I tried to pay for porn. I almost got screwed.

[mastrblastr]

So after years of mostly freeloading (by which I mean watching trailers, of course), I decided to sign up for a site, and now I have the means to do so.

So I tried to sign up for wicked.com. The site advertises a valentine day's special, "6 months free" on the "18 months subscription". The join page says "€6.95/month" and (in a small font) "Billed in one payment of €125.10". Now let's do the math: 125.10/18=6.95. Where are my 6 free months? This is a dirty trick, but oh well. The page doesn't mention VAT, but they know they need to charge me in € so that's already included presumably.

So I continue to the checkout page. It asks for my credit card details. And.. wait, what's that? In a very tiny font, hidden in the middle of a block of text right from the form, it says "You will be charged on your credit card the amount of 151.37 EUR (BTW included) for your membership at Wicked." (BTW = VAT)

The price on the join page was not including VAT and didn't mention it wasn't including VAT either? Jeez! But oh well.

What else does it say? Oh wouldn't you know it: "After 548 day(s), membership renews automatically at 151.25 EUR (BTW included) every 365 day(s)." No way to disable that. That is not nice. But oh well! That'll teach people who need glasses or forget to cancel! And while tiny, this text is orange and partially bold, so if you look closely..

But if that's all, it's not that bad, right.. wait, what does it say there.. that #717171 grey small text above the orange text.. "Sign me up for a 3 days trial membership to Fuck Book Flix for FREE. After 3 days, membership renews automatically at 42.29 EUR (BTW included) every 30 days." This text is preceded by a checkbox which is checked by default.

..dafuq? I have no interest in that site! And €42,29/month is daylight robbery. I agreed to €6,95/month, but they would have taken over €50/month! My saving grace? The form did not accept my last name. (which I had entered correctly) I noticed the fine print after that. If it had accepted it, I would have been screwed.

Can they even be trusted with my payment details? This is seriously disappointing. Some time ago I bought a clip on c4s, silly expensive (not some rare fetish, just a threesome) but at least they didn't try to screw me over.

Which mainstream sites deploy these scummy practices? Are any of them even safe?

 

[mastrblastr]

Tried some others..

Brazzers: step 1: enter your email. Hmm, okay, I entered my email and pressed enter. Nothing. Clicked the "continue to start" button below the email input. Nothing. Errrr. Must be my browser, try another browser.. Same result. Wut?

Bangbros: exactly the same!

Mofos: looks the same and is part of Brazzers, but actually continues to step 2! The default option is a 2 day trial for $1. The fine print says "Limited access 2 day trial period automatically rebilling at $39.99 every 30 days until cancelled". The fine print does mention that "Where applicable, sales tax may be added to your purchase". In the checkout process there is a yellow bar with a dropdown menu that has "Yes, add Reality Kings content for $1 for 3 days.**" selected by default. In the fine print on the checkout page it says "** After 3 days, Reality Kings add-on renews at $34.97 every 30 days until cancelled.". While they say sales tax may be added, no total including VAT is shown.

Ztod: almost identical to wicked, but the checked-by-default fine print upsell is "Sign me up for a 3 days trial membership to Club21sexxxtury for 5.99 EUR (BTW included). After 3 days, membership renews automatically at 36.24 EUR (BTW included) every 30 days. The charge will appear under FAMEADVICE.COM." The site title "Club21sexxxtury" looks like a link (<strong class="text-decoration-underline highlight-color-lg") but actually isn't one.

Reality Kings: again, step 1 enter email. Default selection is 1 year + 1 year free for $4.99/month. Directly under that it says, in a font so small most people would need to zoom in or use a magnifying glass, "Billed in one payment of $119.99**". Below this it says "**2 Year Membership initial charge of $119.99, non rebilling.". Non rebilling! It also says "Where applicable, sales tax may be added to your purchase". I continue to checkout and it would seem there's no upsell. No total including VAT is shown.

Immoral Live: "548 days" for €6.95/month with a note that it's billed in one payment of €125.10. It doesn't say 6 months free, so that's good. Otherwise the same as Wicked, checked-by-default upsell on the checkout page: "Sign me up for a 3 days trial membership to OpenlifeFlix for 5.99 EUR (BTW included). After 3 days, membership renews automatically at 42.29 EUR (BTW included) every 30 days." OpenlifeFlix is EXACTLY the same as FuckBookFlix. Only the name differs, it's a carbon copy!

Naughty America: The join page offers 4 options. You have to pick one, none is selected by default. There is some confusion with some prices being in USD and others in EUR. On the checkout page there are 5 checkboxes: 1. "select all", 2. certify you're 18, 3. you have read the ToS, 4. you have read the privacy policy, 5. Yes, also give me access to www. tonightsgirlfriend .com for €2.00 (EUR) for 3 days then €30.68 (EUR) every 30 days until cancelled. But none of the checkboxes are enabled by default. If you're not paying attention you could check it by accident, but it's way better than the others. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Devil's Film: join page shows three options and is reasonably clear about how the plans are billed. But the checkout page (operated by Digigamma) looks identical to Wicked. Price including VAT printed very small and checked-by-default upsell "Sign me up for a 3 days trial membership to Good XXX Flix for 5.99 EUR (BTW included). After 3 days, membership renews automatically at 36.24 EUR (BTW included) every 30 days." Again, it's not a link. And "Good XXX Flix" is, you guessed it, another clone of FuckBookFlix/OpenlifeFlix.

Cherry Pimps: The join page says "All prices include sales tax where and when applicable." in the fine print! On the checkout page, unfortunately, a checked-by-default upsell of "Get access to TeamSkeet.com for $1.09, after 2 days account renews at $34.87 monthly" using a pretty small font. At least it's part of the form, making this slightly better than Wicked.

Private: The join page is fairly clear and has the 12 month membership selected by default. The checkout page has a checked-by-default upsell: "Yes, add EUR €1.49 for a 2 days membership to www. privateclassics .com recurring at EUR €24.95 every 1 month." It's a small font, but the entire form uses a small font. So the visibility isn't the worst, but it shouldn't be checked by default. VAT isn't mentioned anywhere.

Nubiles: the homepage says "lifetime now available", but it's nowhere to be found. The join page is fairly clear, but you only find out the price including VAT on the checkout page. Checked-by-default upsell: "Sign me up for another subscription to Nubilefilms.com at a price of €19,40 for 30 days then €19,40 recurring every 30 days." This is located below a block of bold text that states that by completing the order you confirm to be 18 etc. If you're skimming the form (and what horny idiot would be reading these things?), you could easily think the checkbox is to confirm you're 18 instead of an upsell.

Guess I have my answer. Most of them can hardly be trusted.

 

[lamarwynn]

I'm ol' skool I still order mine through the catalog / adult magazine ( DVDS) and of course free ones 💚

 

[DrakeM]

Guess I have my answer. Most of them can hardly be trusted.

Is anybody surprised by this when so much porn is available for free?

 

[Stephen1956]

Here in the States, the Federal government considers porn equal to money laundering and illegal drugs, so the Federal government has instructed financial institution s to shut down any use of a bank issued credit card via a "Falcon alert" upon any attempt to purchase porn content Any attempt to use your bank-issued credit card to purchase porn and the next time you try to use your credit card to pay for anything it won't work. You're forced to go to your bank and talk with a bank teller about getting the block taken off your credit card. This is why I don't subscribe to porn websites. All is not lost. I have found a way to by-pass my puritanical Federal government and happily report I am able to purchase porn content via AEBN. It's been a quite a hobby, from watching film clips in peep show booths, with sticky floors, in downtown venues back in the 70s, to the the ease of downloading it through the telephone lines. Some collect rare coins. Others collect rare stamps. I collect porn.

 

[DrakeM]

Here in the States, the Federal government considers porn equal to money laundering and illegal drugs, so the Federal government has instructed financial institution s to shut down any use of a bank issued credit card via a "Falcon alert" upon any attempt to purchase porn content Any attempt to use your bank-issued credit card to purchase porn and the next time you try to use your credit card to pay for anything it won't work. You're forced to go to your bank and talk with a bank teller about getting the block taken off your credit card. This is why I don't subscribe to porn websites. All is not lost. I have found a way to by-pass my puritanical Federal government and happily report I am able to purchase porn content via AEBN. It's been a quite a hobby, from watching film clips in peep show booths, with sticky floors, in downtown venues back in the 70s, to the the ease of downloading it through the telephone lines. Some collect rare coins. Others collect rare stamps. I collect porn.

I don't know if your story is true re. credit cards, I hope not, but here's a real story about the struggle the Coedcherry site went through before they were forced to shut down:

https://www.coedcherry.com/fuck-banks.html

 

[Indicboi95]

Why is online porn so expensive?

 

[rob1980]

Why is online porn so expensive?

There's are still some cheap sites out there too

 

[Mr. Daystar]

I tried to pay for a screw, and almost got porned.

 

[Torre82]

Why is online porn so expensive?

because, IMO, you aren't just paying for access to a single thing, you're getting years of comment and you'll probably save all the things you like, so that it won't be a recurring charge.
so, ideally, ppl and producers simply see it ... and advert it as one expensive month or a cheap year subscription, right?