Serge Birbrair and the Sex Net

10/26/99

Vivid Video is stealing people's credit card numbers and charging them $50 a month without permission under the name VivTech 1(800)-848-4336 (CA). When the charges are disputed, Vivid submits phony documentation to the credit card company, claiming falsely that the charges were solicited. This has happened to Luke and Mastrick and numerous others.

Deep Throat writes: Well it seems you have a relationship with Serge Birbrair already. The guy is brilliant, a story unto himself. He's made millions of dollars by working the adult webmaster chatboards through charm, intellect and bully boy tactics. I think he's a thief in that he herds up cattle (innocent web surfers) and hands them over to be slaughtered by the company he provides clicks for. Maybe you don't think this is illegal or a scam but I don't have any doubts that one day the rumors will come true and Multimedia Forum the company Serge works for will be charged by the FTC.

Serge claims he doesn't give a s--- because he is only an advertiser for the compay. I'm no lawyer but I think his role is more, legally anyways, and he has known all along about the fraudulent way his bosses do business. Here's how Multimedia Forum does business and remember that of all the major players in the online sex industry they are the ONLY one who does business this way. Why? Because all the others know they could lose their businesses running the same scam bulls---.

Serge refers to his boss as Yishai Habari, Israeli? Jewish?.......anyways they publish the glossy girly mags High Society and Celebrity Skin amongst others [publisher Carl Ruderman, a king of phone sex and possibly credit card churning]. Here's how they work their scamming Luke. Serge provides them with 1 million, give or take, fresh victims a day. check out http://www.pcdataonline.com , they are the Nielson ratings of the online world, SergesLinks the site that Serge redirects his traffic from ranks usually about 50, right up there with the big boys of the Net, among adult sites he is 4th now in terms of traffic.

Usually when a surfer winds up on the doorstep of an adult website, they are offered a tour, along the tour there is always a join button/link, often there is some sales shpiel about a FREE TRIAL or a FREE WEEK. The big credit card companies have mostly put a stop to the free trials, those sites with their own merchant accounts and with the right processing company still do them. Ok, when a surfer thinks he'd like to take advantage of this FREE or 1.95 trial he's taken to a join page, legally at this point BEFORE a customer enters his credit card info there is a link to the Terms and Conditions of this business transaction.

The credit card processors usually demand this to protect themselves too. The terms and conditions usually tell the surfer that he is getting a free or cheap trial for 3 or 7 days BUT if he doesn't cancel the subscription before the time period expires the membership will RECUR at 30 bucks a month until he does cancel. RECURRING BILLING is the lifeblood of the industry, there are real concerns that the government is going to pressure the credit card companies to outlaw it.

Half the adult online businesses would fold up if this happened. Responsible companies like CEN run by Joe Elkind have been warning that companies like Serge's bosses are going to bring government heat via the FTC, Joe just posted a warning last week or so on Netpond, of course he xxxx'd out the site names but everyone knows the ones he's talking about.

Ok, here's what happens when Serge sends you to one of Yitzhai's sites, say http://www.cun-tv.com ....... the surfer sees it, it looks slick and he's intrigued by the FREE SEX TOUR graphic, so he clicks on it and he's whisked away to an html page with a form on it to input his info, at the top of the form is a shpiel that tells the surfer that he must enter his credit card information to prove he's of legal age to view the material BUT that his CREDIT CARD WILL NOT BE BILLED, at the bottom of the page in BIGGER letters it is repeated. THERE ARE NO TERMS AND CONDITIONS ON THIS PAGE.

So the surfer at this point sees no harm in entering his cc info he's so horny to see the naked girlies for free. Once he submits his information he is taken to a page where they ask him to choose a nickname and password to enter the site, buried on this page there may be a link to some terms and conditions BUT it's way too late, the surfer thinks he's getting a free tour. If the surfer is smart enough and he does find some terms and conditions he will see that he's about to become a member of the most expensive website on the Net, they don't quote a per month fee like 99% of other adult sites do, the sleazballs quote their fees on a per day basis, i've seen Serge's bosses sites at 1.99/day, not illegal but a definite attempt to confuse the consumer, nobody else does it.

A month later the surfer opens up his Visa statement and he finds out that FREE TOUR for which he would NEVER BE BILLED just cost him from between 50 and 80 bucks. I know ....... they got me twice about two and a half years.

By the way, the sites suck. They are bad for the industry, I can't even tell you how many people who don't know I am in this business have told me they were scammed, they are amazed when I tell can tell them the name of the site they were scammed on. Now it's a fact that 97% of people will NOT refute a porn purchase, most people don't even know what rights they have with the credit card companies and most men are embarassed to report that they were purchasing porn so they write it off as a bad experience. They also don't join another website because Yitzhai and Serge burned them :( Hurts the rest of us porn peddlers.

With recurring billing, some of these memberships get rebilled for months before the customer realizes something's wrong. Here's the scope of how much money is involved. Serge sends them I million fresh surfers per day, industry average is 1 in 500 surfers decide to join, with Serges bosses sites its probably higher because of the FREE tour and the GUARANTEE YOUR CARD WILL NOT BE BILLED scam, also notice that when you attempt to leave any of these sites in succession no less than 10 new browser windows will open with 10 other new sites owned by Yitzhai and High Society. Some people will bite on one of those sites.

So let's say that 1 out of every 350 people are sucked in by Yitzhai. That makes 2857 new members of Yitzhai's website everday of the week, 365 days a year. Multiply by that exorbitant 60 buck membership fee that 170,000 dollars a day flowing in, multiply that by 365 days it's over 62 million per year, work in recurrings and its easily over 100 million........and this has been going on for nearly three f---ing years.

Serge Bribair is a straight shooter with webmasters who send him clicks, he pays for raw hits at a decent rate because it doesn't matter how 'good' the quality of the traffic is when the sites he's sending the traffic on to has such a good scam waiting for it.

Now when Vivid announced that they were entering the online biz in a big way and were going to offer webmasters 35 dollars per signup they could send I was pretty excited. I like their stuff, the only porn I watch is the stuff with Vivid type girls, gorgeous chicks who you can't believe would be f---ing on video. When I got to there site to check it out I couldn't believe the web design was EXACTLY done in the same style as Serge's bosses, the same mousetrap, wording etc........... they have either used Yitzhai's operation as a blueprint or are in some kind of deal with him, I haven't been able to find that out.

There is a slight difference in how Vivid Video is running their sites, probably an attempt to walk the line of legality on advice of their lawyers. On the page where they ask you to enter your cc info and of course remind you THAT YOUR CREDIT CARD WILL BE BILLED there is a link to some terms and conditions. Totally confusing, on one hand they're telling me to go and enter my cc number and on the same page they're telling me if I go one step further I owe them 60 bucks. Thats why I sent them two emails trying to find out as a naive little surfer what the real deal is.......... no response to either letter :) It looks like Vivid is using the same scam that Yitzhai/highsociety is.

The guy who runs the cc processing company that does the processing for Vivid saw the post and replied that Vivid does their own credit card/membership routine on their own servers so he really isn't involved BUT that he was interested in the situation because they warn all the companies they deal with that they could lose their Merchant Account with the bank very easily.

About you and your friends and the sleazy credit card charges, call your bank and deny you ever made the charge, even if you did, chargebacks are automatic with online purchase for the time being, no signature the online store loses out.......another industry problem because so many surfers now know this fact and join numerous sites and just call their bank and deny they ever joined and its wiped off their account. thats about all i have to say, DeeperThroat you might wanna poke around to see if the rumors of the FTC investigation are real, i've heard them but i don't know if and when it could happen.......

Serge responds: Luke, the author of that e-mail forgot to mention that: 1) I've beed spying for chinese goverment for 17 years and still sell them plans of nuclear submarines. 2) I had homosexual relations with every presidential candidate. 3) KGB VP' is my classmate and I e-mail him daily all government secrets I learnt on the board. 4) Lee Harvey Oswald was married to my sister.

I was born in a small sicilian village nobody heard of: Corleone My great uncle Vito, whose picture is on every wall of my house, was selling olive oil. Also.....I was named as co-deffendant in DOJ suit against Microsoft, I switched from Apple to Windows and that was construed as collaboration with Bill Gates to conquer the World.

"WF, I'd "kill"..... l-keford, please post on your site that industry got to the new lows and now kill each other, as evident in the post bellow. ;-))) BTW, I found letter from you when you joined our programm, typed and signed by you, with your SS# and request not to report your income as you claim you were a poor writer, therefore, your claim of our dealing to be "on hand shake" are not exactly accurate. Please post this on your site as well. We always keep papers and I'm sure you appreciate that.

Luke, I usually have a good memory, except few rare ocassions when "to the best my knowledge I don't have any recollections whatsoever" Furthemore, as a writer, how would you rate my opening statement, if I have chosen to make one: RATE IT!

"Serge has never known Luke to be anything but straight up and honest. Today however I received a very critical revalation about him. I will post it now. I obviously cannot vouch for its accuracy. The revelation says that l-keford is a tax evader and it think IRS is collecting evidence to confirm that."

HOW DO YOU RATE THIS POST OPENING!?

Luke: I give it high ratings!

Serge: "Do you think there are too many Jews in porn?" Luke, are you reffering to RAW jews or UNIQUES? I never counted jews in the porn industry, but one thing I can tell you, look at the stock of Waste Management which went from 60 to 15 in 12 months. I honestly believe that THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH jews in garbage disposal industry!

"Luke, the revelation source got more...... You are a professional writer, for me English is a second language, care to run against me in writing industry essay competition? I'll put your "e-mailer" against my "Revelation" at any time.... "

Luke says: An FTC source says they know well about Serge but did not charge him with any crimes because he solely functioned as a click broker, and not as an operator of the Crescent scams.

Deep Throat writes Luke: hahahahaha......told ya Serge is brilliant. I've never seen anybody get the best of him on the boards. He sits there in front of his computer just waiting for somebody to engage him in a battle of wits. They all fear him, even the biggies, because they know they are his intellectual inferior and that he has nothing else to do other than carve them up and humiliate them in front of all their peers. Nice life Serge has, 7 figures a year posting and reading a chatboard 24/7!

A source: I am an adult webmaster, with a conscience :)

I read your item today about VividVideo scamming credit cards. When I first found out about what Vivid was up to I was shocked that a company of their stature would choose to enter the online porn business in this way. Maybe you know the company better? They are working with or ripping off a scam run by a very large smut magazine publisher who has been on the Net for a much longer time than Vivid, I can only estimate the profits from the scam, definitely over 100 million dollars! Anyways if you are interested in the story and its scope I can give you the details on how the scam works and who's involved. I can only do this anonymously since some of the people in the scam are key figures in the online industry and I need to protect my business.

Bill Broderick writes on RAME: FYI : to anyone who has been charged by Vivid's website, When you e-mail them to cancel any membership that you have, make sure that you complain about the fact that they charged you. I don't know how strong the complaint has to be, since I lost the first ID, I had two accounts with them. I told them that I was disputing the charge on the first card (that had already gone through). I also told them that If they chartged the second card, that I would be writing a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, who currently has a bug up their ass about web sites (especially adult ones) that are charging cards fraudulently (after this adventure with Vivid, I'd have to say rightly so). However, Vivid has cancelled both accounts and refunded the charges that they have made to BOTH of my credit cards.

ikibento@nospam.com wrote: Has anyone else tried to enroll in the "free" trial subscription of this site only to find that their credit card had been charged? Also, what about not being able view their various screens? For some reason all we get is some html jibberish infinite looping and when we try to escape and the only way to get out is to x out and bring up Netscape again.

IseeCrack@yahoo.com wrote on RAME: I encountered this as well. It states its a "free trial" and then you are billed without being sent an email concerning this. Vivid (accounts@vividvideo.com) has sent me an email stating that the charge will be credited to my card.

Torris: This is exactly the sort of thing that would make a great letter to the editor at AVN. See if they have the stones to print it. I doubt it, but since they always blather on about crooks taking advantage of those in the industry and such, let's see if they are more than just talking a good game.

Chunkie: The same thing happened to me. I reported an unauthorised transaction to by bank. To my surprise, it was from Vivid, however, they didn't report themselves on my credit card statement as Vivid, which cause me to report the transaction. Once my bank sent me 'proof' that the transaction occured. I noticed that my name was not on the record, nor was my proper email address, and the terms for the sale presented (terms and conditions) were different than those presented on the sign-up page. I provided fax copies of the terms and the sign-up page to my bank for their review. needless to say, they were not pleased with Vivid obvious scamming policies. I emailed Vivid requesting their attention, and it took them almost a week to respond. By then, I'm certain my request for a chargeback got their attention finally, as I received an email declaring I will receive a credit. I'll see if that happens. In the meantime, I have a copy of the email to present to my bank if the credit doesn't occur. If you have been charged for membership to this site, likely it is a fraud and who should contact your bank and take action by challenging the terms of the transaction and request a chargeback. If you are thinking of signing up for the service, do not do it. If there is a heavy volume of chargebacks, it will force Vivid to change their policies; otherwise, their bank will pull their merchant number and put their site out of business.

John Robinson wrote Vivid Video: At 09:10 PM 10/6/99 -0500, you wrote: >I am, as of today, 6 October, 1999, cancelling my subscription / access >to vivid video on line. I signed up for the one week free trial. >Therefore, I assume I will incur no charges whatsoever on my credit >card. > >Please confirm that no charges will be applied to my credit card.

Vivid replied: Nowhere on our website does it say anything about a free trial week. Please reply with your user name (the name our system created for you upon enrollment) and the last 6 (six) digits of the credit card used so that we may identify your account and process your request. Thank you.

Well, Luke begs to differ. Check out:

http://209.189.110.19/cgi-bin/loader.cgi?bid=000103&sid=000005&next=/vvtour/join.html

It says, in part: "Ever wonder what the REAL porn world is about? Well find out... The girls are all here! Every knockout, drop dead VIVID SEX STAR you've ever wanted to take to bed is here performing perverse, dirty acts. And you can see them NUDE AND RUDE right now in our FREE SEX PREVIEW. The most gorgeous girls in the world are getting it from every angle and they're completely uninhibited - just for you, for FREE! Once inside you'll see every VIVID film and video ever produced PLUS extremely wide open photos of the stars with LIVE SEX CAMS. Get all the info on FREE PORN STAR PANTIES and YOUR FREE XXX VIDEO!! Just enter your credit card information to prove that you're 18 and start your FREE SEX PREVIEW!! Credit Card # Expiration Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Expiration Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Credit Card Billing Zip Code Birth Date (MMDDYY) E-Mail Address YOUR CARD WILL NOT BE BILLED!!"

Globiz writes on the Condom Project: "Yeah..I guess it's a scam to tell the surfer the cost of a paysite by the "per day" price IF THEY CAN"T MULTIPLY.....:) I'm sticking with Vivid..they convert and after 100 signups they give you 20 free videos and after every 500 after that, they give you 100. Only thing I don't like is that they deduct refunds during a pay period from your total.(hasn't happened yet, though. Gee, I guess not enough people think they're being SCAMMED..pfftt)"

XXX: I'm guessing it's ieg seth along with vivid. It would make perfect sense to me, seth's been collecting all these credit card numbers all these years, and he has had a close working relationship with vivid. Another factor - seth has always done his own processing, which means he controls the credit card numbers, while most of us use 3rd party processors which control the credit card numbers for us.

XXXInsider: "Serge Birbrair was always public enemy number one with Websidestory.com. They almost partnered up with Ron Levi from Cybererotica and Joe Haller from XXXCounter.com. And the deal didn't go through and left a bad taste in all their mouths and they went their separate ways. It was only this week that Ron Levi released his own counter.

"At the very beginning, before his pay site, he tried a counter... And somebody screwed somebody over. Websidestory has pulled out of the adult business and are planning on going public. Sextrekker took the lead as far as a counter service but Ron Levi's trying to pay people to use his counter.

"Vivid probably has a connection with IEG... Probably the IEG influence... Those two bonded early in the development of Vivid. Vivid only became active on the internet a couple of months ago so people really don't know what to expect from... They just know they're a big player on the video side... Now there are all these flags being raised and it would totally kill them."

Luke: "What did you think of the Washington Post article on IEG?"

XXX: "I've been telling people forever that IEG are the biggest crooks in the industry. I've known that for three years... They were shaving people... They were notorious for not sending out checks to the webmasters... They thrived off people who learned about them from the mainstream media. People who did not know anything about the internet but that they knew that IEG was big because they were doing the Tommy and Pammie tape... That's probably why Vivid was attracted to IEG... Thought they were big, without understanding the arena.

"Serge got started by brokering the traffic, paying three cents a click and selling it for five cents... But he'd get shaved... So he wasn't considered a big player, he was a loud player. He was the voice of the chat rooms. He was Mr. Brad Shaw, the new Serge, the controversial guy on the chat boards, talking about password traders...

"Serge is really smart and he used the chat boards to build himself as the credible guy. By doing so, he blasted a lot of people to take them off their high. This was an industry that back then was looking for a leader. Then Serge quieted down for a year and has just reemerged. He built his fame by being vocal.

"But the top traffickers are Porncity.net, sextrekker... They have a free hosting company that gets over 2.5 million uniques a day... They host over 60,000 websites... Adult Playground, and Karas... Al4A...

"Cybererotica may have the most members... Then Karas Adult Playground... Playgal, Gamma Cash... 75% of the market now is newbies... The next IA2000 will get 4000 webmasters...

"YNOT has always had a clean name because they never got involved with the scumbag end of the industry where people were shaving hits... They provided the cleanest service... They were the first place where adult sites gathered and exchanged information... In May they pissed off people through miscommunication and restructuring...

"AVN has more negative fallout than YNOT right now. They bought the IA2000 tradeshow and jacked prices way up, a $1000 jump to $5000 a booth. People think that AVN can be bought. If you wanted to win an award. Cybererotica was notorious for always paying off AVN to win Best Pay Site of the Year. Their site FF5.com was only released for three days and it won Best Graphics and Best Pay Site... So how could they win Best Site of the Year and it was only up for three days? That's how AVN lost its credibility.

"A lot of industry people know that Cybererotica tried to pay off Faye Sharp at Web Expo and she wouldn't take the money. And she ended up telling people and people overheard and he said he was going to ruin her. People like Karas know exactly what happened..."

From the October 20th Washington Post article about IEG head Seth Warshavsky: But this week he has found himself fighting troubling accusations of current and former employees. The allegations, made in sworn statements, include overcharging thousands of customer credit cards for memberships to pornography Web sites. They also say the company's revenues are substantially less than Warshavsky has said in public statements. The allegations were filed in connection with a suit he brought against two former executives and a company lawyer. Warshavsky accused the three--Evan Wright, Bert Reitsma and Eric Blank--of violating a non-compete clause in their employment contracts and stealing an IEG e-mail list. The three deny any wrongdoing. Warshavsky settled the lawsuit late Monday afternoon in exchange for the two former employees--Wright and Reitsma--signing a statement saying that information they provided to The Washington Post "may be incomplete and could be inaccurate."

XYZ: I think it's difficult to refute some of the basic facts, but is a matter of opinion as to where the law comes down on various issues. Like Serge's responsibility as to where he sends the traffic...an argument could be made that it's like a newspaper carrying an ad for a s---ty company...the paper's not at fault...but perhaps they would be if they knew how s---ty it was and carried the ads for a long time.

10/27

Serge Birbrair writes about rival webmaster Brad Shaw on the Condom Board: Brad youre the same wanker little BRAT that you were at YNOT. It's amazin to see you have the f---ing nerve telling other sponsors how to run their programs, and more amazing they're not slapping you little butt down. If Netpond or YNOT did it, everyone'd be all over them. Why they takes it from you of all peoples? -- Too bad you can tell every other sponcer how to run there program when you can't keep your own s--- working. What did you sell this year becasue you coudnt handle it? Teen Mail to FM. Crap Traffic to Mojo. Porn Archive (made it rest in pieces) you couldn't even afford to go up the next CTC level for three entire months? hahahahaha!!! And now you can't convert (well you can when you're not shaving the f---ing life out of it) your latest lineup of s---! HAHAHAHA!!!

f---, when you had a problem with FM [Ron Levi] who's been good to you couple weeks ago did you call him on phone like a professional? No you slammed him on the board. real f---ing businessman you are -- let anyone turn their back on youre little big headed ass and it's watch the knife!!!! f--- you even posted private emails today on the board!!!! .-- amazing you're still alive -- wondering what kind of blackmail you have on your competitiors that they don't take you down and put up with your s---, BraT.

Funniest thing is this latest holier-than-thou routine you've cookedup , surrounding yourslef in this moral do-gooder routine with the password tradersz, Brat --Funny as s--- coming from a guy who not only started out ripping off other webmasters sites in the search engines, but continues to do so daily -- even to the point of being soooooo f---ing stupid as to do it to webmasters dumb enough to use your own program, to your own godddamned resellers! hahahahahahaha!!! Stealing websites, f---ing webmasters, posting emails, telling other sponcers what to do ... and now mightly braT taking down the evil password sites, guess now that you've done two yearz of business with them they've served youre usefulness huh? hahahahaha!!!! Hope someone takes youre big head down soon, youre the most dangerous thing this Industry has --just amatter of time before youre taken out by either the gov or the long line of webmasters and sponcers you;ve screwed and continue to screw. hahahahahahahha soumynona

Fantasyman Speaks

XXX writes: "AVN has more negative fallout than YNOT right now. They bought the IA2000 tradeshow and jacked prices way up, a $1000 jump to $5000 a booth. People think that AVN can be bought. If you wanted to win an award. Cybererotica was notorious for always paying off AVN to win Best Pay Site of the Year. Their site FF5.com was only released for three days and it won Best Graphics and Best Pay Site... So how could they win Best Site of the Year and it was only up for three days? That's how AVN lost its credibility."

Shhh writes: Hey Luke, Good to see you are starting to direct some of your sites attention from the sleazeball AIDS infected drug addled video porners to the Adult Net scene. That's where the action and the real money is. Even though most adult webmasters are fat ugly geeks who couldn't get laid with a fistful of hundred dollar bills and Kendra Jade in the vicinity there is much intrigue. There is some pussy but they are mostly amateur chicks who kind of remain detached from the rest of us. Today saw the breakup of a beautiful and very rewarding (millions) relationship between Serge Birbrair and Mojo, check the Netpond board out for some of what went down. Robert aka Mojo is a standup guy and generally well liked, one of his partners Ron 12 Clicks is universally despised, i think he pissed off Serge who basically made the guy.

I tend to believe Ron Levi's story re:the industry awards. He's got a sterling rep and has innovated many things. Kara's didn't get more votes you can be sure. The owner of Kara's(RBJ Telecom) is much more popular in the industry, typical smooth good looking NY Italian guido, one of the few Net porners who could get laid. Elkind gets laid by the porn sluts you are obsessed with because CEN has more ties to the adult vid biz than any other site, exclusive deals with Private, Suze Randall Metro etc. I've heard he's hung like a thumb from somebody who would know. What extra G-d gave us Jews between the ears he took from between our legs :) Faye Sharpe who runs AdultDex is some middle age lady from the boondocks, she probably gets a little damp when RB from Kara's puts on the guido charm and that's why she gave Kara's the stupid award. He runs a really good operation but isn't an innovator like Levi. Levi is a typical Jew, rubs people the wrong way even when he's doing the right thing.

Kendra replies: f--- YOURSELF.

Fantasyman aka Ron Levi of Cybererotica.com writes Luke: We had nothing to do with the AVN awards - AVN used non-adult judges for all categories and if you look at the winners you will see it was the websites that had a great look that won.

A perfect example of this is smartBucks winning click-thru award - it was our High Rollers program they won with but they made their interface look much nicer than ours. Also, CyberErotica was totally overlooked by these same judges. FF5 should have never won best overall site - it should have been CyberErotica. I'm currently one of the members on a consulting staff of Website owners that AVN has put together to help guide the show. One of the key points we're all working on is to make sure that our peers - not uninformed non-adult folks judge the next awards.

For instance, for click-thru programs technical folks will be looking at this category and will actually be given access into the administrative boards of click programs to judge the best - not just an outside look as what happened last year. So with that said, no, we had nothing to do with the awards that AVN gave out - we just had opened FF5 and it was ahead of its time and the non-adult judges apparently fell in love with it! :-)

Luke: "I hear that you tried to bribe Fay Sharpe at the Web Expo to win those awards?"

Ron replies: The prior year at WebExpo CE won best hardcore site - we weren't even aware we were in the running. For this current year we sent over 7.7 million hits for folks to vote for CE in the WebExpo contest. We were informed before the show by Faye that Kara's beat CE by over 2 to 1 - I personally monitored our hits to the voting board - we had links to it all over our site while Kara's never put up a link - we got shafted and were given a token award for a made up on the spot "best bells and whistles category" which we shared with MikeAI - he won a co-award for whistles & bells for a website with no whistles and bells - he got this co-award because of some public posting he did for Faye - so now I have set the record straight. So I guess Kara's is pretty good - they had to have 14 million hits to beat us by a 2 to 1 margin and never put a link up on their site to get any votes - you figure it out! We was robbed!!! :-)

RB: This is so absurd. For the record, this greaseball Italian does business amicably with both the innovative Jew and the one hung like a thumb as well. I remember hitting my first show in Orlando a few years back and being amazed at the level of class people in this industry displayed. Now, I can't believe the degradation. The pettiness amazes me.

Sharpie responds: I have never commented on this because it was too ridiculous to comment on. But since it has been raised again - I will! IMPRESSIONS on a page are not the same as actually pressing the button to go to a site. And once on the site only 25% actually voted. I was on one of Janey and Stephs servers, shared with other sites - ya really think it would have went unoticed to get so many hits? All anyone had to do was ask Mr. Huntington about those kinds of claims. Maybe some of you did. Everyone altogether didn't even come close to a Million hits - and I will tell you, NO ONE has ever sent the traffic to vote that Asia Carrera and Carol Cox did. The only one to even come close was Mike Ai's traffic in the amateur categories. The first year none of the paysites promoted and the voting in those categories was not very strong at all. Cybererotica came out on top. Nothing political there.....nothing complicated.... just the way it was. And RB did not win 2 to 1 last year....... And there were no last minute consolation prizes. Awards were engraved and shipped 2 weeks before the show. Does anyone really think that we would intenionally bring on the wrath of a very strong person in the business, without it being clear cut? Nope.... The awards are not political and never will be. Did you notice that AVN dropped their awards? Wonder why??

An AVN source tells Luke: This is why you are such a piece of human trash. Chris English admitted that he saw nothing about Paul Fishbein because there was nothing. He was making broad assumptions. All you did was slander more innocent people. When AVN did the first AVN internet awards, AVN didn't even know who Cybererotica was. Steve Hearn still owned the show. He asked us to set up the awards. Fishbein hadn't even met Ron Levi or Paul Lesser yet. When FF5 won, Fish had no clue whose site it was. And, funny enough, all the voting was done by outside web designers and internet people, mostly outside the adult buisness. We didn't even have an on-line staff yet. And, like everything else, the voting was done elctronically with signed ballots. Also, our customers are thrilled with us and the IA 2000 show. A few complainers versus thousands of happy people. Exhibitors did record business and we are selling out 100,000 square feet at our next show. But why research? Why try to talk to anyone who might have an objective opinion? Isn't it more fun to try and hurt us? Not for publication. Please lose my e-mail address and phone number. You are not welcome here.

Dmoney writes: Some people that I feel are extremely credible, well liked, deserving people for positive recognition.

Tom from www.bluegravity.com - One of the best adult web hosts on the Net. Old school at age 21, been in front of a computer since age 4. Owns some of the best names on the Net including, breasts.com, nipple.com, livesexshows.com, buyers.com and tons more. He's a man of his word, great heart and deceivingly smart. Tom is rare in this biz because he appears to be a "normal" cool party guy, but he is a techie to the 10th degree. Perfect combination of street smarts and tech. Been in the adult Net game since the very beginning. I think he was 17 when he starting making adult sites, and ranked all over the top lists.

AL from www.AL4A.com - Owns the #1 ranked site in the world, according to SexTracker's counter. He has 645,000 people a day checking out his free listing of porn known as TGP (Thumbnail Gallery Post). Al never messed with his system since the very beginning, and he's also old school. His site looks exactly the same today as it did 3 years ago. Never kissed anyones ass, never played the political game and only has a few close contacts in this biz. He's also a partner in Ampland.com, another huge site. I know Al very well, he has great business ethics and is one of the most loyal guys in this biz.

James from www.adultbuffet.com - The very first TGP(thumbnail gallery post) site, usually ranked in the top 5 sites on SexTracker. He's been a man of his word, does his thing, stays low key. Was once the #1 site in the world but changed his look and feel one day and lost his momentum in traffic. He came in and took persiankitty.com's throne as the #1 site in all of the rankings, back then it was big news. He was running away with the lead, ahead of the rest by about 100,000 unique hits a day, but an advertising deal changed the look of the site. After a few months of losing traffic he went back to the old way and found his traffic on the rise once again. James has a great personality, everyone who knows him likes him. Great guy, humble and low key.

10/29

Shhh writes Luke: "You are certainly stirring up some s--- on the Adult Net as of late Luke. Do you do any real journalism yourself or do you just print whatever any anonymous source emails or tells you? There are real stories worth investigation on the Adult Net but you don't seem to have the skills or the discipline to be a working cyber journalist. Do you consider yourself a journalist?

"That murder story is scary. First, Serge is way too smart to be directly involved in any scams. I can almost guarantee he has no holdings in either SLEU or BIG HUB. Birbrair if you watch him work the boards is a student of human behaviour, he makes it a point to gather as much information, personal and business, on everybody. It's good business and he uses the information to protect himself and also to use against people, sometimes just for the sport of it.

"Now Joe Elkin is a different story he was a major player in SLEU and I believe BIGHUB. He'd come on the chatboards and give 'wink wink nudge nudge' tips to get on the SLEU bandwagon before key dates. I almost bit on it but thank god my girlfriend is a CPA and watches my investing habits like a hawk. Serge and Joe Elkind are friends, in fact if you read the board yesterday, he had a lunch meeting with Elkind and his partner JB yesterday.

"About a year ago or so Serge and Elkin had a major pissing match on the boards. Serge had information on several scams Elkind was involved in before he got on the Net, I remember Serge repeatedly claiming some goons chasing Elkind around a shopping mall parking lot.. funny story as I remember it. I've never heard of stockinvestor.com but it is very interesting that they were promoting two mainstream companies Elkind has interests in. The name Mayer does ring some bells however. I'll ask around about it.

"You asked what happened between Mojo and Serge? Who really knows but Serge has this hunger to handle the most Net clicks he is driven by it. Usually before he makes another assault on his version of MT Everest he engineers a mother of a public fight with somebody in the biz. Maybe its just to get his juices going. The informant who told you about Serge's bosses was right. Total scam sites. But they will buy traffic from anywhere or anybody, HUGE amounts of traffic, and they really don't care about the quality.

"Serge used to scare the s--- out of people who sent him clicks, there were very strict rules in his click program and if he caught you even slightly in the wrong he'd go ballistic. Now he buys almost any kind of traffic in his quest to be the true king of clicks. He admitted today that he has no idea how his traffic converts so I figure he's now sending his sponsors any s--- and until his sponsor complains who gives a f---. Serge rewards people he likes and who can provide him with major clicks. He has put many of these people into the click business by showing them the ropes and inspiring them. Many of these people have in return screwed Serge.

"A sleazeball named PUshrod was a pathetic Web wannabe who Serge befriended and put into the click business, he made his fortune and betrayed Serge they no longer speak. Pushrod is a major league cheater, in fact i know very few webmasters who haven't been shortchanged by Pushrod.

"Mojo was another of Serge's students but much smarter than Pushrod and now has several click companies that are very successful. All of a sudden Serge started pissing with one of Mojo's boys, Ron 12 Clicks. My theory is that Serge was looking for a fight with somebody. Like I said when Serge is hungry for more traffic a major brouhaha usually comes along. He basically turned YNOT into a ghosttown by leading a revolt against what he felt was an anti-business and censorship policy. His accusations did have some validity but the real reason Serge caused the ruckus and the melodramatic exit from YNOT is that he knew he had worked that board for all it was worth and he had his eyes set on new territory - The CONDOMPROJECT... an incubator for Adult Net newbies that was growing strong to over 2000 members.

"Needless to say the CONDOMPROJECT literally shot their loads in their pants when Serge arrived on their doorstep looking for place to set up shop. The CONDOMPROJECT honchos weren't really up to much, Net rubes if you will. They were hard workers and ambitious folks however, ready to be shown the way by their saviour Serge. It was really quite pathetic the performance they put on for Uncle Serge, he'd shout JUMP and they'd cry HOW HIGH!

"In the year since Serge took them under his wing, the partners who own Condom, renamed NetPond, have become rich. Sure they've sold out most of their ideals but they are rich far beyond any of their individual talents would have taken them without Serge's benevolence.

"Back to Mojo, Serge was looking for a reason to get pissed off and in this business where almost everybody scams to some extent he found Mojo and his underlings breaking all sorts of rules agreed to in traffic deals. I took a look at some of Mojo's transgressions and I was pretty shocked that the guy would pull that kind of newbie bulls--- on somebody who'd made him filthy rich. I lost a lot of respect for Mojo.

"I read the boards, they are addictive but I haven't posted to either YNOT or Netpond in almost a year. You can do more harm to your business than anything positive you might get from doing it nowadays. Very few important players post to either of them anymore. You can see the quality of the individuals who hang out on them now - LOSERS who use the board as a substitute for a real life.

"By the way, tell James DiGiorgio that I spotted Paul Fishbein, Steve Hirsch, Serge and David Sturman at church on Sunday. Former altar boys, they were deeply touched by the Church at a tender age, and hence entered porno."

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."

The Securities and Exchange Commission last year charged Lehmann and other defendants with distributing false information about companies after Electro Optical System Corp. stock rose from 50 cents to more than $5 per share in one day. Investors eventually lost at least $10 million in that scheme, authorities have said. Lehmann agreed in January to pay $630,000 in penalties.

Between 1994 and 1996, Chalem worked at the brokerage A.S. Goldman, which was indicted in July in New York on charges connected with stock manipulation, forgery and illegal trading. The firm has denied the accusations, and Chalem was not named in those charges. The men's Web site used mass e-mails to promote penny stocks to prospective investors. In exchange, the partners received commissions or discounted stock from securities firms.

The Web site was registered in Panama and managed in Hungary. "Penny" or "micro-cap" stocks are cheap, highly speculative securities that are vulnerable to investor manipulation. Authorities suspect the victims' Web site was based overseas to avoid SEC scrutiny. Kaye called the men's business practices "shady."

Anonymous writes: "These guys promoted: http://www.stockinvestor.com/ * SLEU Recommendation * SLEU latest news releases * BHUB latest news releases. SLEU and BHUB is controlled by insiders which include Joe Elkin, Serge Birbrair, and others writing on Condom."

Serge responds: Well, if categorically refuse to be shot over some penny stock, this is not my style. Therefore, if I get found in the pool of blood on the floor, the real reasons would be: 1) I single handedly caused drop of the Waste Management stock {fortune 500 company} 2) Earthquake in Taiwan was organised by me and russian mafia, we had short position in HWP, IBM, Dell {all Fortune 500 companies} and their drop after the earthquake netted me $11,679 BILLION dollars, $10 billion of which I laundered thru the Bank of NY, {Fortune 500 company} 3) I guess it would be fruitless to deny that Hurricaine Floyd was caused by my short positions in Aetna, AllState Insurance {Fortune 500 companies} 4) The revelation which was NEVER made public, but I believe it's time: My grandfather caused Titanic to go down. Family history doesn't reveal the reasons why, but let the truth be known. 5) Question to Netpond readers, Guess who is REALLY responcible for Y2K bug?

Globiz writes on Condom board: "It's been on the national news and news magazine programs several times that a lot of the penny stockbrokers either have been involved with the mob or recieved pressure from them. Wouldn't be surprised if these two guys were in on something. But I wouldn't go so far as to say it's related to those two stocks. Typically, from what I remember of the news stories, organized crime will either manipulate the stock in a going concern or in a shell corporation in order to make profits. They had a broker on one of the programs who'd been threatened by the mob because he was trading one of the stocks and it was screwing up their plans."

Alex: "Thankfully for me, Luke F-rd stopped existing earlier today. A lowlife scum who links unrelated facts and innuendo with nothing more than spit and a little thread. I hope you enjoy lawyers, I think JoeE has a good lawyer."

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 1999--Global DataTel, Inc. has received inquiries from shareholders and the Wall Street Journal Interactive today concerning a Web site www.stockinvestor.com.

Richard Baker, Global's CEO and Chairman, stated: ``Global DataTel has never met, nor spoken with www.stockinvestor.com. We have no affiliation with them nor did we ever solicit their buy recommendation of the Company. Our only knowledge of this Web site came today after the first inquiry.''

Robert writes: "Luke, this [Vivid Video] billing scam started back in April of this year. That was when I received the first spam mail taking me to their sites. Yes, they all have the same format..Obsessions.com, cun-tv.com, among others . The only decent stuff to these sites is the "live Video" feeds...and interactive.....But c'mon people you REALLY didn't thing you could do the trial offer thing and not get charged....OF COURSE THAT IS THE SCAM....but Luke this is not just in the adult online experience...ITS with MOST(credit card enabled) of them ...Liike AAA emergency auto service....and any other crdit card you hold that calls you when you sit down to eat about their great "term life insurance rates" or "purchase protection" scams. The adult industry took the nod that it was ok from the CREDIT CARD ISSUERS COMPANIES. How much money does the credit card issuers stand to make when an outlet store the size of the internet REQUIRES that you have a credit card to do just about anything? C'mon peeps, whose REALLY reking in the dough. DIG a little deeper, man .You don't think the freakin idiots in porn started this do you?"

XXXwebmaster tells Luke: "You could have a field day for the next ten weeks with IEG, because they are right up there with Vivid Video as far as what they've been doing with the double billing... IEG is the filth of the industry.

"Porn stars are getting f---ed over by webmasters every day. I've had several people from Jill Kelly to Racquel Darrian to Houston complain to me about Don Osterholt's Atlas Multimedia... I've had no dealings with him personally, so I don't know...

"I try to stay away from [huge porn webmaster] Serge because he's controversial. And when you're outspoken in the industry and a controversial figure, you usually want to either kiss their ass or you want to stay away from them...

"Serge did a lot of bad things to YNOTmasters.com. He used to go on their boards and rip apart these newbies... He's got a great niche helping webmasters. He knows the industry and has been there since the beginning. The report you ran a couple of days ago was extremely accurate.

XXXWebmaster: "Without Paul Fishbein and AVN, you can't have any presence in this industry. This last trade show we had in Miami, IA2000, was the most professional, best run trade show yet. AVN bought it from Steve Hearn. I know a lot of people are bitching that AVN raised the booth prices but it is the old cliche, it is only expensive if it doesn't work. We got great mileage of that last show. It gave us great exposure.

"Fishbein is a diplomat, a politician, and he's going to tell everybody what they want to hear. You can't bite the hand that feeds you. AVNonline.com has become a saturated magazine... You have to place your ad in there for political reasons. If you're not in there, it hurts your business. AVNonline.com is where every webmaster goes to find out what's new in the business."

Luke: "You're kidding? It's just a rewrite of press releases."

XXX: "You can find out in a myriad of ways. You can go to ynot or the condom board and learn about day to day things. AVNonline started as a magazine catering to the trade show IA2000. You get to the trade show and you unpack and you set up your booth, there are a zillion magazines there. That's when the webmasters go through the magazine and go, who do I have to go see in the next few days. Who has the coolest ads? Who's the best ISP and who has the best content. Who do I have to schmooze this week and buy dinner for?

"Where else do you find a content provider? You can go to YNOT and get their Top Ten list of content providers, but these are people who simply paid YNOT to get on their list. YNOT is not saying that these are the top ten providers, just the top ten payers... AVNonline is a place for anybody getting into the web to advertise.

"Paul Fishbein and Steve Hirsch are great guys. Straight forward, likeable, honest... I think as much as Vivid hates you [Luke F-rd], they couldn't live without you. Because they like to see what's happening... The bottom line in this business is ego, being talked about...

"I don't see Kendra Jade from photo galleries... I don't get her movies... I know her from your site and the Jerry Springer Show.

"David Schlessinger at Vivid Video runs their internet operation. He's a good guy. He's been warned about some of the traps they've used in getting people to sign up. I hope this bad publicity on your site will prompt him to fix things... This is the fastest thing that will bring you down. If you start getting a backlash of chargebacks for getting double-billed... But Vivid are stand-up guys providing that these problems don't keep occuring.

"It's [avnonline] only influential in the sense that when you have the AVN magazine in your hand at the trade show, it gives you an angle, an advantage... They put it in their bags, read it on the airplane on the way back from the trade show... It is valuable to have. You can't do big business without advertising in AVN.

"Ron Levi and cybererotica.com are huge, reliable and have probably paid out more money to webmasters [sending traffic] than anyone. Rich Botto aka RB aka Maximum Cash and Kara's Adult Playground is number two.

"Ron is a pioneer, around since the beginning of internet porn. He's vocal. You either love him or hate him. You can't do much in this industry and with other webmasters if you are on the outs with Ron Levi. His front guy Johnathan Silverstein comes from IEG. John and Ron combined are the greatest marketing machine on the web. They have different things coming out every month. He pays you to have his counter on your site. Ego drives a lot of people in this industry...

"Ron stands for alot of good stuff that happens in this industry... He's set a lot of precedents as far as memberships and retention... Cybererotica.com has the most content. He has the most feeds. He has the most toys. He's the same way in his personal life. He owns a couple of Viper racing cars...

"A word to the wise - don't ever f--- with him. If you f--- with Ron Levi, he will f---ing come down on you. He has big boys working for him.

"Mike Fold leads by example. He works with Terri Welles the former Playmate who beat Playboy in the lawsuit...

"You have a big advantage right now is that most of these web guys know who you are and what you do. They'll still give you information.

"Carl Bernard owns Gamma Cash... He brings in $10-$15 million a month.

"Steve Cohen of sex.com is real ugly. A convicted felon, fraudulent, claims he gets 100 million hits a day... You don't want to align with him or even write about him. If you even talk to him, people will say, f--- this guy... He sued everybody with sex.com in their name. He pissed off so many people. And he hijacked the domain, stealing it while he was in prison...

"Unfortunately, people want to read more about the filth than about the good people.

"People are getting real sick of Brad Shaw, this 24 year old punk who started SIC Cash. He decided to shake up the boards by talking s--- about a lot of people... If you've got a problem, pick up the phone and give me a call. Don't air our dirty laundry on the chat boards. If you do that, people will get pissed... He started talking s--- about Ron Levi Wednesday... He doesn't understand that everybody works one of Ron Levi's programs. He wants to be controversial and make a name for himself...

"Babenet has a great feed. Rob Gould..."

Luke: "They ripped off Ron Levi's program."

XXX: "I don't know. In this business, everybody rips off everybody. There's nothing original..."

Luke: "Do you think the AVN Awards are for sale?"

XXX: "Not anymore. Now that there's been some light shined on it, I think they will be very careful. At one time, maybe... It will always come down to the companies who spend the most money with AVN...

"Twenty percent of the adult internet market is run by the biggies, but the biggies have their hands in everything."

11/10/99

Pushrod writes: Luke, You have a very humorous site. The technique of printing bulls--- and lies in quotes to absolve yourself of any journalistic responsibility is great. Regardless of that, I'm going to attempt to straighten a couple of things out:

"A sleazeball named PUshrod was a pathetic Web wannabe who Serge befriended and put into the click business,"

Fact : Serge attempted to PREVENT me from going into the click business. We didn't do business for 8 months after I started in it because the russki was so mad.

"he made his fortune and betrayed Serge they no longer speak."

Fact : Serge attempted to withold payment of a large sum of money to me for clicks I sent him. We terminated our business relationships. Simple as that. Your source apparently knows s---. If I thought you were worth the effort, I'd even send you the e-mails to prove it.

"Pushrod is a major league cheater, in fact i know very few webmasters who haven't been shortchanged by Pushrod. "

Thousands of webmasters have been kicked out of my programs for cheating. Thousands get paid every two weeks. So be it. There's more dishonesty in this business every day. There's more sleazeballs getting into it every day also. That's why I don't participate in the boards anymore nor maintain much of a public stance. Also, regarding your Mojo story. I kicked Mojo and his partners out of Gold Rush several times for the same kind of s---. I warned Serge to keep an eye on those guys. Want a good story? Find out if Mojo and any of his partners have gotten the balls to tell their wives what they do for a living yet. They used to have a sworn blood oath not to tell... Anyway, gossip is just that, gossip. Have fun. Maybe I'll even start to read your site regularly....not!

12/07/99

XXX writes: "Serge Birbrair pissed like he hasn't been in years. He lost his main sponsor, probably half his business, that Yishai dude with the fraudulent business practices. Standard Internet went behind Serge's back and cut a deal with a lot of Serge's traffic suppliers. Serge made Standard Internet. He's taken the gloves off. Serge knows where all the bodies are buried. He knows who cheats on their income taxes, who cheats on their wives.

"The adult Net has almost reached its saturation point. Any book on the adult Net should be one part business/intrigue book, one part inspirational motivational book, cuz there is no sex in this bizness. That's the irony. Serge may want to strike back at some people via a book but he really is the person with the most vivid memories of how Net porn biz evolved.

"The company that "Serge" works for, "Multimedia Forum" is most definitely a dummy corporation for "Crescent Publishing," which publishes High Society, Playgirl, Celebrity Skin, Cheri, and owns Cum-TV.com and many others. Ruderman allegedly divested himself of management responsibilities a long time ago. The day to day stuff (including online scams) is run by Bruce Chew the President and Carmine Bellucci, the VP. They're a bunch of crooks.

"I can't give you anything specific on their credit card scams, except to say that when I read your description online I was not at all surprised. The company that used to be called "Drake" and now called "Crescent" will stop at nothing to make money. They're ruthless scum.

"Here's what I know about the cc scam. As "Serge" described, the "free" tour actually charges you $50. There's now an entire floor of the Crescent building (201 2nd Ave) devoted to customer service, answering calls and cancelling accounts. A ton of money comes from first time users. Crescent (formerly "Drake") owns some 150 web-pages and have already been fined by the FTC. They are also the publishers of High Society, Playgirl, Cheri etc. It's the porn half of a publishing company that also puts out Travel Agent and Unique Homes. You never see or hear from Carl Ruderman, whose precise relation to the company now is mysterious (although the assumption is that money goes to him first). The important names in the day-to-day stuff are Bruce Chew (President), Carmine Bellucci (V.P.) and Steve Loshiavo (editor of H.S.). Bob Johnson, now at Vivid, was for a long time at Crescent. I know nothing about genuine criminal activity, only rumors of mob involvement. The funniest part of the company, I think, is Playgirl. Since they're homophobic, they have to pretend that the magazine is really for women, while they really know that it's read by gay men only. They only allow a female staff to run Playgirl, to keep the illusion going."

Luke may ghostwrite a book for Serge Birbrair.

7/28/00

I talked Thursday afternoon with former internet traffic broker Serge Birbrair, a 43-year old Russian Jewish immigrant to the United States.

Serge: I thought once about moving to Israel but it was too hot.

Luke: Please give me some insight into Ron Levi.

Serge: I don't have dirt on him. I wouldn't want to be his enemy and I wouldn't want to be his friend. I doubt he has any friends.

Luke: Why would you not want to be his friend?

Serge: I don't think he has any friends. I remember when his divorce came, he didn't have anybody to cry on their shoulder. He used to cry with people in the industry. Don't you have anyone with whom to discuss these issues? You should have your friends. He might have business colleagues but I don't think he has friends.

Luke: Why?

Serge: I don't know. I'm not sure if he knows how to give of himself. He knows how to give people money. But when you're friends with somebody, you have to give part of yourself. I don't think he knows how to give part of himself.

Luke: You're saying that he works so much that the human part of him did not develop?

Serge: That's what I think.

Luke: How influential do you think he's been in the industry?

Serge: On a scale of 0 to 10, probably about 8.5.

Luke: What have been his most influential innovations?

Serge: "You give him credit for inventing the click-thru program. He tries to portray that but it is not true. The first click-thru program was invented in 1996, about three weeks before Levi, by Al Hadhazy from Amateur Hardcore.

"The way I know this story is that I was working with Al and Ron at the same time. I remember which program came first. I remember that Ron was going to sue somebody for circumventing their efforts to create the program. I remember Ron asking the Amateur Hardcore people if they [Cybererotica] could develop the same program for them.

"Ron loves to take the credit for them but I communicated with Al Hadhazy who says, 'The reason I let him do that is... I was the one who invented it but he was the one who was able to bring it to life.' Even though Hadhazy invented the program, Al closed his. Ron did not and did better than the inventor of it."

Luke: "Why do you think Ron Levi has been so successful? Cybererotica would be one of the five biggest adult sites on the net and his webmaster program has probably paid out $100 million. Would you agree with those estimates?"

Serge: "Yeah. Why? Because he was early. He has an outstanding personality. He was innovative. He was in front of everybody in many ways and showed the rest of the industry where to go. Like productivity clicks, that was his invention. When everybody was paying flat rates, he introduced productivity with High Rollers. He was the one who introduced free signups."

Luke: "Do you blame him for the industry's credit card problems?"

Serge: "No. I do not think that anybody can be blamed for anything. This industry is a bunch of greedy people who are not connected to each other and have mostly their own interests at heart. They do not give a damn about the industry as a whole regardless of what they say in public. I saw Ron's comment that every time he does something, he thinks about the industry. That's bulls---. Everybody in this industry thinks about themselves. Then about their families, friends and coworkers."

Luke: "Does this industry have leaders?"

Serge: "Yes, the guys from New York. They have most of the money and the most traffic."

Luke: "Who are they? Crescent?"

Serge: "Crescent. Yishai. I forgot the name of the company he works for."

Luke: "What do you think of Andy Edmond and his Flying Crocodile operation, since it's taken over YNOT?"

Serge: "Andy who?"

Luke: "What is your assessment of the job Adult Video News has done since taking over IA2000?"

Serge: "I've never been once to their show. But I don't think it's been any different [since they've taken over the internet tradeshow IA2000]. I don't see them as an industry leader."

Luke: "Do you read their magazine?"

Serge: "No. I don't see them as doing much for anybody. Do we have anybody looking out for us? No."

Luke: What is your assessment of Rich Botto and his MaxCash?

Serge: I take my hat off. In the days when Ron and I were beating each other, those guys were not even in the top ten. Today they are number one by volume and market participation and traffic. And they did it without screwing anybody, which is very rare in our business.

Luke: Who else do you respect in the industry?

Serge: General from Australia. He put himself out of the picture 18 months ago but his site (Playgal.com) is number three in traffic.

Luke: Is he part of the Australian Mafia?

Serge: There is no Australian Mafia.

Luke: It is a euphemism for a clique.

Serge: They are more close together than the Americans. But I like Australians. I haven't yet met an Australian I would distrust. With an Australian, you always know where you are.

Luke: Do you know a Greg Lazardos and what is your assessment of him?

Serge: Hmmmmmmmm. Very sharp and knows what he is doing. I met him in New York.

Luke: What does the future hold for you?

Serge: Nothing. I am through with the adult industry. I am not pulling my money out of it but we are not pursuing anything. We just maintain... We're trying to deal in non-adult ventures on the ruins of the adult one.

Luke: How is it coming along?

Serge: Slowly but surely. We're incorporating everything we learned in adult and are bringing it into the non-adult world.

Luke: Are you enthusiastic about what you are doing or are you burned out?

Serge: I am only excited about my travel. Basically everything is done by my management. I just consult with them. I worked too much. For three years in a row, I worked 18 hours a day. I'm done. Professionally I am done.

Luke: When did you jump into the adult internet?

Serge: The end of 1995.

Luke: And were you the largest traffic broker on the adult web?

Serge: At my peak, yes. Even though there are people today who are bigger than me.

Luke: What's the future of the adult internet?

Serge: It's like the Klondike [gold rush in Alaska]. The biggest money has been made already. By the way, I went to Klondike this year. One hundred thousand people went to Klondike. Only 30,000 reached it. Only 35 people made claims. Only ten were able to get the gold and bring it back. And only one person who really made a lot of money. Guggenheim. That's where our beloved industry is going.

Ron Levi and RB and Yishai are going to be making millions while everyone else will make thousands [of dollars]. There's going to be a big gap between the leaders and everybody else.

Sex will always sell. But the biggest money has already been made. Now it is a struggle.

8/15/00

From my first Webmasterlive.com radio Show

Brad Shaw phones in.

Brad: "You want to talk about the downfall of Serge? One day he woke up and all his clicks were gone. He was sending 90% of his traffic to Yishai and behind the site he was popping a consul. So he was really sending two hits for every one hit. And eventually Yishai smartened up to it.

"And on top of that, Serge was buying worse and worse traffic, from blind links, and his [conversion] ratios plunged... And Serge couldn't do anything with all his traffic because nobody wanted to buy it. So he started lowering what he was paying... So the people who were sending him traffic, decided to go straight to Yishai and deal with him directly. And it all came down on one night."

Lee: "I thought he retired voluntarily?"

Brad: "He claims he made $32 million in 1999 and I can believe it. He's brokering one to two million hits a day. Buying the traffic for three to four cents and selling it for six and seven cents. That's a lot of money."

Lee: "You don't think the FTC is going to come down on him?"

Brad: "I actually talked to the FTC last year. They were monitoring the Netpond board. Someone contacted me. And of course they've looked into [the Crescent Publishing] sites which promised 'Your credit card will not be billed'...

"People will talk about Serge and say anything bad about anyone, but people are afraid to say anything bad about Yishai."

Lee: "Why, do you think Yishai is going to put cement boots on us and drop us over the bridge?"

Brad: "When I was introduced to Yishai... The person who introduced me said, 'Don't ever say anything bad about this guy, Brad. He'll have you taken care of.' And he was dead serious."

Luke: "What do you know about Yishai?"

Brad: "I know how he runs his sites, which everyone knows. Obviously I feel that it is bad for our industry. But right now it is too late. The harm has already been done. The guy has made a fortune, $100 million, $200 million, $300 million, there's no telling. How the guy gets credit card accounts, I'll never know."

Lee: "You know they have this guy under investigation."

Brad: "Oh sure they do."

Lee: "Do you think Yishai's affiliated with organized crime?"

Brad: "I won't touch that one with a ten foot pole."

Lee: "I don't blame you. I think we all know that answer."

From the online autobiography of Serge Birbrair at http://www.letterhead.com/profiles/serge/

I was born in Vitebsk, Belarus, the birth place of Mark Shagal. My exposure to the world of art came thru my marriages. My first wife was a tourist guide in Leningrad Hermitage Museum. My second wife was the tourist guide in The Pavlovsk Palace. Since I always seemed to pay more attention to the guides instead of the tours, my knowledge of art was very limited. When I left Russia at the age of 22, I was twice divorced, with only a diploma in Electrical Engineering and $153 dollars in my pockets. Opening a sign shop was the last thing on my mind.

In 1979 I arrived in the USA. As an electrical engineer, I participated in the construction of the World Financial Center (NYC), NatWest USA Building (NYC) and many other public and municipal projects including renovations at LaGuardia Airport. "The Golden Eighties" came to abrupt end for me in 1991 as construction in NYC ground to a halt. There was not much work for an Electrical Engineer to do. One day I found myself attending a Franchise Show with my fourth, present and last wife, Olga. Yes....she is also a former tourist guide from Intourist Russia.

As I wandered up and down the aisles, looking at the different displays, nothing seemed to jump out at me. Selling chicken, donuts or subs and dealing with people all day just didn't appeal to me. On our way out the name 3M on a sign caught my eye and I stopped to talk with the guy. It was Speedy-Sign-A-Rama booth and I fell in love with the idea almost immediately. No dealings with the general public, no standing behind the counter all day, no assembly line work....it seemed like the perfect business.

With the help of friends I was able to raise the $60,000 franchise fee and I was already to jump right in when a chilling thought hit me. I asked myself; "Serge, before you pay out all this money for training and a shop, shouldn't you at least find out if you can sell signs?" So I went to the owner of one of the shops and offered my services on a commission basis. He gladly agreed! First day out I sold 2 signs just canvassing the streets of my town. $785 dollars worth! Second day I sold 3 more, another $535. On the third day I stayed in the shop, helping the guy to make the signs I had sold. On my fourth and last day the owner of the shop lost his new salesman (me) and Speedy lost a potential franchisee.