Internet Billing Company

Firm Seeks to Recover Millions On Behalf Of IBill & Etelegate Merchants

Posted on 2006-12-16

CYBERSPACE -- On January 16th, during the Internext show, Merchant Risk is organizing a seminar in Las Vegas for all merchants that have been affected by IBill`s and Etelegate`s business practices.

Merchants will learn more about Merchant Risk, their approach to recoveries and how to participate in the IBill and Etelegate recovery. Participation in the seminar is without any obligation and there is no minimum collection amount. “Given the number of merchants affected by both IBill and Etelegate’s terrible business practices, we are confident we will! have enough merchants to initiate a recovery” states Phil Thompson, account manager at Merchant Risk.

“We are hoping for a strong turn-out, so that we can move forward with momentum and a clear mandate to recover” states Thompson.

Merchant Risk, Recovery & Intelligence was created to assist with asset recovery in cases of fraud. The firm has created a global network of attorneys, investigators, and forensic accountants that allow it to locate assets & funds, and subsequently recover those assets on behalf of its clients.

This vast network allows Merchant Risk, Recovery & Intelligence to manage multiple cases across the globe, without regard to geopolitical boundaries. The firm has successfully recovered client assets in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Phil Thompson
Merchant Risk Recovery & Intelligence
phil.thompson@mrrii.com
1.800.558.9360 xt 113


 

• 1Internet Billing Company iBill
• 2Porn Billing Leak Exposes Buyers
• 3iBill Empty Promises
• 4Links

[top]Internet Billing Company iBill

Source: iBill-Sucks or Etelegate Sucks

iBill processes online credit card orders for thousands of websites around the world. These are generally small businesses that cannot generally afford to obtain their own merchant account, or businesses operating in a high risk online market, who have hired iBill to process their orders. In return iBill takes up to nearly 20 percent off the top for themselves, plus another 10 percent for reserves, for a whopping 30 percent that iBill removes from the customer. And for what? The process takes only a minute and a third of the gross sale is gone, eaten up by iBill. Okay, that leaves around 70 percent for the small business to operate. Right?

Wrong. How about ZERO percent? iBill is now taking all of the money, including that 70 percent, for a total of 100% and giving the starving client, the business which earned all of the money from their own customers, zilch, nothing. Oh, iBill promises to pay but those promises have been empty for months. iBill breaks those same promises weekly, daily, without shame and without any believable explanation. iBill's clients have no choice but to sit and wait to be evicted from their shots, or from their home in the case of the mom and pop home business, or find another processor. Unfortunately, that change can take up to four months and the prospects are dim. iBill knows this and is cashing in at the expense of the unsophisticated website business. From what we have learned, iBill has an incredible distaste for any small businesses. They take their hard earned bucks and leave them out in the cold. Yes, I know this sounds inflated, but it is not. As far as trust goes, iBill is the epitome of evil in the online processing market.

iBill was told early in 2004 by First Data (the company which controls iBill's account) that iBill's merchant with First Data would soon be terminated and that they, iBill, should make plans to find another relationship with another bank. iBill ignored the warning from First Data until it was too late. iBill lied to their customers about what had happened and ended up with little or no money to pay their website businesses (webmasters), mostly small businesses where their online sales account for 100 percent of their income which is no zero. iBill is forcing an incredible number of businesses into financial ruin and bankruptcy.

iBill is not paying clients, and they are now under investigation by the US Justice Department. iBill has always refused to take responsibility. However, there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. An Appellate Court has, in essence, indicated the problem was iBill's alone. There is really no doubt that iBill is the guilty party here, responsible for thousands of their clients going unpaid, lying to them, secretly planning to coax these same clients to hand over more of their money but with no plan but promises to replay them. There's a word for this. THEFT. Felony theft. If iBill is not stopped, they will undoubtedly continue to lie and steal from their customers, from their clients, and from their stock investors. But the equally important problem is that iBill refused to communicate with their client in any meaningful manner. That problem also continues.

Initially respected, iBill has become one of the most reviled, despised, mistrusted, and suspicious companies on the Internet, with business practices reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

When we first got wind of this story, we were rather hesitant; it seemed just another company with big financial problems. Once our investigation went deeper we found a company totally incapable of being honest, decent, or with any intent to communicate with their clients except on a distant, dismissive level. iBill hides their problems in a deceptive online pretense of communication. They offer only childish statements to their client website businesses. Current and previous examples demonstrate that iBill has absolutely no intention of keeping promises to their clients, the little mom and pop businesses who so desperately need to be paid for the money they have earned.

In today's world of the fast buck, smiles and promises come easily. A forced, painted smile works for a while, even with the largest business. But ultimately that kind of obsolete strategy fails because the customer looks elsewhere. At iBill there was hope. There was promise. But the seed began to rot within. The company forgot what was important. They got greedy. They became lazy, full of themselves. And they began to pretend they were treating the customer decently because they had all those corporate slogans to paste on their website. But ultimately successful slogans need heart, and honesty. Or they should. We'd like to say that iBill's way of dealing with customers, their lack of sincerity or empathy, is rarely successful. But we'd be wrong. Look around. The United States is filled with greed, populated by companies who fail because of greed. They ignore their clients by way of a veil of secrecy, dismissal, and indifference. At iBill, it seems the idea is to hide from the people for whom they have not paid millions of dollars. Is it possible that iBill may not even realize the truth? Are they incapable of seeing it as though they are flatlanders in a corporate cartoon world? Corporations like iBill become isolated in their own sense of what they paint as truth, yes. But there is no doubt in my mind that iBill knows what they are doing and doing so illegally, heartlessly, and without any concern for their clients and customers.

So, is this just big business as usual, the American Way? Is the only important factor the survival of the corporate entity? What about the human factor? Where are we headed as a nation? Where are our values? Apparently, iBill's strategy is to ignore their clients and cut the strings by which the client can contact them, take the money and run. Perhaps iBill believes the client will just fade away in ruin, desperate little people who don't matter.


Internet Billing Company (iBill): Sex, Lies, and Credit Cards

by Lawrence Kiminski

The New York Daily Times

Portland, Oregon, January 19, 2005

Remember Enron? Fade to black. Now think iBill, that is, Internet Billing Company, the world's largest online credit card processor, and apparently one of the largest purveyors of false promises mixed with alleged criminal theft on a massive scale.

iBill processes online credit card orders for thousands of websites around the world. These are generally small businesses that cannot generally afford to obtain their own merchant account, or businesses operating in a high risk online market, who have hired iBill to process their orders. In return iBill takes up to nearly 20 percent off the top for themselves, plus another 10 percent for reserves, for a whopping 30 percent that iBill removes from the customer. And for what? The process takes only a minute and a third of the gross sale is gone, eaten up by iBill. Okay, that leaves around 70 percent for the small business to operate. Right?

Wrong. How about ZERO percent? iBill is now taking all of the money, including that 70 percent, for a total of 100% and giving the starving client, the business which earned all of the money from their own customers, zilch, nothing. Oh, iBill promises to pay but those promises have been empty for months. iBill breaks those same promises weekly, daily, without shame and without any believable explanation. iBill's clients have no choice but to sit and wait to be evicted from their shots, or from their home in the case of the mom and pop home business, or find another processor. Unfortunately, that change can take up to four months and the prospects are dim. iBill knows this and is cashing in at the expense of the unsophisticated website business. From what we have learned, iBill has an incredible distaste for any small businesses. They take their hard earned bucks and leave them out in the cold. Yes, I know this sounds inflated, but it is not. As far as trust goes, iBill is the epitome of evil in the online processing market.

iBill was told early in 2004 by First Data (the company which controls iBill's account) that iBill's merchant with First Data would soon be terminated and that they, iBill, should make plans to find another relationship with another bank. iBill ignored the warning from First Data until it was too late. iBill lied to their customers about what had happened and ended up with little or no money to pay their website businesses (webmasters), mostly small businesses where their online sales account for 100 percent of their income which is no zero. iBill is forcing an incredible number of businesses into financial ruin and bankruptcy.

iBill is not paying clients, and they are now under investigation by the US Justice Department. iBill has always refused to take responsibility. However, there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. An Appellate Court has, in essence, indicated the problem was iBill's alone. There is really no doubt that iBill is the guilty party here, responsible for thousands of their clients going unpaid, lying to them, secretly planning to coax these same clients to hand over more of their money but with no plan but promises to replay them. There's a word for this. THEFT. Felony theft. If iBill is not stopped, they will undoubtedly continue to lie and steal from their customers, from their clients, and from their stock investors. But the equally important problem is that iBill refused to communicate with their client in any meaningful manner. That problem also continues.

Initially respected, iBill has become one of the most reviled, despised, mistrusted, and suspicious companies on the Internet, with business practices reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

When we first got wind of this story, we were rather hesitant; it seemed just another company with big financial problems. Once our investigation went deeper we found a company totally incapable of being honest, decent, or with any intent to communicate with their clients except on a distant, dismissive level. iBill hides their problems in a deceptive online pretense of communication. They offer only childish statements to their client website businesses. Current and previous examples demonstrate that iBill has absolutely no intention of keeping promises to their clients, the little mom and pop businesses who so desperately need to be paid for the money they have earned.

In today's world of the fast buck, smiles and promises come easily. A forced, painted smile works for a while, even with the largest business. But ultimately that kind of obsolete strategy fails because the customer looks elsewhere. At iBill there was hope. There was promise. But the seed began to rot within. The company forgot what was important. They got greedy. They became lazy, full of themselves. And they began to pretend they were treating the customer decently because they had all those corporate slogans to paste on their website. But ultimately successful slogans need heart, and honesty. Or they should. We'd like to say that iBill's way of dealing with customers, their lack of sincerity or empathy, is rarely successful. But we'd be wrong. Look around. The United States is filled with greed, populated by companies who fail because of greed. They ignore their clients by way of a veil of secrecy, dismissal, and indifference. At iBill, it seems the idea is to hide from the people for whom they have not paid millions of dollars. Is it possible that iBill may not even realize the truth? Are they incapable of seeing it as though they are flatlanders in a corporate cartoon world? Corporations like iBill become isolated in their own sense of what they paint as truth, yes. But there is no doubt in my mind that iBill knows what they are doing and doing so illegally, heartlessly, and without any concern for their clients and customers.

So, is this just big business as usual, the American Way? Is the only important factor the survival of the corporate entity? What about the human factor? Where are we headed as a nation? Where are our values? Apparently, iBill's strategy is to ignore their clients and cut the strings by which the client can contact them, take the money and run. Perhaps iBill believes the client will just fade away in ruin, desperate little people who don't matter.

Well, the client is just the fiber of this country, that's all! It is time for a publication to take a chance, go all the way, and expose the nasty culprits for what they are. So, let's state this for the record:

IBill was recently acquired by Penthouse International who later dropped them reportedly because of quality disagreements of iBill’s former CIO, David Hackney, and even former CEO John Perry who still remains reluctant to discuss the major problems at iBill, apparently from fear of being handed a subpoena to testify in either a civil or criminal case. The list of possible iBill turncoats includes Todd Moran and Mark Smith, the later former head of sales for iBill. There are so many former officers one wonders how many hours it takes for the new arrivals to come up to speed. iBill senior vice president for marketing Cathy Beardsley may have been bumped up to President of the Company. More later on this. But others who have either left iBill, are in hiding, or who have been misplaced include:

Andrea Ebanks
Bert Metcalf
Crystal Corbie
Dave Kulkowski
Dave Welborn
Enrique Cosme
Garrett Bender
Henry Borja
Joe Delekto
Kevin Oppenheimer
Luis Ziegenhirt
Petrus van Staden
Scott Barry
Todd Moran

The list is perhaps seven or eight times larger. More on this later.

Thousands of clients are reportedly in the process of organizing a class action law suit against Internet Billing Company and their associates which could eventually make iBill stock worthless, or forcing them into chapter 11. It seems apparent that iBill has no intention of paying many or possibly any of their website businesses who so heavily need the money they earned.

How much do iBill stockholders understand about these problems? What about Law Enforcement? We have several inside sources at iBill. There's no money exchanged for the information given to us by these sources. There is additional information, a growing network of evidence to support the sources.

The problems at iBill are so intense, so paramount that the corporate structure is crumbling. But the corporate website displays what appears to be a calm and professional demeanor with no mention of pending doom. Even inside the high walls of corporate iBill, where website clients gain access to their “CMI” accounts, the iBill NEWS continues to assert that all is okay or repeatedly promising payment, time and again, over and over, ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

Officers of the Internet Billing Company are making bets on which client will pull out next, away from iBill. If iBill manages to hold off what seems to be the inevitable, the net result will be a downgraded company which has lost nearly all respect in the credit card processing business. Financial interest in the company will certainly dwindle, shareholders are certain to get the drift and terminate corporate officers.

We use to have faith in large corporations, that, in the long run, it would all make sense, that these business people could not possibly be that bad, be so insensitive, corrupt, with such a disregard for anyone but themselves. Right? But messages from iBill to their clients (webmasters) have included the same empty promises of pending payments from unpaid accounts. Our sources tell us the problems originate directly from the president of the company and other corporate officers. There appears to be blatant mismanagement, on a massive scale, which is sure to land some of the corporate officers in debt, or worse, prison if what we have been told is true. The information on iBill's news website is hopelessly out of date. This is just about laughable. The strategy seems to be familiar if not juvenile; OUT OF SITE, OUT OF MIND.

From what we can tell, the problem was not First Data as iBill would claim. They gave iBill enough warning that they would not renew iBill's merchant account. But the problem with iBill goes all the way to the top, meanders like a dirty little snake to corporate officers like Greg May, Vice President in charge of iBill Sales. We have evidence suggesting Greg May has allegedly yet purposely given false information to clients in the hope of getting a few more dollars from his clients before they are forced to accept the inevitable: iBill will not pay their clients. We have copies of memos which highlight some rather nasty directions to lower staff.

Webmasters who call iBill, demanding payment and to simply talk to someone, are ignored by anyone at iBill who has any knowledge of what’s going on. Instead, the webmasters are sent to the same voice mail, or to Client Services. On behalf of one of our sources and with full knowledge of the what we were doing (the client was with us), we called iBill 32 separate times, insisting to speak with someone in the president’s office, or some officers, or someone who knew something. The client had not been paid. Their bank account was overdrawn because of iBill. Their very livelihood, their world was in jeopardy because iBill had not paid them for a long period. Each time we were sent to Client Services which means someone who has no information. On the way to Client Services, we were informed by a recording that Client Services would have no further information about payments not made to webmasters (website businesses). We were told to read the information in the CMI page. Unfortunately, there was no extra information on that page and the information which had been there earlier was wrong. Without any doubt, iBill was hiding from their creditors, refusing to talk to anyone about it. This is one of the most despicable acts any company can commit' first they steal your money, then they refuse to talk to you about it.

At Client Services, after insisting repeatedly that we needed more information, the poor employee, obviously reading from a prepared script, put us on hold and returned with a statement that the billing department had said that a check or wire transfer was on the way. Fine. What is the federal reference number? He had no idea. But we were told that the billing department would send an email to the customer within two hours which would include the CHIPS number.

It did not arrive. It never came. Nothing. More dead promises. More lies. We called the same Client Services rep and all he had to say was, “I’m sorry, but they have gone home for the day.” (The next day we called for the same information but the same Client Services rep told us that apparently he was wrong and, obviously embarrassed, apologized. But true to his training, he said iBill had made yet another promise that that the money would be sent next week.)

On their website, iBill had yet again updated the date to pay their clients. Note that this was now the fourth date change! That means iBill had made three separate promises and failed each time to make payment. We called again. The receptionist refused to answer. During the middle of the day, their time, iBill turned off their switchboard and refused to answer any incoming calls! The continued for the rest of the day.

That week came and went, and yet more promises were made, not for payment this time, but that perhaps there may be more information soon. That same tune has been played over and over at iBill. It is laughable. There was no apology, just the blatant arrogance by Internet Billing Company

Our investigation shows that this example is not an isolated case. There are literally thousands of clients to which iBill has lied. The problem is not just financial. The problem is misrepresentation, malfeasance, negligence, and criminal acts. We make these statements with the full intention of backing them up in a court of law.

The problem is so intense that Internet Billing Company stock could move downward quickly. However, that is not our intention. Our desire is to help Webmasters find a solution with iBill, perhaps help iBill to communicate with the Webmaster instead of leaving them hanging or posting some useless statement on their website. There is no one at iBill willing to talk to the website business manager, give them the truth. Let's be clear about this. iBill is lying to their clients. iBill is ignoring their clients.

We asked First Data about the problem. Here is their reply:

iBill processes online website orders. First Data is a billion dollar company that gave notice earlier last year that we would not extend iBill’s merchant agreement. It seems that iBill sought court intervention to require us to continue processing after the expiration of iBill's agreement, in lake September 2004. The court denied iBill's request for a preliminary injunction against First Data. First Data has not processed payments for iBill since that date.

First Data did exercise its rights to increase its security by the amount of transactions processed by iBill between September 16 and September 22, 2004. In doing so, First Data acted in accordance with its rights under its agreement with iBill and all applicable law. To the extent that any funds remain after resolution of iBill’s obligations to First Data, those funds will be released. Given the contingent nature of these obligations, however, the timing and amount (if any) of such release will depend upon iBill’s compliance with contractual requirements and Master Card and Visa rules and regulations.

We gave iBill a chance to reply, to correct the problem or communicate. We even sent a letter to their president and to their legal department. They have not denied these charges, and they have made no attempt to defend themselves or offer excuses which quickly changed the next day. It seems the corporate officers running iBill understand what they have done but they are too ashamed to speak.

We urge appropriate law enforcement authorities to look into possible charges against Internet Billing Company for theft, gross incompetence, fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, overcharging clients and possible Antitrust violations.

Of course, there is much more to this story which needs to unfold. We intend to follow and report it. In the meantime, we urge everyone to avoid Internet Billing Company. As difficult as it may seem, this problem will only get worse.


Note: As of September 2005, iBill has not cleaned up their act. They are still committing fraud, lying, cheating, and stealing from their customers. The shear fact that we can state this, openly, publicly, is decent evidence that iBill knows they cannot will any kind of law suit. It is time someone or something put these criminals out of their misery. Or is this just the American Way? I think not.

[top]Porn Billing Leak Exposes Buyers

by Quinn Norton 03.08.06 | 2:15 PM

Source: Wired News

Editor's note: Since publication of this article, iBill has spoken with Wired News. The company now says that the purportedly stolen database did not originate with iBill, and only three of the more than 17 million entries match past iBill customers. Asked to respond, Secure Science says it no longer believes that iBill was the source of the data. Read the full story below, see "Porn Biller Says It Was Framed".

Seventeen million customers of the online payment service iBill have had their personal information released onto the internet, where it's been bought and sold in a black market made up of fraud artists and spammers, security experts say.

The stolen data, examined by Wired News, includes names, phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses and internet IP addresses. Other fields in the compromised databases appear to be logins and passwords, credit-card types and purchase amounts, but credit-card numbers are not included.

The breach has broad privacy implications for the victims. Until it was brought low by legal and financial difficulties, iBill was a top credit-card processor for adult entertainment websites -- providing billing services for such outlets as DominaBDSM and Top-Nude.com.

The transactions documented in the database are dated between 1998 and 2003, spanning a period at the height of iBill's success.

The company didn't respond to repeated e-mail and telephone inquires by Wired News.

Two caches of stolen iBill customer data were discovered separately by two security companies while conducting routine research into malicious software online.

Southern California-based Secure Science Corporation found the first data file containing records on 17 million individuals on a private website set up by scammers. The site was part of a so-called "phishing" scheme, in which a spamming fraudster poses as a bank or online retailer in an attempt to con consumers out of identification and financial information.

Secure Science found that data in February 2005, and reported it to the FBI's Miami field office, the company says. The FBI declined comment.

Last month, Sunbelt Software found an additional list of slightly over 1 million individual entries labeled Ibill_1m.txt on a spamming website. That list appeared to date from 2003.

IBill has a troubled history. Founded in 1997 by executives of a Florida-based BBS software developer, by 2002 iBill was a big player in internet billing, processing approximately $400 million in credit card transactions per year, according to SEC filings. The company took 15 percent off the top in fees. Todd Dugas, a former inside sales representative for iBill, estimates that pornography made up 85 percent of the business.

But when Atlanta-based InterCept acquired iBill for $120 million in 2002, it immediately encountered problems. New rules from Visa made it more complicated and costly to process adult website transactions, and "accounts dropped like flies," says Dugas. Meanwhile MasterCard levied $5.85 million in fines against iBill for an unusually high volume of "charge backs" -- consumer-disputed charges -- though InterCept managed to recoup most of the fine from iBill's previous owners.

In September 2004, iBill lost the contract with its upstream credit-card processor, First Data, which had grown wary of being associated with adult content. Website operators relying on iBill for payments had to wait months for their checks while First Data held the money in escrow. Roger Jacobs, who followed the story of iBill for adult industry publications AVN and XBiz, described low morale and a hemorrhaging of employees during this period.

Lance James of Secure Science and Adam Thomas of Sunbelt Software speculate that the company's troubles may have left them vulnerable to information embezzlement: The breach, they say, has all the markings of an inside job. The files appear to have been generated by exporting an SQL database into a CSV format -- a procedure that would be unusually extravagant for a quick, furtive hack attack. Moreover, at 4.5 gigabytes in size, the larger file would have been tough to download unnoticed over iBill's internet connection.

Thomas speculates that an employee or other insider may have simply walked out of iBill with the transaction records to sell on the data black market.

What happened with the records from there is anyone's guess. The 1 million addresses found by Sunbelt Software were being used for spamming. Sunbelt found the database by tracing malware-infected computers as they connected to the internet to refresh their list of spam targets. The target list turned out to be the iBill database, hosted on a rogue website.

Secure Science's James says the 17 million database entries he found is prime data for spamming, phishing attacks, pretext phone calls and even possible hacking of vulnerable computers at the IP addresses listed.

Independently, Wired News found that entries from the smaller cache are listed as mortgage leads on a spammer community site, specialham.com. (The website's homepage offered no contact information and Wired News was unable to reach the registered owner of the domain, one "Juice Wobble.") This suggests that the database was marketed as a lead list for outside businesses. "I can attest to the fact that this goes on with phishing groups," says James. "They break in and steal leads and then sell those leads to (black market) leads companies, who resell them to legitimate companies, and sometimes the same companies they stole them from."

"The fact that a total of 17,781,462 iBill records have been found in the hands of criminal hackers is quite disturbing, be it an inside job or the successful work of criminal hackers," says Thomas.

Contacted by Wired News, one of the victims of the breach expressed dismay that his information was in the hands of criminals. The 41-year-old San Diego man says he allowed a "business partner" to use his credit card on an adult website dedicated to finding resources in Tijuana's red light district, with discussion groups and locations of prostitutes.

"Life is difficult enough," says the victim. "It makes the net that much less secure in my eyes... I plan to not use any credit card information on any site."

The man says that neither iBill nor the FBI notified him of the breach.

Because the information didn't include Social Security, credit-card or driver's-license numbers, no U.S. laws require iBill or the companies for which they provided billing to warn victims. A year after the FBI first learned of the larger leak, they have also failed to issue any public warnings.

In January of last year, iBill was purchased by Interactive Brand Development for $23.5 million. On Monday, IBD's stock closed at 8 cents a share in over-the-counter trading.


Porn Biller Says It Was Framed

Quinn Norton 03.09.06 | 3:00 PM

Source: Wired News

Online payment company iBill on Thursday said a massive cache of stolen consumer data uncovered by security experts did not come from its database.

"I'm the first person that would have taken this to the FBI and the first person to have gone on 60 Minutes to say 'we screwed up,' if that were the case," said iBill President Gary Spaniak Jr.

Two caches of stolen data were discovered separately by two security companies while conducting routine research into malicious software online. Both had file names that purportedly linked them to iBill.

Southern California-based Secure Science Corporation found the first data file containing records on 17 million individuals on a private website set up by scammers. The site was part of a so-called "phishing" scheme, in which a spamming fraudster poses as a bank or online retailer in an attempt to con consumers out of identification and financial information.

Secure Science found that data in February 2005, and reported it to the FBI's Miami field office, the company says. An additional list of slightly over 1 million individual entries was uncovered on a spamming website by Sunbelt Software last month, where it was labeled Ibill_1m.txt. That list appeared to date from 2003.

The databases, examined by Wired News, include names, phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses and internet IP addresses of customers making online purchases. Other fields in the compromised databases appear to be logins and passwords, credit-card types and purchase amounts, but credit-card numbers are not included.

But Spaniak says iBill cross referenced the 17 million transaction database against its own on Wednesday, and that only three e-mail addresses matched between the two.

Additionally, some entries in the stolen databases were identified as purchases on Diner's Club cards, which iBill says it has never accepted in its nine year history. Spaniak says iBill recently passed a security audit that found its databases well secured.

SunBelt Software couldn't immediately be reached for comment Thursday. But Secure Science's Lance James backed away from his conclusion that iBill, which processes most of its transactions on behalf of adult services, was the source of the leak. He says pornography transaction databases may be considered especially desirable to spammers, and that a criminal may have deliberately mislabeled a database taken from another source "This might be part of a new hacker establishing their reputation," says James. "They could say, 'I hacked iBill.'"

Wired News found that entries from the smaller cache of one million consumers are listed as mortgage leads on a spammer community site, specialham.com. A Google search turns up scores of offers on specialham.com for purported iBill databases, one of them advertising "20mill ibill list w/Full data from 2003" for $300. But in one message, a spammer slams an underground vendor for selling him a fake iBill list.

Other offers on the site purport to sell data from competing internet billing firm CCBill, which says that it isn't aware of having been breached either.

Spaniak has his own theory on why a data thief might falsely link a database to iBill. He believes it's an outgrowth of animosity in the adult website community dating from the time when the trouble-plagued company was forced to suspend payments to its webmaster customers.

He says as long as iBill stays in business, it will try to repay those webmasters. "Over $20 million has been paid back, we have plans for paying back another $18 million."

James says the actual source of the stolen data remains a mystery. An FBI spokeswoman says the bureau wouldn't investigate the breach unless the source of the leak comes forward to make a complaint.

[top]iBill Empty Promises

Notice how iBill makes empty promises by subtlety making the same promise over and again. Each time the promise expires but is then replaced by another promise. We feel this is only part of the evidence of fraud and misrepresentation.

Payout Update
On Thursday January 20, 2005 an update will be provided on 01/01/05 & 01/15/05 US payouts, 01/05/05 & 01/19/05 EU payouts, past due EU reserves, 01/08/05 RevShare payout and 12/26/04 Catalog payout. Thank you again for your continued support. We look forward to resuming a reliable payout schedule with you and earning your business. We will continue to update you as we move forward.

Update: EU Payout Check Date 12/19/04
We are continuing to work though the delay in a large portion of the 12/19/04 EU Payout. (Please see below for details.) As previously communicated, a significant amount of settlement funds are in the process of being remitted to iBill. We were expecting those funds to be received by mid-week. However, we now expect that process to take until Friday of this week.

To expedite the situation we are working closely with our EU processor to move the funds here as quickly as possible in order for payments to be made.

Once the settlement is received we will fund the remainder of the 12/19 payout. Another update on past due EU amounts will be provided on Thursday January 20, 2005.

Please be advised there is a problem with a large portion of our EU payments. iBill had recently been committed a significant credit facility to help fund operational issues as well as meet our payout commitment date. Unfortunately, a portion of the funding has been delayed which has impacted our ability to completely fund the 12/19 EU semi monthly payout. In addition, we were required to establish a new European operational bank account. This requirement forced our EU processing funds to be held for several weeks making it extremely difficult to meet all of our EU payouts. This account is now open; however the initial process to receive the funds will take several days to fund to the final iBill account. We are expecting a significant amount of processing funds to be remitted to iBill by mid next week. We will provide you an update on Friday, January 14th.

The 01/05/05 EU payout and past due EU reserves will be funded in January; an update on these payout dates will be provided on January 19, 2005

As iBill has regrouped, we have had to establish a number of new business relationships. As a result, there have been several set backs and challenges. We hope to have these all behind us and continue to thank all of you for your support.

US Payout Check Date 12/15/04
Please be advised that the US payout for check date 12/15/04 was processed and paid on January 11, 2005.

The statement for this check date is currently visible in CMI. US Clients can go to the Accounting section of CMI and select check date 12/15/04 to view the details of this payout.

The 01/01/05 US payout and Catalog transactions will be funded in January. An update on payout dates will be provided on January 18, 2005. Thank you again for your continued support. We look forward to resuming a reliable payout schedule with you and earning your business. We will continue to update you as we move forward.

RevShare Payout Check Dates 12/08/04 & 12/22/04
Please be advised that the RevShare payout for check dates 12/08/04 and 12/22/04 was processed and paid on January 5, 2005.

The statement for these check dates is currently visible in CMI. RevSharers can go to the Accounting section of CMI and select check date 12/22/04 to view the details of this combined payout.

gkard is Here
Buying and selling content on the Web just got a whole lot easier, introducing the gkard, a virtual, pre-paid VISA Electronic card. The gkard allows your consumers to seamlessly load funds using either a VISA or MasterCard to a private virtual stored value VISA Electronic debit card.

Webmasters can take advantage of a variety of benefits by using the gkard solution.

Prepaid, VISA compliant debit solution

Automatic Rebill Processing

NO VISA Fees

Easy Setup

To learn about gkard click here or click the gkard banner above to get your gkard button coding.

Promissory Note
On Monday, December 6, 2004 clients were given the option to log in to the Merchant Info area to choose how they wanted past due transactions to be repaid.

To select your payment option, please log in to the Merchant Info area and select the appropriate SMID. Next, click the “Learn more about past due payment options” link to select your payment plan. Once you select the payment plan for the selected SMID click on the submit button. You will need to choose the appropriate payment plan for each SMID.

Another update will be posted to let clients know when the Merchant Info link will be updated to include the promissory note that can be printed, signed and faxed back to iBill. This last step will conclude the promissory note process.

New Client Service Hours
Dear iBill Client,
As a result of recent changes within our organization, the eBusiness Support (Client Service) Department has had to re-evaluate its operational strategy to better serve the needs of our clients.

Beginning Saturday November 20, 2004 our new hours of Client Service support will be Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. This change is just a temporary measure as 24/7 service is expected to resume in the New Year. Please be assured that this change does NOT affect our 24/7 operations center so live transaction monitoring will continue as usual.

This effort to align service associates with high call volume times will allow clients to experience shorter wait times and a better quality of service. You should experience improved service levels during week-days. All clients calling outside of the short term business hours will have the option to leave a voice message and a service associate will return all calls on the following business day.

Lastly, please continue to look to CMI for the most up to date payout information. Posts will be made whenever there is new information to share.

We thank you for understanding during this temporary change and we look forward to providing you with a better quality of service.

Thank you,
Your iBill Service Team

Clients & RevSharers: Cashing of Checks Dated October 29, 2004 or Earlier
iBill has established a new commercial banking relationship for all of our day to day business requirements including Client and RevShare payouts. If a check is returned by your bank, please contact [iBill email] for re-issuance.

[top]Links

iBill - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Porn Billing Leak Exposes Buyers - by Quinn Norton, WIRED Magazine

Internet Porn Gets A New Banker - Forbes.com

iBill: Sex, Lies, and Credit Cards - by Lawrence Kiminski, The New York Daily Times staff reporter



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