Joseph Elkind

Joseph Elkind Vs. John Bennett - The Inside Scoop

Internet Porn Leader Joseph Elkind Ripped On Boards
2003-06-17 11:03:40
Luke: "I was reading about you on the boards."

JoeE: "I don't stay on the boards any more. Forest was bashing me. He sent me somebody to put webcams up for Private Friends. And CJ, I don't know what her problem is. I paid JP $30,000 for livecams for Private Friends and he walked away from the deal and kept my money.

"Forest and I are working through it. Even though the company is not making money, I'm going to throw Forest a small percentage of the girls but I'm taking it up the ass. If he'd wait until I made some money on the program, I'd make the guy some real money. I like Forest."

Luke: "What's your history?"

JoeE: "I have no idea what she's saying. If she's talking about Private Friends, I've got the rights to Private Friends. I can show her the wire, I can show her the check I sent to JP. I can show the wire but I don't want to do that because I'm staying off the boards.

"If you really want to know what is going on, I've got a new billing system coming out. We're going to bill through the cable companies and through telecom. I'll give you a hint. I'll show you the demo from Private. www.mysvs.com/ptv

"You can look at it on a dialup. Three hundred frames per second. Nobody has that.

"Wait till you see that technology. You can figure it out from there. We've got the adult rights. If you don't want to take the time to read what the company does, you can look at the streaming video.

"I haven't had hard alcohol in over nine months. I stopped partying. I'm training. I'm in the best shape of my life. These people better watch out. I'm a real business guy. I've still got my problems with John Bennett and Steve Workman.

"They're trying to starve me. I shouldn't be telling you this but you know me, I'm an open book. I made this guy (JB) millions and millions of dollars. I made everybody money in this whole industry. They got greedy. JB's whole mission in life is to buy a 19-year old girl a purse and try to make her like him."

Luke: "I heard you went to dinner with JB?"

JoeE: "You kidding me? He's hiding in Arizona. He's running the company remotely. He's afraid of jail. He stole money, dude. Go look at the IBill thing. Workman and JB took the IBill database after I was away from the company, and banged it all over the place.

"Fabian. If you go to emailbucks.com, it goes to combocash.com. He just jacked my whole program. They're going to go to jail for everything [in JoeE's opinion]: for dialer monies, illegal credit card activity. They're putting some pressure on me.

"Have I ever lied to you?"

Luke: "No."

JoeE: "I'm sober and straight. I'm back to being my animal business guy self. I've found new deals. I just want these guys to leave me alone. They're putting pressure on me like crazy and I don't do nothing. I don't deal drugs. I don't have any drugs. I don't do nothing wrong. They're just jealous."

Luke: "How are they trying to put pressure on you?"

JoeE: "Every which way. Through anything they can. They've got more attorneys on this. They've already taken the deposition of Ken Knox from laborlawyers.com. He said in the deposition that Steve Workman lied to him and told him that I was an employee, not an owner of the company, before they did this to me, or Knox would never have written the letter to get rid of me [in late 2001]. So they're about to be busted wide-open."

Luke: "How is icecoldcash.com coming along?"

JoeE: "Doing well. It's fresh programs, Private content. We're not doing any celebs because we don't want to get in any trouble. With Private, they have the best content there is.

"You can't just living off that. I'm doing some reality sites. Touristhunters.com kicks ass. It's crazy. The people filming this stuff, picking up people on the street. Everyone signs a model release. They throw them out of the car without their clothes at the end in front of a fancy bar.

"They're [JB, Steve Workman] trying to make me look like a bad guy, like I'm f---ed up all the time. They've been trying to do this to me for two-and-a-half years and they still don't have anything."

Luke: "When are you going to trial with JB?"

JoeE: "There may not be a trial. If I go to the IRS, he's done. I'm thinking about doing it because he's put so much pressure on me, I'm just going to walk away from everything and show the IRS everything, because I can't get my hands on my money.

"It's a small world. You don't want to do business with a global injunction on you. Fabian is doing illegal casinos that John Bennett paid for.

"The most important thing is that I am clear-headed. You know me. You've seen me out and about. I used to go overboard at the partying. If I saw somebody f---ed up at a party, I felt like it was my job to make them feel comfortable. That was my only fault.

"JB didn't build this business. I built it."

Mutt writes on GFY: I can't believe all the people running casinos when the law is so clear right now that as an American resident it is a crime.

MrPheer writes: I've done alot of business with CEN when JoeE was there, and after he left. Nothing changed for me when he left. But all I see, is JoeE badmouthing JB, you never see it the other way around.

JoeE my account was 'spunkymedia.' I'm sure you remember it.

CraigA from CEN writes: And you'll never see it the other way around either. Contrary to whatever slanderous, libelous allegations Joee continues to spout off as he has done since he was removed from here 18 months ago, this case is not going to be won in the court of public opinion by lining up all his friends to defend him. Joee is not some innocent victim. He victimized himself and paid the consequences. It's hard to respect someone who, at the end, came to work once in a while in the middle of the afternoon and created so much chaos with his tirades, employees used to run for cover.
Joe, seriously, time to move on and stop the name calling and the finger pointing. Turn the finger around and point to yourself.

Rocki writes: joee is in crimminal court today. Has crimminal charges pending against him for allegedly punching and spitting an old mans head who lives next door to him.

Brujah if you worked in this office for an extent of time and seen with your own eyes the truth then i may understand your comments...

Also Mr Bennett and Mr Workman refuse to go on the boards and dignify any comments from Elkinds with a response.

Colin replies: So what you're saying is JB is above such things (true), but you are not.

DUC writes: Folks, I'm not sure that gossip sites and webmaster boards are the appropriate places to have these discussions. Wouldn't everything be better if we kept it quiet?

Brujah writes Luke: Choke on a pigs cock.

DUC replies: Brujah, I know you only wish me the best, and you probably don't realize that you are doing this, but when you use such language, you hurt my feelings and make me feel negatively towards.

I do want you to know, however, that I am listening. I think you are saying that my comment lacks merit?

Steve writes Luke: WTF? Didn't you just post this interview thread? You weren't mining for GFY drama?

DUC replies: I just thought that the way the thread degenerated, from a philosophical discussion to tawdry personal remarks, was not holy, not Jewish, and not the way God wants us to conduct ourselves on chatboards (see Leviticus 19:11).

Steve, I guess you are right and I was wrong for posting this in the first place... I don't think a chatboard with such a vulgar name is the type of place I want to have my high-minded discussions.

......................................................

From newtimesbpb.com: For some Coral Ridge residents, the sludge has become a metaphor for the slimy deeds of Joseph B. Elkind, who boasts a decade-long history of drug sales, violence, and Internet porn shenanigans.

Elkind, a tough-talking, round-faced 43-year-old with thick brown hair and piercing blue eyes, says the muck is no big deal. Though at first he talked openly with New Times about the property, he became surly when we brought up the voluminous court record that worries his neighbors. When told what this story was about, Elkind replied: "I'm a multimillionaire. I'll come after you. You can choose to have a friend here or a foe."

In 1993, the budding entrepreneur's luck turned for the worse when he was arrested on four counts of cocaine delivery after police alleged he sold drugs to two undercover detectives on four occasions. In April 1995, Elkind received two years' probation for the charge -- only to violate his probation three months later when court-ordered drug tests revealed cocaine in his system.

In 1996, he partnered with Fort Lauderdale resident John Bennett to found Netvision Audiotext. Soon, he says, the company was earning millions of dollars per year.

In January 2000, Elkind told the Associated Press that Cyber Entertainment Network (CEN), one of the companies operating under the Netvision umbrella, was running 14 porn websites and owned more than 3,000 other sites. But one month later, in one of the nation's first cyber-squatting decisions, a U.S. District Court judge enjoined CEN from using www.teenmag.com. The decision came in response to a request from the publisher of Teen magazine, whose readers kept finding CEN's porn site instead of teenmagazine.com.

Things got even more complicated for Elkind in October 2000 after he allegedly broke the tibia and fibia of then-business associate Richard Ruben. Ruben, who refers to Elkind as "Joey Moneybags" in court documents, claimed he and Elkind were having drinks in Fort Lauderdale's Solid Gold strip club when Elkind asked Ruben to repay $8,000.

This past April 24, after a two-day trial, a jury found that Elkind had battered Ruben but in self-defense.

But Elkind's most prominent court appearance by far came in a landmark lawsuit filed in January 2001. America Online claimed that Netvision had violated anti-spam and member-service agreements by sending unsolicited e-mails advertising porn sites to AOL subscribers. AOL also asserted that commissions were paid to webmasters, many of whom were younger than 18, to send the e-mails. The case was covered by newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and Newsday, and was later settled for an undisclosed sum.

Elkind insists that he still doesn't know the settlement cost. But a Broward County civil court file contains a message he posted on Oprano.com, a trade website for the adult entertainment industry, that provides a hint. Apparently directed at Netvision attorney Steve Workman, it reads: "Why would I settle for $7.5 million when they were suing us for $10 million? Steve, did you get kickbacks from any other of the $1.5 million I spent on attorneys for the good of this industry?" (Said Workman: "I deny that in the most vehement terms.")

Indeed, a dispute between Workman and Elkind described in court records makes for even more interesting reading. In January 2002, the attorney started a consulting company called Net Management Services, which employed Elkind and Bennett as co-managers. At the company launch party, Elkind punched Workman. The cause of the dispute is not stated in court records, but the attorney soon fired Elkind, who a few days later sent an e-mail to all of Net Management Services' employees. It read in part, "Ruff week, my boat sunk... JB? My Ferrari blew an engine, my partner is triend [sic] to f-ck me..."

During the past year, relations among Elkind, Bennett, and Workman have only worsened. Elkind claims that Bennett and Workman took his name off Netvision's bank accounts and moved company money into offshore accounts. "I plan to let the court system take care of them," Elkind says.

Still, on January 15, 2002, Bennett told Fort Lauderdale police that Elkind had thrown a grill and patio furniture into the pool at Bennett's $3 million waterfront home. On August 16, Bennett told police that Elkind had smashed a beer bottle on the front of his white Land Rover, doing about $2,000 in damage. Then on September 27, Bennett reported that a large rock had been thrown through the front window of his home and that he believed Elkind was responsible.

The conflict came to a head on October 2, when Bennett was hosting a booth at a trade convention in Broward County. Bennett says Elkind stood by the booth all day making harassing and threatening statements. Finally, according to both men's accounts, the dispute became violent. In court documents, Bennett claims that Elkind strangled him on the floor. But no one was arrested. Later, each man sued the other for assault and battery. These lawsuits are pending.

Bad Boy Rob writes on Oprano.com: I set up about 10 free sites probably 3 years ago. With CEN they always brought me in $1-$1.5k per month. Always between these figures. The sites were done in an hour and were picking up very specific niche key words that converted well. I saw the tour for the new private gold and thought cool, it would convert even better. I got my account changed over to Ice and the links were once again active. I have made $112 since Ice opened and have not been paid for it.

Joseph Elkind responds: Forrest, You should know better. I am paying $8k@ week to models for http://www.privatefriends.com We are still working on the program. IT DOES NOT MAKE ONE DIME. You gave me the numbers of someone for cams. You want a commission? No problem, when I make money you do.
here is my cell phone(like you do not have it-954-336-7222)
I guess I will talk to you...lmk if you need money in a different way.

Here are the stats yesterday for PG.
Private Gold 83774 41244 301 229 1:180 1:137
Figure them out. Anybody posting about my honesty and my sobriety has no f-cking clue. Again, f-ck off..or GFY;-)
Take your pick. On another note, here is where I have the license for adult 300 frames per second(tv) delivered through a dialup account.

http://www.mysvs.com

Kevin Blatt writes: I was a newbie once with no money in my pocket and a tradeshow, I recall Joe introducing himself to me and giving me a hundred dollar bill to play with. I have seen Joe give a homeless man money in the streets of New Orleans so he could eat.

Now as you know inthis industry there is NO honor among thieves.....

I hate to say it but WE ALL OUR THIEVES in one way or another, don't believe me? Look around the mainstream companies- ask them if they understand why some of them get bogus charges on their credit cards, or get spammed with so much porn they cannot handle it- throw in recurrings that most people have no idea about and bingo-

Yes we are all thieves- so Joe did something bad?

I haven't seen exactly what he was accused of....

All I know is when I did something that Joe wanted me to do , he not only took care of me, but I also got paid.....

Or laid.

Forest I gather you are upset- I recall your boasting posts about your sex survior thing with Joe a few years back.

Let's just say this Forest, move on.
This is not worth the fight.

Plus do you think Joe E is scared of YOU?

Joe still is the only guy I know with a G3 ....do you have a G3?
Are you to tell me he has that plane because he rips off content producers such as yourself?

CJ writes on Oprano.com: JoeE, you are a thief, plain and simple. You can get as many of your friends to drop by and defend you as possible, but the simple fact is that you steal and that is why you can afford to be generous to the occasional person who you might want something from in the future. You are so like someone else I know - pretending to be generous when there's a group around, but as soon as you get what you want you f-ck those around you. You use your money as a tool to manipulate and take advantage of those who you know won't have the financial power to stand up to you. Give someone free *bleep* and manipulate them into paying for it some how ...

Your private friends site is stolen. The content is stolen. Can you show the 2257 on the content inside the site? I hope the site was worth it, because you f-cked a lot of people along the way to get it finished. It must have been cheap to build, being that you took an existing product, didn't pay any of the people who worked on it, then got rid of anyone who you would have had to pay! good job!! be careful of employing programmers without visa's! ;-))))

i always thought you were just a harmless egomaniac, but 'loose canon' comes to mind these days ... good thing you've surrounded yourself with enough paid friends to protect you when you are at your lowest. hope your money doesn't run out

how much money do you owe 'the family' Joe?

Oh, and for those of you suggesting to 'settle this off the boards' and 'not bring this to a public forum' ... do you honestly think that hasn't been tried?!?!??!!? If joe had co-operated when he had the MANY chances this wouldn't have made it to the board - Just like most disputes that end up here.

Joe, you know who i'm talking about (and its nothing to do with forest, i still don't really know what happened there), you know how to fix it - prove me wrong that you aren't a lying stealing good for nothing scumbag and i'll post a public apology withdrawing all of my comments. It really is that easy.

KRL writes on GFY: Joe's got a dynamic personality. He lives life to the fullest and then some clearly. I've never had a problem with him or any of the companies he's run. I first met Joe when CEN had small offices in a strip mall down in Ft. Lauderdale. Been to his New Year's parties, and his house parties, which are always fun to the max.

For sure, he's a fiery kind of businessman, but at heart I think he's a good guy and I know he's helped a sh-tload of webmasters in this business.

AOL vs CEN

Friday morning, Luke interviewed by telephone leading porn webmaster Joe Elkind of the Cyber Entertainment Network (CEN).

Joe: "Brad's got a big mouth. Bigger than mine. And he opened it. And he's got people bashing me and bashing us and I just don't put up with that bulls---. First, he started out with the thing Amateur Beaver. And we told him that we wouldn't let him buy it because we're developing a site amateurbeaver.com. It's trademarked, etc... He bought amateur-beaver.com which is stupid because I am going to wind up getting all the traffic from it anyway when people try to type it in. We told him that if he wants to use it [that domain name amateur-beaver.com], that's fine. But keep it quiet. But he opened his mouth about some s--- and I told people what his problem was. He was pissed because he did not want to spend $100,000 and buy the name amateurbeaver.com. And so he had to go out and dig up his own name and program which is fine. Except he's copying something we're doing.

"So JB [Joe's partner] told him that we were going to sue him... They ended up settling... I wasn't interested in suing him. It was JB who was pissed at him for opening his mouth. And then he has people posting this [negative] stuff [at www.condomproject.com]... If I'm a thief, how come I am still in business? I pay everybody. [Joe and his company CEN have a good reputation for honesty.]

"My partner and I had a meeting the other night and we decided not to sue him. We're just going to go about our business.

"What Brad's trying to do to get into the market is expose other people's weaknesses in their programs. Everybody is going to have a weakness in their program. It's not rocket science."

Luke: By program, Brad and Joe are referring to the programs webmasters use to buy hits. Usually, webmasters pay people a percentage, usually around 50%, of the revenue they get when surfers buy subscriptions to pay sites. Probably the most famous webmaster program, and the one that has paid out the most money, is www.cybererotica.com/money by Ron Levi aka Fantasyman.

Joe: "We have 30,000 accounts which could mean well over 100,000 different referring logs. So I'm going to have some password sites [where sites post passwords to access pay sites for free] and Warez sites [where you can illegally download copied software]... And it is not my first priority to eliminate them. My first priority is to eliminate child porn links that we get... And Brad is on a witchhunt about password sites... And these sites only hurt your business if your site is not password protected. If your site is password protected, you should have no problem. And if you've been in the business for the past three years [like Brad Shaw] you should have a program that protects your site.

"We get over a million unique visits a day [CEN's main site is privategold.com]. I'm not going to pay somebody to monitor my traffic for password sites and warez sites. I'm more interested in monitoring for fraudulent credit cards, making sure that we are up and running and paying our bills. If I'm worred about password sites, I'm not worried about business.

"We're releasing the archives of Hank Londoner and Stephen Hicks [leading Penthouse photographers] at CENcontent.com. Hank licensed us exclusively to sell his content. The main [porn] photographers in the world are probably Hank, Suze [Randall], Stephen Hicks, Warren Tang, and Pierre Woodman from Private... We do all Suze's work also.

"CEN's also opened up a studio in Sherman Oaks and is doing about 30 hardcore shoots a month."

Joe: "DMR is done. If you have a recurring database with DMR, you're f---ed. DMR just got an infusion of $18 million and they're starting to process [credit cards] again with somebody else [but DMR recently announced they would no longer process VISA credit cards]. But the stuff they've lost is done. They can't process through VISA their recurring database. So if you have 35,000 members, which some companies have with them, you're not going to get that money. I'm sure Ron Levi [at cybererotica.com] over the course of the past three years has lost seven or eight million dollars [due to problems with his credit card processors such as DMR]. Ron's now processing with Epoch. Most everybody is with Epoch now that has any brains. The FTC and VISA are looking at a bunch of different people [in porn internet because of their high chargeback rates] and eventually everybody is going to have to go to paid trials [instead of getting a free week to look at a site]. VISA is going after IBill next, and then in another twelve months, they'll look at Epoch."

Next I asked Joe about this story from the Washington Post: COLTS NECK, N.J. –– Two Internet penny stock promoters found shot to death had ties to "shady" business dealings, which may ultimately have led to their execution-style killings, a prosecutor said. Alain Chalem, 41, and Mayir Lehmann, 37, were found early Tuesday face down on the bloodstained marble floor of the estate Chalem shared with his girlfriend and her 13-year-old son.

Though investigators have not pinpointed a motive or suspects, Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye said the attack likely was at least partly tied to the pair's penny stock Web operation, www.stockinvestor.com, or other ventures. "It was probably related to the victims' business activities," Kaye said, "and the killer or killers feared something else more than the loss of money."

Joe: "I did not know those two guys [killed] but I know somebody who was dealing with them. Those two guys f---ed around with the wrong guys. These stock things are big money and they left a paper trail... It's nothing to f--- around with.

"There's a guy named Jeff Smith in Florida who did business with a company that sells the machines that allow you to trade from home... These three guys finagled $15 million away from that company and they got whacked because of it. End of story. They were stealing.

"Our newest project is non-adult. It is trading cards online. We signed major league baseball, WWF, Nascar, Star Trek and Xena...at cyberaction.com. CEN will do all the marketing for them but it won't be under CEN, it will be under another corporate logo. Because we don't want to mix the adult with the non-adult. We're the only ones who have the technology to do this, along with Upper Deck. We have about a million unique visitors in non-adult every day and we're going to start sending them through cyberaction.com and other projects."

Joe: "Casinos mostly, Viagra, any kind of health and medicine... We're 75% adult... We hope to make it 50-50%. It's nice to diversify. If you have an adult customer with a credit card, he's a non-adult customer. I eventually want to sell him at a fair price all the convenience, anything from a toothbrush to a car to life insurance. I have a database and I have demographics on him, and I'm selling him a good adult product now, and I am pretty sure the guy will buy anything from me."

Joe: "We're the only licensed adult internet company to use their content, aside from them. They have someone else doing their feeds. We're allowed to build our sites with their content and pay them a royalty."

Joe: "Paul's in a tough predicament. He's got to make the video people happy and the internet people happy. I guess he's doing the best he can..."

"My new thing after the millenium is you're to get no comment out of me from now on. We'll see how long it lasts."

Joe: "Profits are definitely going to go down when everybody goes to paid trials. RB [karasadultplayground.com] is smarter. He's got a very clean system. He's one of the few companies that nobody's looking at him because he's doing all paid trials."

At the beginning of 1999, DMR was the top credit card processor for the porn internet. But because of huge chargeback (people calling their credit card company to say they did not order something they were billed for) rates by many of their clients, they've dramatically cutback their role. Now they say they will no longer process VISA credit cards for net porn.

"Everybody is really pissed off right now," says a leading porn webmaster, "because DMR used to be the leading processor for the adult community. They've dwindled in the past year. But this decision is going to hurt a lot of people.

"I think VISA just got upset with the high chargeback ratios [for the porn net] and just pulled their merchant account."

In our communications to you last week, Web800/TIPS informed you we were unable to settle VISA transactions, effective December 22nd. We are pleased to inform you that we were, in fact, able to settle all reported transactions through the 27th of December. Payment on these transactions will be forthcoming as we receive settlement from our merchant bank. Web800/TIPS has made the decision to stop warehousing VISA transactions. We are working to resolve the issues, but remain challenged to find a merchant bank. Therefore, we encourage you to seek an alternate relationship to process your VISA transactions. Mastercard and American Express transactions continue to be processed and are NOT affected by this situation.

Here are some quotes by porn webmasters on http://www.condomproject.com/msgboard/

Bald Guy: Actually that is the third party processors that make the $15 or $25 on a chargeback. They do this to fine you for the time they had to mess with your account. Also this is supposed to act as a way to discourage you from bad biz tactics. Visa basically just warns you when chargebacks get high and if you do not fix this they will shut down your account. If I get a surfer claiming fraud, I can

1. Refund the money
2. Argue with the surfer and Credit Company
3. Break down and credit the account.
4. dispute the chargeback with visa
5. Ignore the mail I am sent and let the CB go
6. Go back to a third party billing and get ripped off more by people that are losing there accounts because with this many webmasters its hard to keep chargebacks down.

Globiz writes: Adult sites on the net aren't the only victims of the credit card company's over-willingness to do chargebacks. There are e-commerce companies with the same problem. Until Visa and Mastercard quit bending over and saying "ahhh" everytime someone claims they didn't order something, we'll continue to have this problem and the credit card companies will continue to use the excuse that it's the merchants' fault.

Toolz writes: I think you just hit the nail on the head why VISA/MC are not happy with our industry, see the following scenarios as evidence:
1. Uneducated surfer meets uneducated webmaster: chargeback
2. Uneductated surfer meets educated webmaster: refund, but more than likely a chargeback
3. Educated surfer meets uneducated webmaster: chargeback
4. Educated surfer meets educated wembaster: refund

So until the whole world is to step 4 chargebacks are inevitable, if the merchant banks continue to chargeback everytime a customer calls and complains, and they will, then we are forced to eat the chargebacks or issue the refund before it gets to that step. VISA and MC are not on our side, they're on the customers, I think it's time VISA/MC were taught a lesson, perhaps by a coalition that if you chargeback everything the companies are gonna get po'd. Case in point: customer buys gifts from EToys, customer Signs for the gifts, merchant back still charges it back, transaction was over the web, WTF? Where do we win...when online merchants control VISA/MC, how do we get to that point? Don't know otherwise I'd be a rich man.

Mark Tiarra, a leader of a porn webmaster group UAS.org, writes: I've generally been the one speaking moderately and not being a "doomsayer" at all - preferring even to present a reasonable position when the doom gets said. I would think my obvious worry over what's brewing with Visa and MC for 2000 might be an indication to some of the "old guys" as to just how real and serious this is becoming.

While I agree that a new billing system would come into play (indeed I have spoken to a couple people who are forging ahead Visa or no), my concern is what it would do to our numbers in the meantime. I doubt most people have the reserves needed to hold out the couple of years it would take for a single system to become as ubiquitous as CCs are now.

The issue is not just how poorly most billing systems monitored their member sites, but also a load of political pressure on Visa and MC that has caused them to continually tighten restrictions to a level that becomes impossible to adhere in ANY non physical signature business.

So... one problem is that we continue to find a way to promote ethical practices in our business (perhaps by not supporting sites that mislead people into joining with your clicks!) and the second problem is that we find a legal way to stop a train that rides on tracks dangerously close to discrinminatory practices from the CC companies with regard to online adult business.

We live in an industry with many quick buck - short sited people that have helped to push us to the point we find ourselves in and it's about time people stopped making it so easy for sites like that to make the quick buck. it's only hurting ourselves in the long run.

I often say that we need to look to history to see what we are about to face (magazine, 900# and video industry history), but we stand on new ground only in that we have here the first adult industry that is so cheap to get into that it can be a cottage industry whereas the mag, 900# & vid - by barrier to entry alone - kept away most quick buck minded businesses with no sense of business practice. The upshot - there is more going on than I can post about without hanging my legal ass on the plank, but suffice to say, we need to get busy or it's going to be a difficult 2000 for many of us.

Viking: My survival tips for the new millennium and CC companies: If you do not mess with the CC companies, then they will leave you alone (no high chargebacks = no big problems) If all CC companies decides not to do bussiness on the net, then wait about 1-4 weeks for a new world wide internet payment system to take over (CC companies started by taking a risk in a undeveloped/unmature market... no matter how bad the conditions might be, there will always be people/companies ready to take a risk... why? bigger risk = bigger profit) If new laws are made to hit CC companies and adult content, then think world wide! People will pay for sex - no mattter in which currency they have to pay...

Netbilling.com: Several of our merchants who have recently switched from DMR to Netbilling Services are telling me that DMR/Tips "MAY" in fact give them their customer databases for import into our system. They are working out the details now, but it may actually be possible. This would be great for you guys if it can be done. I will give the field format and we can do a member import on the same day. We are also offering $95 setup fee to any new DMR merchant in need. We charge only 1.5% and 15¢ per transaction. The merchant bank will charge another 3% approximately. Total will be 6-7% on a average $20 ticket. It's time to take control guys.

Todd writes: Luke, one of the main problems of this VISA chargeback thing is crooked internet porn dealers. They offer you a week at their site for $3.95 or so, then at the end of the week when you cancel, They (the porno site) go ahead and bill you anyway or double bill you, hoping you won't bitch about it since it is porn related. Most porn sites are really fair, but it only takes a few crooks and before you know it all hell breaks loose for everyone, but don't worry, it won't be long til they come up with another way to screw you over. When it comes to Porn, about 80% of the businessmen in it are shady and crooked, so Beware.

Joe Elkind from CENcash just spent two weeks in Los Angeles moving his servers and other hosting infrastructure from LA to Phoenix. Joe threw a huge party ten days ago at the Woodland Hills home of strip club king Michael J. Peter.

Renting a Lear jet, Joe moved all his equipment Thursday morning, July 20th, from Cavecreek hosting on Mid-Wilshire Blvd to Phoenix.

In addition to partying and conducting business, Elkind also found love in Los Angeles - in the person of tall busty blonde porn star Farrah. They met at a bar on Sunset Blvd.

Elkind's publishing a new webmaster magazine Klixxx for which I'll contribute a column. Klixxx will go out to a highly targeted list of thousands of webmasters who use JoeE's programs.

While in LA, JoeE did business with all the major players including Ron Levi at Cybererotica.com, Rob Gould from Babenet, Hustler and others.

Farrah's now hanging out with JoeE at his headquarters in Fort Lauderdale. She normally resides in Tampa Bay.

"I'm recovering from my boob job," said Farrah Monday morning. "I got them bigger. They look good though. They're now DD.

"He didn't know me and I didn't know him when we first me. We just ran into each other at a normal bar, not a strip bar."

Farrah: "I went to the show [AVN Expo] and was looking for a contract. But I didn't sign. It was my first year there. I just looked around and gave the word out.

"I'm going down to Pure Platinum to dance. I miss it. It's been a year. I featured in between but there's nothing like dancing. All the attention."

Luke says: Could somebody please confirm or deny these important allegations about Joe Elkind and cocaine use, and Kevin Blatt and whore use.

2. My comment about Joe Elkind being a cokehead: The statement that I made in regards to Joe Elkind was made in a private conversation via ICQ with Kevin. He was the one that forwarded it to Luke, thus making it public. The only knowledge that I have of Joe Elkind's drug use comes from Kevin Blatt himself. In a conversation regarding the legality of truecelebs, Kevin asked me if Joe could be sent to jail. I told him that under the law, it was possible but highly unlikely. Kevin responded that if their was no jail possibility that Joe would not care, as long as he still made money and had his coke and his pornstars.

Kevin Blatt responds: As for calling Joe a Crack head, he is not a crackhead, Jeff wanted to get some exit traffic from him and when he wouldn't do business he had to resort to calling him a criminal and "crack Head" I think it is sad that with every comment he makes he wishes me well and says I should drop it.

Luke I will NEVER take s--- from someone when I know it is 100% slanderous. The reason I sent the private ICQ was because on your show he said "I Never called Joe a crackhead"

When I produced the document all of sudden he admits it was a private ICQ So which is it Jeff? Am I a liar or are you?

And when did I ever say anything about truecelebs? It was you who said Joe is going down hard and I better keep clear of him for our business sake.

Jeff, Joe E has more class in his little finger than you have in your entirely flabby fat body. Maybe when you can see your dick again, you should think about getting laid, maybe I can arrange for Dennis to get you a whore.....hahahahahahaha

Kevin: "I vehemently deny ever mentioning TrueCelebs.com [a celebrity site administered by JoeE and CEN]. I swear on my mother's life and my father's life and my life... The comment he made to me was that your buddy JoeE is in a lot of trouble. He stole pictures from Rolling Stone of Brittany Spears and all these major companies and they are going after him and he's going down hard. That's what he [Jeff Miller] said. And I said, JoeE is my friend.

"Then he said to me in the same breath, do you think you could get some exit traffic from him? I'm going to throw our s--- up on his exit console after he talks s--- about our friend JoeE?"

KMan tells Luke: "Ron Levi. He even admits he is a pothead. I'm guessing that 50% of the high rollers, big six, all do drugs. Nobody cares. Nobody cares if JoeE does a line now and then. I don't know. I've never seen him do it. If he says he didn't, he didn't.

Luke: "Did you hear about the CEN controversy on Netpond ten days ago? It seems that CEN was redirecting traffic to dialers and Karas and Vivid."

KMan: "I saw that myself. I didn't see it on Netpond. But I noticed the other day that the backup console to TrueCelebs.com... I'm making a bonus $5000 every month off that site. I just found out that there is some lawsuit going on with that but s---, as long as I am getting paid. If he [JoeE] goes to jail, he goes to jail. Because I don't know what he's doing is legal or not. I put my faith in them. They've got their own lawyers. I will advertise with them until they're told to take it down.

"But I did notice the exit console was going out to Karas and it had a different account number. I thought about it and said, my sites do the same thing. That's one of the reasons he can pay $35 a signup because the people who don't sign up, he gets an occasional signup to Karas. It's got to equate somehow.

"Some people might not be as nice about that. Some people are stingy about their exit traffic. I don't care, with $35 per signup... If I send him $200 worth of backout traffic a month, if that keeps them afloat, by all means. You've got to weigh the scale. You send your traffic to TrueCelebs.com and they're not backing out anyway. I'm sending them blind TGP traffic, which is s---, to TrueCelebs.com and I'm converting 1/190. That's phenomenal."

Jeff Miller writes: Joe Elkind: I stand 100% behind my last e-mail. I do not agree with Joe Elkind's business ethics but I have many friends who are friends of his. I have met him on one occasion for 5 minutes. All knowledge I have of Joe Elkind is from Kevin Blatt, as I stated in my last e-mail. The conversation re: truecelebs is exactly as I have stated.

Webmaster Joseph Elkind owned part of the IA2000 internet show which was sold to AVN and became Internext, the most important of the porn webmaster trade shows.

Joe now publishes the monthly magazine Klixxx which is devoted to the porn internet.

Elkind competes with Paul Fishbein's Adult Video News and its monthly magazine AVNOnline. Joe claims Fishbein wouldn't shake his hand at Internext.

Klixxx magazine's layouts, rates and ad card seem to be a direct copy of its older and more established AVN competitor.

Advertisment: $5,380
Airfare : $8,140.50
Banners : $21,637.46
Booth : $115,240.27
Business Meals:$378.75
Expense Checks:$10,925
Parties :$43,651
Hotel : $48,567.55
Printing : $3,159.86
Transportation : $398
T-Shirts :$3,778.90
Total: $261,258.17

Thanks Internext............ This does not include any misc costs and the 3 limo busses shared with CEN, SmutCash and Silvercash;-))))) Plus I dropped $40K out of my pocket.... F*ck Vegas....

Webmasters let's get together without spending all these overheads and I can pay $60 @ SignUp! Netmanagement (managers for CEN, SexCheck, Emailbucks, Klixxx, etc) will not participate in Internext anymore.

Paul would not even shake my hand and that pisses me off. Without CE, CEN, ARS, Maxcash, Igallery, Python, Silvercash, Babenet,etc.. THERE WOULD BE NO SHOW!

CEN is pulling and I am sure Igallery is also..total waste of money.. Fly to my house and I will have poker games and girls and traffic deals and content;-))))) See ya'll in Miami.. We do have a booth for fay's show and will be throwing a FREE party at Solid Gold North miami;-))) Who cares? We do! ;-)))

Mike@SilverCash.com writes: JoeE...I'm with ya.. f--- Vegas..I'm sick of going there over and over again. We too dropped well over $200G's at the show...

Brad Shaw writes: "I recall hearing CE spent over $1million for a show. Seems like overkill to me. I think we spent about $100k on this last show, which I consider a good investment from the content deals we closed at the show, or will close over the next 2 weeks from the show."

JoeE writes on Netpond: Ask him Luke! I had to grab his [Paul's] hand and make him shake it in front of witnesses...And never doubt me;-))))

Luke ..read the articles in both magazines and maybe THEN you can make a distinction between the 2 medium. Klixxx is geared towards "how to make money on the net". That's what I (we) have been doing since 1996...what experience do they have? NEXT;-)))

Luke- I know more than you behind the scenes bro! Private(PRVT-nasdaq) is completely pissed that they are doing 2 shows in January.. WHY? Webmasters have to pay for his breakup! Next! And yeah I am pissed... freaken' CE had a banner as their booth, everybody is digging into our margins...Webmasters want cash, not Vegas!

Serge Birbrair writes to JoeE: You were not making money on the net in 1996. You were barely making money in 1996, not enough to pay for bandwidth and had to chase poor ISP on the parking lot with your car in the begining of 1996.

In March of 1997 you met Serge who blessed Florida with his visit in his beaten up station wagon and who opened your eyes and POCKET to the magic of RECURRING BILLING! By 1998 you were almost in the Big League and now you are a Big Kahoona! You were not anywhere near to in 1996!