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October 3rd, Two Thousand Two: Excuse me for going all business/tech on you, but something was
brought to my attention that just has me beyond ballistic. Given,
it's likely of more interest to webmasters, but in the end, it
very much concerns the consumer as well. Green notes are my additions.
Dear Webmasters,
CCBill, EPOCH / Paycom and iBill would like to jointly inform
and update you on several new Visa regulations that will affect
the way we, as Internet Payment Service Providers (IPSP’s) and
our clients conduct business. Visa has mandated that a new, unique
set of operating guidelines will be implemented by November 1st.
These rules are worldwide, not just in the USA (This is conflicting and questionable information, as Visa has
different divisions for different countries. To boot, not all
of the processors are doing this).
Under the new Visa rules, iBill, CCBill, and EPOCH / Paycom along
with other providers in our market space will be considered IPSP’s.
An IPSP is a company that provides a broad array of services and
has financial responsibility and liability for merchant accounts
whereby you, our clients (Sponsored Merchants) are allowed to
process and settle Internet transactions. It is our mutual responsibility
to ensure that we fully comply with all regulations implemented
by the card associations (because, after all, we're just here to make money, and that's
the only reason we give a rat's ass about you people anyway). We are committed to seamlessly implementing the new regulations
while retaining a business model that is good for the industry.
Below is a summary of the requirements for Visa that we must implement
by November 1st:
Visa
* Each Sponsored Merchant must complete a registration form that
we will submit to Visa on your behalf. A form will be provided
to you by each of us, electronically, as soon as possible. Some
of the data elements required are: company name, address, transaction counts, dollar volumes, URL’s, etc.
* An initial registration fee of $750.00 per company (not per url) will be charged to register each Sponsored
Merchant. $500.00 of this fee is payable by the Acquiring Banks to Visa, the balance are administrative fees to the banks and processors.
These fees are due November 15th.
* An ongoing annual registration fee of $375.00 will be charged. $250.00
of this fee is payable by the Acquiring Banks to Visa, the balance are administrative fees to the banks and processors.
* Sponsored Merchants must be approved by Visa for processing
Visa transactions under the new rules, and will be checked against
Visa’s TMF list (Terminated Merchant File) and the MATCH File,
a joint Visa / MasterCard database. You are obviously processing
now, so that service will not be interrupted if you have paid
your registration fee and completed your registration form.
* IPSP’s can only register Sponsored Merchants in the country where
the Sponsored Merchant has a presence.
* IPSP’s are required to provide Visa with monthly sales, chargeback and credit data for their review, by Sponsored Merchant and down to the URL of each Sponsored
Merchant site. Sponsored Merchants who are out of compliance on
chargeback and / or credit ratios may be terminated at Visa’s
discretion. Please Note: Your ratios at all IPSP’s will be evaluated
by Visa.
* The credit card descriptor on the cardholder’s statement must
be the IPSP’s name, as well as the Sponsored Merchant’s identifier,
such as your company code.
* The IPSP’s Join Form must disclose the IPSP’s name and the fact
that the billing descriptor will be the name of the IPSP and the
Sponsored Merchant’s identifier.
* IPSP’s will display, on the Join Form, their Privacy Policy
along with Terms and Conditions.
Mastercard
* The MasterCard logo cannot be displayed on the client’s sites.
* Several other rules will be changed and we will advise you as
soon as these are solidified.
* By October 8th, we will begin the Visa registration process.
We will email you a form, which must be completed immediately.
* By October 15th, we will have a Privacy Policy up on our Join
Pages.
* By October 15th you must have all MasterCard logos removed from
your
sites
We will provide you with additional updates on these initiatives
throughout the month. Thank you in advance for helping us to ensure
the successful implementation of these new regulations. Please
be assured that we, as IPSP’s are working together to provide
a more robust industry environment and to attempt to have our
client’s voices heard at the card associations (Bullshit). We have many common goals and interests (Wash, rinse, repeat). Maintaining the viability of the adult Webmaster business model,
by keeping you informed (and making sure we all make shitloads of money, because heck,
that's what we're here for, guys), is our primary focus.
Sincerely,
iBill, CCBill, and EPOCH / Paycom
In other words, to now use something like iBill for processing,
a webmaster has to:
• Pay an exorbitant annual fee, most of which goes to Visa for
EACH third-party US processor you use.
• Give Visa all of your businesses private information initially
and then on a monthly basis: the sort of information you would
otherwise share only with the IRS.
• Pass muster with Visa based on who-knows-what guidelines.
• Remove logos to OTHER credit companies, beginning with Mastercard
(David tells me this is because the credit card companies don't want
to be shown at adult sites, though apparently, making money off
of the sites en masse is just fine and dandy).
• Dismiss the idea of the Internet being a global medium altogether.
There is no way I am doing this. The rationale given to us by
these companies and by Visa is that this is required because we
all cost them so much with chargebacks. Of course, where the great
majority of chargebacks come from is from the Big Boys, who use
shifty tricks, spam and any other number of happy little games
to trick the consumer who -- validly -- finds out thay've been
had and wants their money back (though if they'd take two seconds,
truthfully, to read the fine print in most cases like smart little
duckies, thay'd not get swindled so much). Of course, these are
also the dudes making money hand over fist, and who, to some degree,
stomp out the little guys operating fully above board much of
the time. These are the LAST people I'm going to pay money for.
Being asked by Visa to do so, especially when as companies or
indie artists we already make so little comparatively BECAUSE
we don't engage in slimy consumer tricks -- and because we have
all along given the sort of consumer treatment and honesty they
are now "requiring" with the fee -- is just an insult, even more
so given the rate iBill has taken from my payments over the years
is ungodly, and that rate ALREADY pays for a multitude of sins
I have never committed nor plan to.
It's even more preposterous when Visa has made bloody well clear that their company goal right now is to fully
monopolize online payments. And something like this'd sure help, no? Duh. My money -- yeah, yeah, what little of it I have -- is on finding
in six months to a year from now that to use those processing
systems doing this, one may ONLY accept Visa, or have to pay these
sorts of fees to EACH of the major credit card companies, which
may not share processors anymore. I'm willing to bet that people
quick to comply to this to try and keep their revenue streams
from being cut are going to find them cut just as much as if they
didn't a little while down the road when all other credit companies
are ousted from the processors. I'm not looking forward to losing
my Visa revenues either, and I'll give you that it's easier for
me as I'm not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, but I'm
also not willing to kiss smarmy corporate ass at this level to
barely make my living. A big part of the reason why I'm an independent
artist is to avoid exactly that. If I'm ever going to kiss ass,
dammit, I'm damn well going to do it when it actually benefits
me.
As it is, working as an independent contractor in this country
means I pay more taxes than people working for someone else, who
get a regular paycheck and benefits. I, and others like me are,
in effect, penalized for not working for the man. This is just
one more slap on the wrist for being so damned independent and
freethinking. Bad us! It's also one more way to hinder small business
and independent artists, and thus, independent content. Because
this sort of thing isn't just about money, and it won't stop at
money, either.
What will something like this result in for the consumer? I'll
tell you my guesses. Way more spam, for one (I know you felt you
just couldn't get enough already, eh?). You're also going to find
porn sites pulling even more tricks, like pushing the dialers,
for instance. And certainly charging even more than they already
do, which is already crazy since most content isn't even original
at the Big Boy sites, or those who feed off of them and make their
income by promoting them. As it is, new indie content, especially
new indie sexual content, has a nearly impossible time getting
started on the web anymore. You can rest assured that with something
like this, you'll be seeing even less of it (and this is not limited to adult sites). As far as business
goes, you'll be seeing a lot more people using offshore accounts
and processors based outside of the US. Yeah, that's going to
be legit. Hyuk.
I don't honestly know what the answer is here -- and of course,
setting this up so people have to begin to comply in less than
two weeks was no doubt done to make sure that most didn't even
have the time to consider alternatives. I'm very much inclined
not to comply with this, and to use alternate methods of payment
(like Paypal and online checks). Or even hope some new model comes
to mind in my sleep. I clipped my few credit cards almost ten
years ago, and have never planned to ever have any again.
The irony that slays me is that this kind of business practice
is as shifty as the shifty business that they're "blaming" these
new requirements on. They're taking a page right from the smarmy
book in the exact same way:
- Get the consumer to be in a big bloody hurry (with adult sites,
it's getting them horny -- in this case, it's appealing to adult
webmaster greed - same diff, really)
- Make the consumer feel they can only get the service they need
via one place/outlet
- Assure them they're getting a big bargain when they are, in fact,
being robbed blind
- Make it difficult as hell for them to untangle their money from
the site
Most mid-range adult webmasters, from what I can see, seem to
be buying right into this, or yelling at one another, rather the
looking at the real culprit, which depresses the hell out of me.
But then, so many of them are all about the money that they can't
see very far past those blinders anyhow. Most are likely as worried
about losing their rebills as they are because they rely on the
consumer forgetting they've subscribed at all, since gawd knows
the recycled content generally sucks and isn't anything to stay
for. Reading message boards where the big moneybags (these'd be
the kind of dudes who call women "the talent," mind you) are telling
smaller indies that they have "no right to be running sites if it isn't all about money, anyway," is just beyond sickening.
Ugh. I'm in a rambling rush today to do a million things as it
is, but this just isn't what I needed. I so cannot stand living
in a corporate culture. It's all so tricky and so manipulative.
Everyone seems to hop into bed with whoever the enemy is assigned
to be at a given time, and play it as long and hard as they can
to swindle the little guys, all the while swindling one another
and having a jolly time of it, from boardroom to cubicle. It's
just so gross, this sort of capitalistic cannibalism, and you
know, I don't want to participate. I'm not in a position to completely
opt out of all of it, and I'm not even sure how I could, since
my co-op or landlord isn't yet taking cowrie shells as payment.
More vile still is that it's so easy to see how a company like
Visa has hit the gold mine here: how easy it is for them to make
big money, primarily from an industry like the sex industry, which
is already cloaked in so much shame and shittiness. Grr. It's
all highly maddening. I'll no doubt figure something out, and
in the interim, I have Hanne here tonight (kickboxing beforehand,
thank goodness -- maybe I'll plop a Visa sticker on a heavy bag
and just go postal), the reading this weekend, and a bunch of
stuff that has zippo to do with online anything.
These are the moments the Gaelic curse engine was made for. So, Go gcreime na gr·inneoga cealgr?nacha do chuid airgid caim, Visa.
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