nerve_in_exile: Scary

bart_calendar (

bart_calendar) wrote in

nerve_in_exile,
@ 2005-09-11 17:33:00

Scary
Check out this article about the new CEO of the Nerve Personals:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff117706.htm

(Post a new comment)

what the f#@*%$^!
(Anonymous)
2005-09-11 10:08 pm UTC (link)

gheez, i'm going to cancel my account, delete it right now!
j*

>Andrew Conru, Friend Finder Network, Alt.com, AdultFriendFinder.com, Passion.com, Xmatch.com, Conru Illegal Scam Operation Rips Off Millions of Consumers through their Deceptive Fraud Palo Alto California

Company
Andrew Conru, Friend Finder Network, Alt.com, AdultFriendFinder.com, Passion.com, Xmatch.com, Conru
Address:
445 Sherman Ave
Palo Alto California 94306
U.S.A.
Phone Number:
800-388-0760
Fax:

There mode of operations is this:
1. Engage affiliates to bring them traffic. After a short honeymoon period where everyone makes money, AFF starts to slowly begins to rip them off. The more traffic they send, the more they rip them off. It's all in the tracking systems. I know, I helped write them.

2. When new people sign up, fake profiles run by their customer service department email the guys until they sign up for a paid membership. Then, amateur porn stars promoting their own web sites, prostitutes, and the like are used to make sure you stay on longer and keep recurring (billed monthly).

3. After you request to cancel, a couple of the customer service people may try to "save the sale" and begin emails with you again. This is fairly automated. All Andrew's ideas.

4. Once you do cancel, your email address and all your personal information is sold to the highest bidder, or usually, all the bidders, to use as they may.

5. Profiles are NEVER removed and your email address is constantly used to cross promote Andrew's other sites like Dine.com and GradFinder.com.

6. From time-to-time, Andrew wakes up in the morning and feels that he's not filthy rich enough for that day. At that point he instructs the technology people (of whom he personally supervises) and tells them to do god awful things ranging from billing peoples cards that may have cancelled months ago or send out massive amounts of spam through his spammer friends like Westby (before he was arrested on the first criminal spam charges last month).

7. You may also realize that some people may putt heir profile on good-clean friend finder as a 30 year old single mom looking for a jogging partner and she shows up on Alt.com as a 30 year old mistress looking for a submissive slave with the same picture! Does anyone else see anything wrong with that?!?!

I worked for Friend Finder Inc. for years and am soooo happy to be out of there. I had many morale objections to the operations of their company. Andrew is evil and pompous. He laughs in the face of the legal structure including the state of California, the FTC, and the US Attorneys office and it seems like they cannot do anything to stop this deplorable excuse for a human being.

for more information on andrew, goto www.conru.com

FormerAFF - Las Vegas, Nevada
U.S.A.

Mark
New York, New York
U.S.A.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^! bart_calendar** 2005-09-11 10:20 pm UTC (link)
	It gets better. Google "Andrew Conru" and you'll find that he was the first person ever charged under California's Anti Spam laws... (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^! stockdude** 2005-09-11 10:33 pm UTC (link)
	Wow. I thought you guys were all taking this thing a little too seriously, but now that I read this stuff, it's an outrage. What a total scam. So now I've got to worry that they might have my pristine, primary e-mail address as well as my credit card number, from the Nerve days? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^! bart_calendar** 2005-09-11 10:36 pm UTC (link)
	Yep. And you may become a Slaveboy on alt.com as well. Not that there is anything wrong with that... (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^!** (Anonymous) 2005-09-11 10:51 pm UTC (link)
	btw, i suggest to obliterate/change your personal info/e-mail one by one, delete your fotos and let their data base update it, before you delete the account entirely. that way they got all the wrong stuff & no pics to abuse. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^! bart_calendar** 2005-09-11 11:11 pm UTC (link)
	I was thinking of grabbing some of the many photos of the new ceo that are avaiable online, making them dirty with photoshop and then making that my new photo. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^! vegasyogagirl** 2005-09-12 01:38 am UTC (link)
	Oh Bart, you are already my hero but I would love you so much more if you did that. Purrr purrr purrr.... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^! neutron** 2005-09-11 11:49 pm UTC (link)
	In the billing info section, they have my credit card number. I haven't bought credits in almost 8 months. I tried to delete it, and it wouldn't let me. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^! bart_calendar** 2005-09-11 11:53 pm UTC (link)
	It's almost as though they want to get sued. (Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: what the f#@*%$^!

stockdude
2005-09-12 12:48 am UTC (link)

You can delete it. It just says "invalid" or something, but I think it lets you click something else.

As for me, I lucked out. Haven't bought credits in so long that my card had expired, so they had the wrong info anyway. Though truthfully, I can't see them actually making unauthorized charges. So much money in "soft fraud" of selling your identity, no need to go overboard. I would think.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^! neutron** 2005-09-12 01:41 am UTC (link)
	Nope, officially cannot get rid of the number. It just reappears every time i go back to the page. I wrote them asking how to delete my card. I'm not that worried about unauthorized charges so much as it's the principle of the thing. I wouldn't have ever charged shit on a FastCupid site, but yet... FastCupid has my credit info. eeee. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	*Re: what the f#@%$^!** (Anonymous) 2005-09-12 02:34 am UTC (link)
	I just changed my credit card number to one I recently killed on account of potential identity fraud. The form accepted it, so I suppose I've protected my bank account for now. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	vintagehandbag 2005-09-12 01:53 am UTC (link)
	Has anyone actually complained to Nerve or The Onion or any of the other sites that people access the personals through directly? I mean, we're bitching at the personals, sure, but I think the best case scenario may be that some of these publications switch to another outfit that does syndication, like Consumating. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Been there....done that tryrugby 2005-09-12 01:59 am UTC (link)
	Joan_Jett, Wrote to the CEO of Nerve -- told me there is nothing one can do... he even pimped out the FF bastids in the press release touting the changeover (eventhough he denied it until I copied him on the yahoo business site posting of it with his quote)... so I'm thinking he doesn't have motivation to go change anything (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Been there....done that vintagehandbag 2005-09-12 02:04 am UTC (link)
	My general assumption is that Nerve has sort of a tenuous financial situation, and I suspect that cash flow from the personals matters a good deal. What position do you play, rugger? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Been there....done that tryrugby 2005-09-12 02:13 am UTC (link)
	Nerve claims that they were losing money hand over fist due to the old system... hence the change. I'm a hooker -- but a very tall hooker... use to play for Austin RFC back in the day, but as a prop -- have nothing nice to say about those bunch of wankers though (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Been there....done that vintagehandbag 2005-09-12 02:19 am UTC (link)
	We play a U.S. Eagle prop at hooker, so our front row can sort of plow over everyone else. I haven't heard many nice things about the ARFC boys (aside from them being good at playing rugby, which is I suppose, a virtue, but a limited one). Our men's team affiliation is with the Huns. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: Been there....done that

bart_calendar
2005-09-12 02:29 am UTC (link)

The thing is, if the old system was not making enough money, what not just make credits more expensive. Right now it costs about a buck to try to chat up a hot babe. To do the same thing in a bar you'd have to buy her a drink for six or seven bucks. Therefore, I'd have no problem paying three to five dollars a credit, which would then tripple or quintupple their revenue.

I mean, shit, I've fucked 14 girls from nerve and each and ever one was worth at least three bucks.

Bart

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Been there....done that downward__dog 2005-09-12 02:37 am UTC (link)
	I mean, shit, I've fucked 14 girls from nerve and each and ever one was worth at least three bucks. Ha! Who says chivalry is dead? (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: Been there....done that charlotte_webb 2005-09-12 02:52 am UTC (link)
	Was that number right at the tip of your tongue, or did you have to count back? (Like we aren't ALL counting right now!) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Been there....done that bart_calendar 2005-09-12 02:58 am UTC (link)
	I've kept track. When your wife leaves you every single moment of affection you can grab gets burned into your memory. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Been there....done that charlotte_webb 2005-09-12 03:05 am UTC (link)
	Awww ... sweetie, I was kidding -- and, like I said, counting the ultimate cash value of my own conquests -- not throwing stones. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Been there....done that bart_calendar 2005-09-12 03:08 am UTC (link)
	I seriously think five bucks a credit would be reasonable. It might actually help the system because you'll be more careful who you try to contact at that price. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	I sent complaints (Anonymous) 2005-09-12 02:33 am UTC (link)
	to Salon, the Onion and Bust, figuring that Friendfinder could be hurt if its biggest affiliates pulled out. My letters enumerated 14 things that were wrong with the new site and the transition and emphasized the effect that this bad craziness could have on their brands. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: I sent complaints downward__dog 2005-09-12 02:39 am UTC (link)
	Why don't you post your letter here? (Reply to this) (Parent)

Complaints to Gawker, maybe?

the_devil_u_kno
2005-09-12 03:01 am UTC (link)

Bart, I know you sent Gawker an email, but maybe if a few more of us email them about the shitstorm AND Andrew's little ripoff report we can get them to lead with it in the morning. It'd be nice if by lunch this was all over the blogosphere and maybe leaking into some other outlets. I don't know if any of you have been back for the last few hours, but I was able to run what looked like an unimpeded search earlier.

Sigh. I got to gaze upon about 1000 Nerve lovelies before my damn computer crashed. Man, I will never take for granted how hot the Nerve girls are and how that hotness is worth fighting tooth and nail for. The unimpeded search is a hopeful sign, but if even some of the above is true...

Well, we'll get fucked one way or the other.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Complaints to Gawker, maybe? bart_calendar 2005-09-12 03:06 am UTC (link)
	Yes. I encourage everyone to email gawker. This system is so strange. I just got an email telling me I have "earned" 340 points. All I've done on the site is post links to my live journal, and posted complaints on the CEO's nerve blog about my profile being denied and about him being a criminal. What could they possibly be rewarding me for? Bart (Reply to this) (Parent)

	But not the fun way charlotte_webb 2005-09-12 03:07 am UTC (link)
	Did you notice that Gold and Silver members have to pay an extra 20 a month to get messages from those of us who haven't given in? I've run about three searches since The Bad Thing happened, but all I get are the grinning mugs of the losers who bent over (again, not in the fun way), no questions asked. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: But not the fun way the_devil_u_kno 2005-09-12 03:17 am UTC (link)
	I did manage to get a nice endless stretch of "standard members" and with pictures no less (though, of fucking course, not the amazing girl who I whose profile name I forgot and I was planning on having many beautiful children with). God, I hope I didn't just slip in through some open code window that's now been nailed shut. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	No, wait a minute... the_devil_u_kno 2005-09-12 03:23 am UTC (link)
	I did a BROWSE unimpeded and with pretty pictures. I just tried doing it again and, uh, some of the site is in those "can't recognize the language" characters. What the fuck? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: No, wait a minute... dadagirl 2005-09-12 03:49 am UTC (link)
	you gotta know, there's something wrong in the state of denmark, if all of a sudden all you see is hot cuties, when you've done 100s, nay 1000s of searches on this system and your eyes never spilled over in such rapid succession... don't be fooled! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: No, wait a minute... jellied 2005-09-12 05:53 am UTC (link)
	I'm convinced there are no cuties in my neck of the woods (based soley on my searches). If I didn't know any better (ie have Myspace or adorable friends), I'd move to the coasts right away! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: No, wait a minute... tryrugby 2005-09-12 03:42 pm UTC (link)
	The coasts is where it is at... sure Boulder is nice... but definite lack of industry there... but in regard to nerve.... well former nerve... middle american (other than Chicago) barely registers there... (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: No, wait a minute... bart_calendar 2005-09-12 03:44 pm UTC (link)
	That's what I like about Nerve. If I was looking for middle American Rules Girls, I'd let my stepmother set me up with some. But the fact is I married one of those girls and it drove me insane. Never the fuck again. My body is reserved for cool intelligent sluts only now. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: No, wait a minute... jellied 2005-09-12 04:06 pm UTC (link)
	I'm convinced this state is filled with nothing but the military and scary neoconservative Christians. Most of which are Mormon! I have to be proven wrong. Incidentally I miss Boulder. I spent my first year of college there. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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