Porn text advertising causing stir

[Squirt]

"Absolutely disgusting," said Lisa Kelly as she shows messages on her cell phone. "Extremely offensive."

In February, the South Jersey wife and mother couldn't stop pornographic text messages coming up on her phone all day long. She called the NBC 10 Investigators because she had to pay for the messages, too.

"I would love to find out who and where they're coming from," Kelly said.

The NBC 10 Investigators found out that one of the Web sites that sent her a text message was R.S. Duffy in Philadelphia.

The address for R.S. Duffy on South Eighth Street was actually home a National Watch & Diamond Exchange jewelry store. It appeared our search had hit a dead end.

Then, computer savvy viewer Noah Webster called us saying, "I saw your story on NBC 10."

"Within half an hour, I found the actual owners," Webster said.

He showed the elusive trail he uncovered on the Internet, beginning with R.S. Duffy at the same address as the National Watch & Diamond Exchange. State records showed the National Watch & Diamond Exchange is owned by Richard Cohen, who is also the CEO of a major Philadelphia company right around the corner at Seventh and Chestnut streets called National A1 Advertising.

"They're the leading provider of phone sex lines, chat lines," Webster said.

A representative for A1 said the company is one of the largest Internet distributors of adult entertainment in the world. The company owns HotMovies.com, providing X-rated movies to over 5 million customers.

"I don't know if I'm free to talk about anything," an employee said on the street.

Employees of A1 wouldn't talk on camera, and neither would Cohen, but we asked about the text messages.

In an e-mail he wrote: "We never, ever would do something like this... We have nothing to do with it... It is another company that we have no relation to. We do get a commission but it's not much." FULL STORY

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I didn't know that people receiving TXT messages had to pay for them. I know Pornteam and some others were discussing TXT porn marketing, does this affect your outlook on it's effectiveness and the problems that could result?

[wnc]

Like the old days Squirt when people got unwanted advertisements on FAX machines, which cost paper and ink... some phone companies charge a fee for each text incoming message.

[PornTeam]

not for me, if we do it, it will be for those who want it. some people do have to pay a per text message. but there are others like me where it is included in my account.

We would treat this option of marketing just like out double opt-in email list. users would have to subscribe to the service for updates on our site.

This story sounds like someone is spamming random phone numbers with text messages.

C

[coctronic]

Here in the USA we have a do not call list established by the government and cellphone numbers may be placed on it.

A US company planning to engage in this type of campaign should certainly procede with caution, and do research to determine how the do not call registry requirements may apply to their individual situation.

There are some steep fines for even small violations of this legislation.

I'm not sure if it would apply to text messages to a phone or not.

[James_Hotmovies]

Texting unwanted text ads to cell phones is definitly bad business practice. I'm not sure how it happened, but I know it had nothing to do with HotMovies or GayHotmovies.

I treat my customers like Gold. I will never and have never given customer information to any third party companies.


wnc - I still get ads on my fax. Not nearly as bad as in the 90's, but one or two a week.

[Madame0120]

wnc - I still get ads on my fax. Not nearly as bad as in the 90's, but one or two a week.

Menus? :chef:

[Madame0120]

I posted this thread on my favorite PSO board, and this is one of the responces. I asked there, cause it is their industry and the best to dispell missinformation. This comes from Miss Wamhottie:

Its against our regulations here in the US to send any adult content through a text message. FCC regulates that. For some reason its illegal to type in any kind of dirty message in the US and can carrys huge fines. Large enough to close a company down. Any text company I have ever worked for thats legitimate would flip out for spamming americans with gay porn. I can't even imagine what this person is thinking! Its just the law really and shouldn't be happening. Edit to add: when Texting a US customer you can't even use profanity of any kind what so ever. Sucks really cause they can say whatever the hell pleases them.

[DonMike]

You know what really burns my ass about stuff like this? The media always makes it look like the porn companies are always looking for ways to force porn on unsuspecting people, especially women and children. Nobody ever says, "is this bad marketing" or "could this company have made an error" or "let's find out if this is the practice of this company". It's always this idea that we're this nameless, faceless monster, like the guy who's wearing nothing but a trench coat and jumping out of alleyways to expose ourselves to old ladies.

[James_Hotmovies]

And it's not like we're trying to hide.

we have the info on our site.

http://gayhotmovies.com/mission.php

I'm guessing the press saw it considering they used the image in their story.

[PornTeam]

Its against our regulations here in the US to send any adult content through a text message. FCC regulates that. For some reason its illegal to type in any kind of dirty message in the US and can carrys huge fines. Large enough to close a company down. Any text company I have ever worked for thats legitimate would flip out for spamming americans with gay porn. I can't even imagine what this person is thinking! Its just the law really and shouldn't be happening. Edit to add: when Texting a US customer you can't even use profanity of any kind what so ever. Sucks really cause they can say whatever the hell pleases them.

This is interesting, I asked my lawyer about it (have not heard anything back yet) I'm going to forward this over to him as well and have them too into it.

What is interesting, is what if the end user wanted to get it? I can totally understand spamming them with unwanted porn. But, if they ask for it? :uhoh:

[Squirt]

Ha ha ha so YOU'RE the culprit :bunny:

Is it true that any publicity is good publicity?

And it's not like we're trying to hide.

we have the info on our site.

http://gayhotmovies.com/mission.php

I'm guessing the press saw it considering they used the image in their story.