MasterCard stops allowing charges for Backpage.com sex ads

[escapefromstress]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/30/usa-chicago-prostitution-credit-idUSL1N0ZG31720150630

MasterCard said on Tuesday that its credit cards can no longer be used to pay for ads on the Backpage.com website, following a request from a Chicago law enforcement official who said the site is used by sex traffickers.

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said that so-called "escort" ads on Backpage.com and similar sites make up the foundation of the sex trafficking industry, which preys on the young and vulnerable. He has asked both Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc to cut off any association with the Backpage.com "adult" section.

"Backpage has significantly lowered the barrier to entry for would-be traffickers," said Dart, adding he will reveal details of a larger initiative against Backpage at a news conference on Wednesday.

MasterCard spokesman Seth Eisen said in an email that the company has rules that prohibit its cards from being used for illegal or brand-damaging activities.

Backpage is a classified advertising website that offers forums to find roommates and sell goods, like other sites, but its primary revenue stream is through its adult page, according to Dart's office.

An attorney for Backpage.com was not immediately available for comment.

Cook County Sheriff's police have made more than 800 arrests since 2009 stemming from Backpage ads, including an arrest for juvenile sex trafficking just last month, according to Dart's office.

American Express Co has already stopped allowing its credit cards to be used for "adult" ads on Backpage.com, company spokeswoman Sanette Chao said.

"We can terminate card acceptance for any merchant that we deem harmful to our brand, illegal or high risk," Chao said.

The only remaining options to pay for Backpage adult ads are Visa credit cards and bitcoin, an electronic currency, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said.

No response was immediately available from Visa.

 

[Tabitha]

Hmmmm

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/30/usa-chicago-prostitution-credit-idUSL1N0ZG31720150630

MasterCard said on Tuesday that its credit cards can no longer be used to pay for ads on the Backpage.com website, following a request from a Chicago law enforcement official who said the site is used by sex traffickers.

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said that so-called "escort" ads on Backpage.com and similar sites make up the foundation of the sex trafficking industry, which preys on the young and vulnerable. He has asked both Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc to cut off any association with the Backpage.com "adult" section.

"Backpage has significantly lowered the barrier to entry for would-be traffickers," said Dart, adding he will reveal details of a larger initiative against Backpage at a news conference on Wednesday.

MasterCard spokesman Seth Eisen said in an email that the company has rules that prohibit its cards from being used for illegal or brand-damaging activities.

Backpage is a classified advertising website that offers forums to find roommates and sell goods, like other sites, but its primary revenue stream is through its adult page, according to Dart's office.

An attorney for Backpage.com was not immediately available for comment.

Cook County Sheriff's police have made more than 800 arrests since 2009 stemming from Backpage ads, including an arrest for juvenile sex trafficking just last month, according to Dart's office.

American Express Co has already stopped allowing its credit cards to be used for "adult" ads on Backpage.com, company spokeswoman Sanette Chao said.

"We can terminate card acceptance for any merchant that we deem harmful to our brand, illegal or high risk," Chao said.

The only remaining options to pay for Backpage adult ads are Visa credit cards and bitcoin, an electronic currency, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said.

No response was immediately available from Visa.

I was wondering when I got the error message -"Declined Currency not supported by account configuration" this morning when I tried to use M/C for my ads. I googled it and never came up with anything, then when i added Backpage to the search I found this http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/06/30/mastercard-ceases-doing-business-backpage/29536177/ as you posted.

I guess I wont expect a reply from Backpage (I had sent them a contact form asking what was going on) must of just happened in the past few hours as it worked earlier....

 

[Sweet_Cherry]

I got the same "currency not supported by account configuration" when I tried to use my Scotia Debit Visa this morning, but I was able to "fund my account" and buy credits. My RBC Visa Debit stopped working with BP months ago, and I was told by RBC that they had blocked sites like BP. One of my girlfriends said that her TD Visa Debit stopped working as well.

Do those Vanilla MC/Visas still work?

 

[Hugh G Rekshun]

I suggest you ladies embrace bitcoin. The government can pressure discrete enterprises like the cc companies and banks to do its bidding but not bitcoin, as it is something like cash, electronic cash.

I would also like to suggest you accept bitcoin for your own services.

 

[escapefromstress]

Visa follows MasterCard, cuts off business with Backpage.com

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/07/01/visa-mastercard-stop-business-with-backpage/29558315/

CHICAGO -- Visa will not process transactions from online classified portal Backpage.com, the company announced Wednesday, after the sheriff from the second largest county in the United States asked it to end it's business relationship with company for "moral, social and legal" reasons.

The move comes a day after MasterCard announced it had ceased doing business with Backpage after receiving a similar call to action from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

The website has long been the target of politicians and law enforcement officials, who charge that the site has provided a cloak of anonymity for pimps and unnecessary ease for their customers who use the site to arrange meetings with prostitutes.

Despite the outrage, efforts to effectively shame the company or pass legislation to force the Texas-headquartered, Dutch-owned company to shut down its adult advertising have been unsuccessful.

Frustrated, Dart, whose county includes Chicago, instead pressured the credit card companies, which are essential to Backpage's livelihood.

Dart wrote to the top executives of MasterCard and Visa on Monday and called on the credit card companies to cease processing transactions of adult services ads from the company. The web site also includes plenty of legitimate listings, from people looking to rent apartments, sell a car or advertise a job opening.

"Visa's rules prohibit our network from being used for illegal activity," company spokesman John Earnhardt said in a statement. "Visa has a long history of working with law enforcement to safeguard the integrity of the payment system and we will continue to do so."

MasterCard said it followed its protocol of prohibiting its cards from being used for "illegal or brand-damaging activities" in making its decision.

"When the activity is confirmed, we work with the merchant's bank to resolve the situation," MasterCard spokesman Seth Eisen said. "Based on a request from the Cook County Sheriff's Office, we contacted Backpage's acquiring bank about the issue. They have advised us that they are terminating acceptance at this time."

American Express stopped doing business with Backpage earlier this year, spokeswoman Sanette Chao said. She declined to detail why the credit card company ended the relationship.

Dart on Wednesday thanked the companies for quickly responding to his request.

"The actions today of both MasterCard and Visa are huge and they should be roundly commended for their actions," Dart said. "We realize the battle ahead is still going to proceed. We realize that Backpage probably is not going to go away. But. what we can tell you is that for all the women, children and men, to some extent too, that have been exploited by these sites it's going to be increasingly difficult for those events to occur again."

The web site, which is similar to Craigslist, has been under pressure from lawmakers and law enforcement for years to end adult services advertisements. Craigslist ceased posting adult and erotic service ads in 2010. Users can still use bitcoin to pay for ads.

In April, Backpage published over 1.4 million adult services ads in the U.S., with the company bringing roughly $9 million in revenue per month through that channel, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Department.

Backpage accounted for about 70% of prostitution advertising among five Web sites that carry such ads in the United States, earning more than $22 million annually from prostitution ads, according to a 2012 estimate by AIM Group, a media research and consulting company.

Cook County Sheriff's Police say they have made more than 800 arrests since 2009 connected to Backpage adult service ads. Fifty of the arrests were for sex trafficking, involuntary servitude or promoting prostitution.

Dart argued that by taking away the ease of a credit card to advertise often underage girls who have been forced into the situation, MasterCard and Visa could help reduce the number of victims.

"(I)nstitutions such as yours have the moral, social and legal right to step up on this pervasive problem and make a fundamental and everlasting difference," Dart wrote in the letter to MasterCard CEO Ajaypal Banga and the company's board of directors.

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Boston threw out a lawsuit against Backpage that alleged that the web site was designed to facilitate sex trafficking. Judge Richards Stearns ultimately agreed with the company's — and digital rights groups' — argument that under federal law Web service companies are immune from liability for crimes by users.

Liz McDougall, senior counsel for Backpage, declined to comment. Digital rights advocates, however, were critical of the tack Dart took in going after Backpage.

"I really don't think this is the way we should be making law in this country," Rainey Reitman, activism director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed an amicus brief on behalf of Backpage in the Massachusetts case. "We shouldn't have informal pressure from public officials forcing financial service companies into deciding which types of speech should and shouldn't be allowed. MasterCard and Visa are not supposed to be the arbiters of free speech on the Internet."

Dart says his office did not threaten Visa and MasterCard, but simply asked for their cooperation. He added that he believes his agency is on firm legal ground.

"In this case, I would find it very, very difficult to understand how in anyone's twisted way (of thinking), we are infringing on someone's First Amendment right here," Dart said.

 

[SeductiveCameronDEL]

Just tried my Visa Debit...nope! No dice. Which is sucky for them, because I am certainly not bending over backwards to get money to them. The clients tend to be more of a runaround/WOT, so I will take the loss of the two good clients, along with the 50 "Hey baby" "Would love to bang" and my personal favourite, "quick stuffing?" at 4:55am, and just keep doing my thing here and on LeoList. I'm with Badger. BP can piss off.

 

[SirJimmy]

Or how about just stop advertising on back page. If everybody walked away from back page. All that advertising revenue and site hits are lost to them. That's what drives sites like that.

Backpage did nothing wrong, it is MasterCard and Amex who need to be boycotted. Too bad these holier-than-thou credit card companies do not help shut down the telemarketing/internet scammers who fleece elderly and gullible people by charging their credit cards.

I would love to stop using credit cards altogether. The problem is that getting CC points is too tempting. Very few places offer an incentive to pay by cash. I have seen some gas stations in the US who have a lower gas price for cash payers. Also, all the "trades" guys in Surrey seem to work for cash. But for the most part, the only reason I can think to pay cash is for anonymity -- but you lose 1% to 2% in points/airmiles for this privacy.

We really need a directory of local businesses who provide a discount or other incentive to those who pay cash (or bitcoin or other anonymous form of payment).

 

[Ms Erica Phoenix]

Just tried my Visa Debit...nope! No dice. Which is sucky for them, because I am certainly not bending over backwards to get money to them. The clients tend to be more of a runaround/WOT, so I will take the loss of the two good clients, along with the 50 "Hey baby" "Would love to bang" and my personal favourite, "quick stuffing?" at 4:55am, and just keep doing my thing here and on LeoList. I'm with Badger. BP can piss off.

Ohhhhh Cameron: tell us what you REALLY think! :clap2: I only advertised on BP when I went to Nanaimo. What did I get? BBFS requests and hater texts ('i wuddent give u 50$ 4 15 mins'). NOT my target clientele! I'll spend my money where I get the optimal return; respectful fun people who understand the game and follow the rules!

 

[escapefromstress]

Sex worker fury as credit cards cut off

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sex-workers-fury-as-credit-cards-cut-off-20150702-gi3xxx.html

Australian sex workers are up in arms after Visa and MasterCard blocked payments to a popular sex work advertisement website.

Backpage.com, which operates in America and Australia, is heavily used by local sex workers to place small advertisements.

On Wednesday night Visa, MasterCard and American Express all blocked payments using credit and debit cards for sexual services ads on the site – the result of a campaign being run against the site in America, where sex work is illegal.

In Australia, where sex work is decriminalised in most states, that's causing outcry among sex workers who feel they are being unfairly discriminated against by the payments giants.

"We shouldn't be taking away people's livelihoods just purely because the industry that they are in is one that we don't understand or one that bothers us," sex worker Lucie Bee told Fairfax Media.

Backpage is widely used by sex workers, particularly those new to the industry who can't afford more expensive advertising or their own private websites.

On Thursday night the Melbourne Backpage site had almost 1500 sex work listings. Backpage has grown popular since competitor Craigslist stopped offering adult services listings.

"These sites are often some of the best options for new sex workers, for those that perhaps can't afford to pay the ad costs for more exclusive websites," Mrs Bee said.

"It's going straight for people who are of a lower socio economic status... who are trying to support themselves, their families, or a drug habit in some cases."

In a statement, Visa said its rules prohibited card transactions for "illegal activity".

"Visa has a long history of working with law enforcement to safeguard the integrity of the payment system and we will continue to do so."

That's not good enough for local sex workers, like Fleur.

"The biggest issue is not whether I can post an ad; it's that in Australia sex work is legal. I'm not doing anything illegal. It's a very clear case of discrimination."

The card companies' decisions stem from a campaign run by Chicago sheriff Tom Dart, who has been running a campaign against sex classifieds websites like Backpage.

"Institutions such as yours have the moral, social and legal right to step up on this pervasive problem and make a fundamental and everlasting difference," Dart wrote in the letter to MasterCard.

MasterCard and the Victorian Police have been contacted for comment.

 

[susi]

ok, so...to bypass this latest attempt to fuck us out of our income....

fund your backpage account irt says "buy credits"...then bump your ad using account credits.

love susie

 

[76duster]

Sounds like the US gov is going to prosecute backpage - it's only a matter of time here in Canada too.

 

[Marilyn Sexy]

I emaled support and this is what they said
Support Backpage
12:45 PM (44 minutes ago)

to me
Hello,

For now, your best option to post will be with a Visa prepaid card to pay for your ads. We have noticed that Vanilla Visa seems to work the best at this time.

Thank you for your patience and for using backpage.com,
Jim


On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 2:13 PM, missmarilynsexy@gmail.com via backpage.com <mail@backpage.com> wrote:
Email Address: missmarilynsexy@gmail.com
Inquiry: Other
Metro Area: vancouver, bc
Ad Link: How can I make payment now

I advertise in escort section how can I make payment now that I can't use my Mastercard Please advise what way I can do this Thanks Marilyn

Click here to Reply or Forward

 

[susi]

and...to mention again...i just funded my account using the 'buy credits" option and then was able to post without a problem.

love susie

 

[leoghaire]

this will no doubt be another example of unintended consequences. Every time you make something more difficult for the independent sex worker, you make them more likely to seek out the assistance of managers, agents, handlers and other assorted leeches completely achieving the opposite of what you had hoped for. This is just likely to create more trafficking-as the authorities like to define it

 

[Class Choice]

and...to mention again...i just funded my account using the 'buy credits" option and then was able to post without a problem.

love susie

I think that depends on the credit card as well. We tried that option with a mastercard & got the message
" Payment Update

MasterCard is no longer accepted as of July 1st"

 

[escapefromstress]

Just saw this on Twitter:

S.H.O.P. ‏@sexworkoutreach 41m41 minutes ago
Just received e-mail from BackPage national accts manager - MC down in Canada, visa still works. She said site will be FREE when visa stops!

 

[Lo-ki]

What about email transfer from banks..???

 

[escapefromstress]

Shift Calgary ‏@shiftcalgary 3m3 minutes ago
The @Visa and @MasterCard #Backpage ban also prevents programs like us from posting outreach ads to reach and support those working indoors.

http://www.shiftcalgary.org/

JULY 6, 2015 | BY RAINEY REITMAN
Caving to Government Pressure, Visa and MasterCard Shut Down Payments to Backpage.com

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/07/caving-government-pressure-visa-and-mastercard-shut-down-payments-backpagecom

Visa and MasterCard confirmed that they have cut off payment services for Backpage.com, an online platform for people to advertise goods and services. This was in response to public pressure from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who wrote to executives at both of the payment processors urging them to cut off transactions to Backpage’s adult services. The two companies responded by quickly shutting down payments for the entire site.

Backpage hasn’t violated the law, and so Sheriff Dart can’t use the law to take down the website. Instead he’s using a tactic we’ve seen before, getting major financial services companies to put a chokehold on controversial online content producers like WikiLeaks and independent book publisher Smashwords.

We don’t need Visa and MasterCard to play nanny for online speech. Payment processors and banks shouldn’t be in the position of deciding what type of online content is criminal or enforcing morality for the rest of society. For one thing, their businesses haven’t been designed to analyze the legal and societal issues at play in various forms of online expression. Second, these businesses will almost always err on the side of shutting down controversial speech—thereby eliminating a nuisance or public affairs problem—rather than taking a principled stance in support of unpopular speech.

That’s why courts, not companies, should determine what type of speech is legal on the Internet.

Backpage.com can be used to sell an old refrigerator, find a new apartment, post about new community workshops, find a job, and offer many other services and goods. It also hosts an “adult” section of the site, where some people advertise escort services or try to connect with people who have similar sexual interests. This “adult” section requires visitors to confirm they are at least 18 years of age and allows users to get resources for reporting cases of suspected sexual exploitation with one click.

Dart asserts that he’s concerned about people abusing Backpage.com for nefarious purposes such as human trafficking, even though the site isn’t designed with that in mind. And he’s not the only one: politicians and law enforcement agents have been pressuring Backpage.com for years to shut down the adult section of the site

Let’s stop for a moment and acknowledge one area where we agree wholeheartedly with Dart: human trafficking is atrocious. We strongly condemn the violation of human rights that occurs whenever a human being is sexually exploited or forced into physical labor against his or her will. Human trafficking is a massive human rights issue that deserves focused, dedicated attention from lawmakers, law enforcement, and the public. It’s also a heinous crime that merits severe punishment for those who perpetrate it.

Backpage, however, is not engaged in human trafficking. It shouldn’t be treated as if it were.

The law is on Backpage’s side. To date, attempts to pass laws that would hold a website accountable for the content posted by users have been defeated, such as a Washington state law EFF successfully fought in 2012. Backpage is also protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230), which ensures that websites that host content—like WordPress, Facebook, and others—aren’t liable for the content of the messages that their users post. And that’s a good thing. This law has been a cornerstone for free speech online, ensuring that Web hosts don’t have to police their users and can focus on providing a great experience–even if their users’ views are controversial or unpopular. As we’ve argued before, CDA 230 protects Backpage from liability for user-generated advertisements.

One could imagine a world where we had many payment providers, each operating independently, to ensure that even if one major payment service caved to governmental pressure there would be many others to offer services to less popular sites. But that’s not the case. Instead, the overwhelming majority of online payment services are connected to MasterCard and Visa. So when they both shut down a website’s services, the business must either acquiesce to their demands or risk going out of business.

We appreciate that Visa and MasterCard may be facing serious pressure from law enforcement, both in this case and in others. But we’d urge the two financial giants to strive for neutrality in offering payment services and resist government requests. And that starts by reinstating Backpage’s services.

As for Sherriff Dart, we wish he’d turn to the real problems of human trafficking and exploitation. Rather than attack neutral websites and payment providers, law enforcement should focus its investigations and enforcement efforts on actual criminal suspects.

 

[escapefromstress]

Backpage.com Says Screw Off to Squeamish Credit Card Companies by Dropping Fees For Adult Ads
Score one for sex workers, capitalism, and common sense.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown|Jul. 7, 2015 4:00 pm

http://reason.com/blog/2015/07/07/backpagecom-stops-fees-for-adult-ads

Backpage.com, the online classified-ad clearinghouse that's become a battleground in the new war on sex work, has announced that it will stop charging users to post ads in its "adult" section, at least temporarily. Until now, users could post free ads elsewhere on the site but were charged fees to promote in the adult section, which houses ads for escorts, strippers, and other erotic entertainers. So what's the big deal about Backpage switching up its fee structure? The change comes in response to Visa's and Mastercard's recent decisions to stop processing adult-ad payments, a move the credit-card companies made at the urging of overreaching state officials. So score one for sex workers, the free market, and common sense!

As Maggie McNeill explained here last week, Visa and Mastercard both made their decisions about Backpage under pressure from Cook County, Illinois, sheriff Thomas Dart. "We have objectively found [sites like Backpage] promote prostitution and facilitate online sex trafficking," Dart wrote in a letter to the credit card companies. "Institutions such as yours have the moral, social and legal right to step up on this pervasive problem and make a fundamental and everlasting difference."

"Under the guise of going after 'sex trafficking,'" notes McNeill, "prohibitionist politicians have been trying and failing to shut down Backpage—a commercial enterprise which has broken no laws—since at least 2011. The free speech implications alone are horrifying. And Sheriff Dart’s pressuring Visa and Mastercard to reject adult-ad payments is nothing less than an end run around due process which affects not only his own fiefdom of Chicago, but every single place Backpage reaches via the Internet."

So, essentially, Backpage's move to make adult ads free is a big screw you to fearmongering, First-Amendment-hating, Internet-freedom-stifling nanny statists who think they can control financial-services firms, foreign-based websites (Backpage.com is owned by a Dutch company), and the way women choose to earn a living.

Or maybe it just made good business sense; with American Express stopping Backpage payment processing earlier this year, the only option left for purchasing adult ads after Visa and Mastercard pulled out was via Bitcoin—not the most mass-user friendly option. Adult ads account for a huge portion of Backpage.com activity, and without them it could lose a substantial amount of traffic and, hence, external-advertising revenue.

In an email to some registered users, Backpage.com indicated that the charge-free adult section may be temporary. "We understand some users have had difficulty posting over the last few days," said the email. "Sign up for a free account and enjoy posting free ads until the payment issues are resolved." (Emphasis mine.) Other users got a similar email, this one urging them to sign up for a free account using the promo code FREESPEECH.

 

[meaghanmcleodDELETED]

This site is going through so many glitches. For regular posters, they gave us a line of credit of $100 for our problems. I bought a pay safe card and loaded it into my account as a credit. I then chose to "bump" each day for a specified number of days.

I now owe them $70, but my ads are good for awhile. Should be interesting when they send me a bill at the end of the month and I refuse to buy bitcoins. It seems to be an issue with Canadian advertisers. The Americans can send a money order to their head office.