Age verification by credit card - am i right or wrong ?

As far as i see it it's a big no no to say you have to pay to get in a site to 'verify your age' with a credit card ?

If i am right on this then...

I bumped into a very big site and noticed they used a fairly well known processor for doing their adult business with.

I approached the processing company to see what their rates were and got a flat 'we have a strict no adult content policy'

I did a google search and fired back that that was obviously not the case.

They then asked to call me on the phone - i replied not really useful as the confidence in the company now was minimal.

They then replied back that because the companies had 'direct merchant accounts' that is why they process payments for them.

Now these sites that use this processing company are big corporate companies – and their payment/upgrade systems are clearly saying TO VERIFY YOUR AGE

If I am right about the whole visa / cannot use credit card to verify age thing – then I see this as big companies flouting the rules (and their processor allowing them too) which can only hurt the adult industry in the long term by putting a bee in the bonnet of visa.

If I am wrong and its cool, then can someone tell me so

Well i always thought that VISA had said that having a VISA number didn't verify your age, but Basschick once stated that a court had said it did (i think that's right - maybe she will correct me if I've misquoted her!).

I read Epochs compliance and they state that VISA wont allow this.

I remember the AVS's telling us to remove any text that states a password is required to verify age on the basis of the then new rules.

VISA do sell numbers to kids, so from a practical stand point, just having a VISA number doesn't make you 18.

Visa and MC are credit companies, not age verification systems. There is no way they would accept legal responsibility for age verification. The "age verify by cc" line is an old one that got taken off most websites when rules changed a few years back. I am guessing that since these larger companies run their own merchant accounts they never got scrutinized like smaller websites running thru ccbill/epoch or other ipsp services did.

Thanks guys, thought I was thinking right (ya never know in this biz if as things change so fast)

So would you say its the processor for these companies responibility to still ensure they comply with the cc rules ?

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Originally Posted by sockstars

So would you say its the processor for these companies responibility to still ensure they comply with the cc rules ?

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If they are running their own merchant accounts, then the "processor" (ie, netbilling, ccbill, epoch, etc) is not acting as an ipsp but only as a gateway to enable real-time processing and membership userid/pass generation. So I think they would not be responsible, but instead it would be between the company and the merchant account issuing bank, and prolly directly with the company and visa/mc.

Also, lets not forget that 'verify your age with a credit card' more often than no means 'we have a free trial but as soon as you enter your CC info we're gonna charge you anyway' ;)

Regards,

Lee