When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends

Over 424 complaints filed against them (and that’s just on this one site alone) for credit card fraud! I’m referring to the site that ICM Registry has chosen to promote them as their “first high profile .XXX site”! http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/ifriends.aspx 

If those complaints are real (how can that many members all be wrong?), then this company is making hundreds of millions of dollars a year simply by billing members in small increments. According to several of those reports, a fee of $6.95 monthly.  That’s not much money, to each individual. Hardly noticeable in the grand scope of today’s economy and a mere blip on their credit card statement’s list of charges. Easily overlooked by the millions of Americans who use their cards frequently, especially in a recession. But tally it up.

The math is simple. $6.95/mo x 4 million members (an underestimate of the actual amount of customers whose credit card information they have on file). This company has been in business, collecting credit card info from its customers since january 14th, 1998. Easy to believe they’d have 8 million (at the least) credit cards on file.  It seemed crazy to me, while I was working there, that they kept using the word “free” in their wording, to gain signups to the site. If their intention all along was to  fraud people, an accusation popular amongst many of these customers, then I suppose a little white lie to kick-start this, can only help their cause. I always wondered why they were so bold in stating everything was free when it clearly wasn’t. If the intention was there to steal, then the objective can only be to gather credit card numbers. On their site, in 2009, they boasted having over 8 million members.

Imagine a company with 4 million credit cards on file. A nice, low number.

4,000,000 credit cards

charged $6.95/mo

= 27,800,000.00

x 12 months

= 333,600,000.00

Three hundred and thirty-three million dollars a year, banking on 4,000,000 people overlooking a simple charge of $6.95/monthly!

 This same company creates a WebpowerFX card. With this license, they have access to the credit card information system. This allows them access to customers’ billing, as well as updated credit card information. They can get new expiry dates of cards they had on file that have expired, billing addresses changes, etc.

Sounds familiar? A bank skimmed pennies from each customer. They got caught.  

Here’s s short story about a hacker who did it. Why did he get away with it? Read it. You’ll see.

The man was a hacker. He was a thief. He knew computers. He knew them inside out. He was like a pickpocket. He picked everyone’s pocket. He picked everyone’s bank account in America. Everyone with a bank account lost money. Millions of Americans have bank accounts. All of these Americans lost money. But they didn’t know it. Not a single victim noticed the theft. Not a single victim called the police. “We got lucky,” said a police detective. “He cheated on his fiancée. She called us. But we’re unlucky, too. We have no evidence. We only have her story. He might get away with his crime. He might get away with millions. He transferred all the money to another country. There’s no way we can trace the money. He is very smart. Why? He stole only one penny from every bank account in America. Who cares about a penny?”

ICM and iFriends/WebpowerInc/WP Associates, WPI (and whatever they happen to be calling themselves this week) and their lawyers,  are in such close proximity, they must be golfing together! After all, as I’ve pointed out many times, their lawyers are all cozily connected. Such a tiny area of Florida and there they are! Why won’t they admit they’re in bed together?

Thieves will always be thieves. It’s just a matter of time before they are caught. No matter how big they think they are, who their connections are and how many companies they can get to back them. They can’t go pushing people around, harrassing them and expect noone to step up and say “hey, fuck you”.