 1-900 number. The alleged offense outlined that BTV Industries purpotrated a scam by bulk emailing messages posing as Yahoo promising a prize of a Playstation 2 system. The Spam redirected the recipient to an imitation Yahoo webpage instructing them to reconnect to a "toll - free" number to claim the prize. Consumers who followed the instructions were connected via a premium rate number and into a members area with pornographic content ending up with a large phone charge to a 1-900 number. The following was taken from the FTC Site describing the exact charges filed against BTV and is available at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/04/btv.htm for full review The Commission charged the defendants with violating the FTC Act and the Pay-Per-Call Rule, which implements the requirements of the Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act of 1992. The FTC's complaint alleged that the defendants' practices were deceptive and misled consumers, through their claims: 1) that consumers had won a prize; 2) that Yahoo sent the e-mail; and 3) that the connection to the Web site was toll-free. Additionally, the FTC said the defendants violated the Pay-Per-Call Rule by not disclosing the cost of connecting to the Web site and by not providing an audio introductory disclosure message when consumers connected to the Internet through the 900-number. In its complaint, the FTC is seeking a permanent injunction and other equitable relief, including consumer redress. The Commission vote authorizing staff to file the complaint was 4-0, with Commissioner Sheila Anthony not participating. The complaint was filed under seal in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada on March 27, 2002. The seal was lifted on April 22, 2002. In addition to the charges brought against us, a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) was placed and froze all incoming revenue from all US carriers and prevented BTV from receiving or making any payments. Full details are also available at the above link in .pdf format. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Section 2 Case Relevance As most of you who have been working within the industry know, this was a ground breaking case by the FTC in an effort to start addressing Internet Scam and fraud. This case was one of many that they have used to permanently change the market, which could wipe out the US involvement for everyone in the industry, not just us. BTV Industries/Telcoweb had a choice to make and based on the facts of the case we were confident that they didn't research the facts to their full extent and we chose to protect the integrity of the organization by going forth with all of their requests. We have always worked within the guidelines of all International, Federal, and local regulatory agencies and were able to prove it and chose to fight to have our money released to pay our accounts and protect our name. We felt that we would be able to supply more than adequate documentation to prove our lack of involvement in the scam and protect the integrity of the dialer program BTV Industries developed. Staff members worked diligently to put together any and all proof or evidence of our zero tolerance policy, our content police system, a complete dateline of the events of the scam and our efforts to halt and terminate the offending account s . In addition the best legal representation available for this type of case was brought in for our defense. Through the combined efforts of our staff and legal team and countless hours of work and commitment, we were able to provide the FTC with all of the information needed to prove that rather than Instigating the scam we were actually the party who shut it down. This was a costly endeavour, but our confidence in a positive outcome helped the group choose to go forward with the case quickly and efficiently. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Section 3 Final Outcome BTV Industries prevailed as promised. In addition we also proved how effective and diligent we work to protect consumers from fraud such as this and any other violations dictated by all governing bodies. We have had our dialers approved for continued operations by showing that we adhere to their guidelines. Telcoweb is now the safest dialer company in the world! A settlement was reached and the TRO has been lifted effective Friday, June 22, 2002. All final documentation is in transit and we expect all funds to be released within the next 7 days. As soon as confirmation of the date of fund transfer is available to us a follow up message will be issued going over the date of payroll processing. We appreciate your patience and support during this time and assure you that Telcoweb will always fight to protect the interest of our account holders. If you have any further questions, do not reply to this message and contact the staff online or by email at the addresses listed on the Telcoweb site under the 'Contacts' tab. Regards, The Telcoweb staff Last edited by Telcoweb on 06-22-2002 at 03:49 PM http://bbs.adultwebmasterinfo.com/sh...threadid=33400 __________________ ICQ 22264474 [email protected]

06-22-2002, 09:39 AM	#2
Pete Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Mr. Rogers Neighborhood Posts: 6,617	Thats fuckin ground breaking! __________________ Evoke Electronics

06-22-2002, 05:31 PM	#13
Pete Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Mr. Rogers Neighborhood Posts: 6,617	Whoa, did I say that out load??...I have an attitude now __________________ Evoke Electronics

06-23-2002, 12:29 AM	#15
candidpublishinginc Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bedford, NH 03110 Posts: 707	Even AOL uses the "No Credit Card Needed" phrase, so your argument falls flat. And what's wrong with that? It's true isn't it? You're wasting your time with this lame argument. You obviously know nothing about Dialers or the Audiotext business, so do what your name suggests and pissoff. With the new dialers that show the price in large font and bold, you have nothing to complain about...and they really don't convert much worse than the "old" dialers either. __________________ Candid Clicks Earn up to 4 cents a click for blind link traffic! NO CONVERSIONS, NO BS!

06-22-2002, 09:41 AM	#3
Slick Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Houghton, MI Posts: 7,338	WOW, I'm estatic now !!! I can't wait to get paid !!!

06-22-2002, 12:17 PM	#5
PissOff Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 28	Damn.....We were that close to having all the low life scum that operate dialers put out of business. Oh well, one of these days. Until the day that dialers prominently display that the service is not "FREE" and that if you choose to use a dialer you will pay $XXX then it is fraud, a scam and theft. If you went to BurgerKing and were offered a "FREE" burger...and then when you went to pick up the burger you were charged $XXX a minute for cooking time, you would scream bloody murder. Call yourself what you want...you are crooks!!

06-22-2002, 12:30 PM	#6
Jon Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: New York City Posts: 2,578	fuck dialers and fuck telco.

06-22-2002, 12:39 PM	#7
pr0 rockin tha trailerpark Industry Role: Join Date: May 2001 Location: ~Coastal~ Posts: 23,088

06-22-2002, 09:55 PM	#14
PissOff Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 28	Pete: Your little speech was presented with intelligence and wit. (Insert sarcasm here!) And I suppose where all of the dialers advertise "Absolutely No Credit Card Needed", this isn't meant to be misleading....Normal business ethics and acceptable practices would see the people pushing dialers using good marketing techniques to advertise a dialer... "Don't have a credit card...You can still view hot adult material and bill the charges directly to your phone...Only $XXX a minute". Justify it any way that let's you sleep at night. The current way most of the dialers operate is still fraud and carried out by people who don't have the intelligence to make a business successful using simple ingenuity and creativity.

06-23-2002, 12:34 AM	#16
[Labret] Registered User Industry Role: Join Date: May 2001 Location: Са́нкт-Петербу́рг Posts: 10,945	At five dollars a minute, tell me a paysite that is worth 300.00 USD an hour. Tell me tell me tell me tell me. You cannot. Dialers are a fucking scam. Eveyrone knows it. Gee I wonder if Candid is launching a dialer network? I dont consider this a victory, I consider this a loss to our industry. Great, bring us more scrutiny.

06-23-2002, 12:53 AM	#17
PissOff Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 28	Candid Publishing: Thank you for confirming that your company actively engages in questionable and fraudelent activities. Your statement at the very start, that "Large Font had caused a 10% decrease in business" shows that at least 10% of your users have opted out now that you have tested the large font option. An open admission that 10% of your users were being mislead in the past. .00001% in my books is to much for an HONEST business. And yes AOL does use No Credit Card required type promos...but they also CLEARLY state that this is for a set time period trial and then also clearly state the per month charge if you choose to continue your trial. You are not comparing apples to apples. Plus, I tried one of your links. I lost count of the pop-up windows I was presented with. At what must have been about window 10 I was presented with a dialog box for All-In-One Telcom. Hummm, I suppose if I had let this intrusive program download to my computer, there would have been a "Large Font" disclosure telling me that I had just downloaded a dialer, RIGHT!!?? (And of course all of the costs would have been clearly stated...

06-23-2002, 12:56 AM	#18
The Machine Confirmed User Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 859	who cares about dialers? dialers are dead snd should have been born dead.

06-23-2002, 01:03 AM	#19
PissOff Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 28	Ok, this time I counted. There are 20 pop-up windows. (More if I had let dcgirls go through their cycle). Plus 4 Windows dialog boxes. Yep, you should be proud...showing our industry's surfers that if they click on a link that they will be bombarded with an endless cycle of windows...this will certainly encourage them to click on links in the future. Geez, people complain that TGP's are a danger to our industry...I would think that treating our CUSTOMERS to this sort of pop-up onslaught (and don't forget the misleading dialer) certainly does more damage then any free sampling ever could.