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| Porn Users Forum » What does "Billing Certified" really mean? |
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| 02-04-10 01:37pm - 5435 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Wittyguy (0)
Active User  Posts: 1,138 Registered: Feb 04, '08 Location: Left Coast, USA |
What does "Billing Certified" really mean? I've noticed some of the recent site reviews on Thebestporn have "Billing Certified" certificates attached to them on the right hand side of the page, under the "Site Facts" section (here's a link to once such review: https://www.thebestporn.com/review/thehardcorenetwork/). On the surface it seems all well and good but what does it really mean? Edited on Apr 20, 2023, 01:57pm | |
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| 02-04-10 04:16pm - 5435 days | #2 | |
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Website Secure (0)
Active Webmaster Posts: 5 Registered: Feb 04, '10 Location: New York |
Hello Wittyguy, My name is Stewart and I am from WebsiteSecure.org, thanks for noticing the work that we are doing and bringing your questions up on these forums. It gives me an opportunity to give more detail about what we do, why we do it and also what we don't do. WebsiteSecure.org is a REAL service. We inspect hundreds of websites (mainstream sites and adult sites as well). Our goal is to simply make sure that scammers have a harder time than honest site owners. We believe the reason scams exist is because people think they can earn more money by being unethical than they would earn if they did everything the right way. So, our hope is that by highlighting ethical sites and showing users the facts about each site in a simple way, we can take the guess-work out of signing up and benefit ethical sites owners and ethical site subscribers at the same time. When WebsiteSecure.org inspects a site we do several things. For starters we actually look over the entire site tour including the terms of service pages, privacy policy and join page. I am sure as a pornsite expert you look at many of the same things we do... unfortunately, buyers with less experience than you have often skip checking a lot of these aspects of a site and get caught by accident paying for things they never wanted. We also do 'test joins' and 'cancels' the same way you would if you joined a website. That allows us to see if our card gets 'banged' with false charges or not. It lets us see if a site sends a lot of junk spam mail or sells our email address to a third party. It lets us see if the site cancellation process is working correctly. In short, we take the risk of joining a site and report whether or not we ran into any problems. If you see a WebsiteSecure.org seal on any site, notice that it has a unique number below the seal. That number is matched to the specific site so each site has their own. If you visit WebsiteSecure.org and enter that unique number in the Verify box you can see a free full report about that specific site including direct links to the support pages, terms, and relevant information. The unique number and verification process also makes it impossible for a scammer to photoshop our certification seals and use them on another site (unlike the numberless seals of some less vigilant certification systems online) because when you validate them on our site you will quickly see which domain name the number belongs to and you can also enter your own comments about any site we have certified.
I think one mistake you are making is to assume that scam sites only exist in porn. In fact, some of the worst scam sites have nothing to do with adult content. WebsiteSecure is not a 'porn' entity. We certify sites in many different markets and our goal in each is exactly the same, to make sure that a buyer is fully informed about their purchase before they pay for something they did not intend to buy. Now... as promised, let me explain a few things WebsiteSecure does not do: 1) We do not 'review' sites. That means we don't decide if a site has good movies or bad movies. We do not mention if it has many movies or not enough movies. That is a role already being handled very well by honest review sites like TheBestPorn.com, PornUsers.com, TheTongue.net and mainstream review sites like CNet.com - our role is limited to focusing on whether the site is accurately and ethically showing you what you can expect if you signup and what you can expect to be billed if you signup or cancel as the terms fully explain. Sites that do not accurately and ethically show you what you get and what the pricing will be are rejected when we finish our inspections. They are allowed to fix any problems with their sites and may reapply once the fixes are made. 2) Honest cross-sales vs dishonest cross-sales One of the hardest things to do is determine 'what is ethical' and what is not. Ethics definitely mean different things to different people. Cross sales can be a legitimate opportunity for a merchant to sell something worthwhile to a consumer. They can also be very unethical 'traps' designed to dupe buyers into spending more than they intended. When WebsiteSecure inspects a site, if they use cross sales of any kind, it is plainly stated on the Certificate (just click the certification seal to see it). The certificate also says if it is a pre-checked or unchecked offer. If a site offers a pre-checked cross sale, honestly displayed above the submit button and fully explained on the join page it is allowed to become certified. That means the offer is easy to see, easy to understand, easy to uncheck and a decision to honestly be made by the buyer. If on the other hand, a site has a cross sale not shown on the join page, below the submit button, worded in a confusing way, with hard to read text, using a box that can not be unchecked... or any of hundreds of other potential scam methods are use... that site will be rejected when it is inspected and will not be able to display a website secure seal. 3) Some Honest Sites Are Not WebsiteSecure It is very important to point out that nobody can police the entire internet. Each buyer still must be responsible to pay attention, to report problems and to be vigilant. WebsiteSecure ONLY inspects the sites that request an inspection from us. That means many sites out there which we have never inspected might be perfectly honest. However, when you do see a WebsiteSecure Certification seal on a site, you can always be sure it is ethical because we inspected it and we monitor all of the sites we certify to make sure they remain ethical as long as they display our seal. These seals are not a perfect solution. We do not live in a perfect world. However, they are infinitely better than doing nothing about the many scam sites that exist. Our goal is to help honest sites find honest customers... which means that they will also earn more business. In time, as being honest helps more and more site owners earn more money, the scam sites will begin to learn that it pays to be ethical. Of course, YOUR help is greatly appreciated. If you ever see any site displaying a WebsiteSecure seal and doing anything you believe to be unethical in any way... notify us. You can use the simple form on our site and you can send the information with your name or completely anonymously. We investigate all feedback about the sites we inspect and if we do find any inspected site trying to bend the rules (which so far has never happened), we are prepared to take very strong action against them. Sites that are WebsiteSecure Certified signup because they understand that their long term success relies on repeat business from ethical customers who got treated fairly by their online products. They also understand that scammers are hurting the entire adult industry - ruining relationships with honest porn buyers and damaging the credibility of all porn sites... not just their own. WebsiteSecure is one important step toward fixing the problem. PornUsers.com and TheBestPorn.com are another excellent step in doing the same thing. When every porn user gets treated fairly by the paysites they join (charged exactly what they were told they would be charged the way they would be charged) and every pornsite owner is treated fairly by users (no password sharing, no torrents, no credit card fraud by buyers) we will have accomplished our goal. I do apologize for the long reply, Website Secure is something I feel very passionate about. As a porn site membership buyer I know what it feels like to be scammed... and that is part of the reason WebsiteSecure has agreed to do business in the adult market as well as the mainstream sites we also work to secure. If any of your questions have not been fully answered please let me know. Thanks, WebsiteSecure.org | |
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| 02-05-10 12:11am - 5435 days | #3 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended  Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
I really appreciate your detailed answer. You have enlightened me about some things I never knew and could not have imagined. It is great to know that pornland has some ethics and that you guys are trying to make it even more ethical. | |
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| 02-05-10 12:05pm - 5434 days | #4 | |
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Wittyguy (0)
Active User Posts: 1,138 Registered: Feb 04, '08 Location: Left Coast, USA |
x Edited on Apr 20, 2023, 01:57pm | |
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| 02-05-10 02:22pm - 5434 days | #5 | |
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Website Secure (0)
Active Webmaster Posts: 5 Registered: Feb 04, '10 Location: New York |
TheBestPorn and PornUsers deserves a lot of credit for stepping up and including certification notifications on their reviews. That's more proof that TBP and PU are always doing what they can to protect honest buyers and promote honest paysites. If ever you have any questions or feedback you can send them through the WebsiteSecure.org website or email Contact@WebsiteSecure.org and we will do our best to assist you. | |
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