Fear

If experience has taught me anything, it’s to never trust anyone in this industry.  That’s not to say I conclude that all adult websites are out to screw people over, but I’m also not going to go as far as to say they’re all as squeaky clean as they appear. I will exclude Streamate from this blog entirely. Everything mentioned in this blog entry occurred prior to my signing up on their site, a year and a half ago.

Here’s some food for thought:

The majority of players in this industry are the hosts and members; both on opposite ends of the spectrum but sharing in the same  behavior. The stuff that society deems taboo and generally looks down on. The same activity that almost everyone has, at one time or another, participated in, behind closed doors. The site owners are full aware of what this means. So, how does this not make us easy prey for greed-driven site owners to seize an opportunity? At zero risk, based on this general fear factor, what have the dirty ones got to lose?

Is there a number high enough to tell us how many adult websites are in existance today? Of those, how many are truly legit? How many carry on operations that leave no questions unanswered where revenue are reported, where refunds are taken, where the hosts are treated as an equal partner and not treated like the dirt on the bottom of their shoe? How many treat their hosts like they are even deserving of a proper response/answer to a question? Typically, when a bullying type of attitude is displayed, it is often representative of them trying to avoid answering a question that could possibly incriminate themselves. Nowhere is that more evident than in a situation where the company exerts its power in ways that threaten your revenue-earning ability on their platform. A  bullying technique created to scare people into submission. Call it ‘crowd control’.

Fear could be the ace in the hole allowing these companies to thrive while potentially getting away with major fraud. After all, who’s to stop them?

Take this scenario, for example:

Mr. Doe entered a sex site and spent $25.00 in a session with ‘cutegirl’. When his credit card statement arrived, he noticed a charge of $275.00 from this company. The only charge he admitted to having accepted was the $25.00 in total for that one session plus a small sign-up fee of less than $20.00 (the fee varies, depending on which plan they choose) that the site charges its members. Mr. Doe was expecting a charge of approximately $45.00! He called the company to complain, but they insisted that the amount billed to him was accurate. After several minutes of arguing his point with them and getting nowhere, he decides to hang up and proceed to call his bank to dispute the charge. He’d sign an affidavit but the site could claim that they have his ip number attached to his account. Long story short, the site can ultimately win that battle. Even if they do end up giving him his money back, a couple of months later, how long have they sat on it, along with others? Obviously, Mr. Doe is not alone here. What about smaller amounts that hundreds of thousands of customers, just like Mr. Doe, will chalk up as a loss and walk away? Those amounts, amass to a pretty damn large sum of money. What’s stopping them from taking legal action? Fear. Fear of losing what they value most; their family. Just having this go public – isn’t that embarrassment enough?  How does one person go up against a giant like that with deep pockets, in a legal proceeding? That’s a lost battle before it ever gets to court.

The girl taking her clothes off for that married man has a family of her own that she doesn’t want to find out about her dirty little secret life. Rather than report the fraud, she  quietly walks away, turns a blind eye to what she sees. Again, it comes down to fear. A different kind of fear this time. The shame and embarrassment of having her family find out simply isn’t worth it. Being found out, after having lied all these years about what she does, the cover-ups, everything, exposed? The embarrassment. Never.

Try a simple Google search for the website name and then the word “complaints” and it will all become clear. 😉 Every site is bound to have a few complaints, but some have them in bigger numbers.

The things that can happen. The frauds that can take place.

Imagine what this industry would be like with all those fears taken out of the equation.