xbiz world
xbiz premiere
educational

XBiz News: 09-11-03

This week’s XBiz Industry News takes a look at the latest news concerning the ongoing saga of adult Webmasters and their struggle to obtain reliable and affordable VISA / MC processing services, as well as the latest on the misleading domains case, and the end of another IPSP...

David vs. Goliath
The latest news concerning the ongoing saga of adult Webmasters and their struggle to obtain reliable and affordable VISA / MC processing services comes from PSW Billing Solutions, who this week sent an official advisory to Visa USA, Visa International, MasterCard, and MasterCard International, forewarning the filing of federal, state and common law claims against them.

The basis of the legal action resides primarily in the corporations' deceptive and unfair business practices, the non-protection of friendly fraud and the imposition of illegal fines.

According to John Lombardi, CEO “We are willing and ready to take on all the giants at once. What they do to adult webmasters and payment service providers is unjust.” Lombardi reaffirmed the billing company’s longstanding commitment to the adult industry: “With overwhelming initial support from the adult community, we hope to stop this vicious cycle before more businesses are damaged by their unfair business practices. The time has come to say 'enough is enough.’”

Visa and MasterCard now have an initial period in which to reply in order to resolve the PSW complaint in lieu of litigation in Federal court. However, PSW is primed “to fight the good fight” for the long term future and stability of adult businesses online.

The Big Apple for Domain Name Scammer
The first person in the U.S. charged under Amber Alert and anti cyber-squatting laws which makes it illegal to use ‘misleading’ domain names to deceive adults and / or lure children into porn sites, will be extradited to New York in order to face federal charges there.

Held without bail after his arrest in Hollywood Florida, John Zuccarini faces more than 100 lawsuits and a possible four-year prison sentence as well as heavy fines if convicted of a scheme in which he allegedly used thousands of misleading domain names to send traffic to sponsors. This earned Zuccarini an estimated $1 million annually from those familiar ‘pop up hells’ designed to ensnare surfers – a technique commonly known as ‘mousetrapping’ – and a technique which the FTC frowns upon. So much so in fact that they have already won cases against him...

Globosale: Death of Another IPSP
In a letter addressed to “To all our clients, friends, enemies and Webmasters,” Globosale’s Andreas De Terra announced the news: “What happened to others in this industry in the past happened to us today. What we think is an unfortunate example from Visa, we have been advised that our bank was instructed today to terminate our processing in order to avoid threatened fees in the hundreds of thousands of dollars…”

While the processor’s user management will be alive until the expiration of the last user subscription, Globosale is no longer accepting any more transactions – a move which has over 6000 Webmasters and marketers scrambling to find a replacement. A process made more complicated by Globosale’s switching of their phone, fax and email contacts over to automated systems, mandating written communications with the Swiss firm, a process expected to take 6 weeks or longer.

“We are very disappointed with the sudden situation which terminated GloboSale.net AG operations within a matter of hours. Not only have we been accused of wrongdoing without any proof from VISA [they] also abruptly terminated our contracts without prior consultations. Please accept our regrets and we sincerely hope that we can bring this to an acceptable settlement for all our valued customers.” lamented De Terra.

Stay tuned for more industry news here at XBiz!

Copyright © 2026 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

opinion

How Platforms Can Tap AI to Moderate Content at Scale

Every day, billions of posts, images and videos are uploaded to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X. As social media has grown, so has the amount of content that must be reviewed — including hate speech, misinformation, deepfakes, violent material and coordinated manipulation campaigns.

Christoph Hermes ·
opinion

What DSA and GDPR Enforcement Means for Adult Platforms

Adult platforms have never been more visible to regulators than they are right now. For years, the industry operated in a gray zone: enormous traffic, massive data volume and minimal oversight. Those days are over.

Corey D. Silverstein ·
opinion

Making the Case for Network Tokens in Recurring Billing

A declined transaction isn’t just a technical error; it’s lost revenue you fought hard to earn. But here’s some good news for adult merchants: The same technology that helps the world’s largest subscription services smoothly process millions of monthly subscriptions is now available to you as well.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

Navigating Age Verification Laws Without Disrupting Revenue

With age verification laws now firmly in place across multiple markets, merchants are asking practical questions: How is this affecting traffic? What happens during onboarding? Which approaches are proving workable in real payment flows?

Cathy Beardsley ·
opinion

How Adult Businesses Can Navigate Global Compliance Demands

The internet has made the world feel small. Case in point: Adult websites based in the U.S. are now getting letters from regulators demanding compliance with foreign laws, even if they don’t operate in those countries. Meanwhile, some U.S. website operators dealing with the patchwork of state-level age verification laws have considered incorporating offshore in the hopes of avoiding these new obligations — but even operators with no physical presence in the U.S. have been sued or threatened with claims for not following state AV laws.

Larry Walters ·
opinion

Top Tips for Bulletproof Creator Management Contracts

The creator management business is booming. Every week, it seems, a new agency emerges, promising to turn creators into stars, automate their fan interactions or triple their revenue through “secret” social strategies. The reality? Many of these agencies are operating with contracts that wouldn’t survive a single serious dispute — if they even have contracts at all.

Corey D. Silverstein ·
opinion

Building Sustainable Revenue Without Opt-Out Cross-Sales

Over the past year, we’ve seen growing pushback from acquirers on merchants using opt-out cross-sales — also known as negative option offers. This has been especially noticeable in the U.S. In fact, one of our acquirers now declines new merchants during onboarding if an opt-out flow is detected. Existing merchants submitting new URLs with opt-out cross-sales are being asked to remove them.

Cathy Beardsley ·
opinion

How to Handle Payment Disputes Without Sacrificing Trust

You can run the best-managed and most compliant website out there, but that still doesn’t completely shield you from the risks tied to payment disputes. Buyer’s remorse, an unclear billing description or even a simple misunderstanding can lead a customer to dispute a transaction. Accumulate enough disputes, and both your reputation and revenue could be at risk.

Jonathan Corona ·
profile

WIA Profile: Taylor Moore

With a 70-person team and a growing slate of tools for content creators, the Teasy Agency has developed a reputation for putting talent first. That commitment owes a lot to co-founder Taylor Moore’s own experiences as a cam model.

Jackie Backman ·
profile

WIA Profile: Cathy Turns Creator Platform Experience Into a Model-First Playbook

As both a model and industry executive, Cathy lives in two worlds at once. “Since I do both things, I can act as the liaison between the model community and the rest of the SextPanther team,” she tells XBIZ.

Jackie Backman ·
Show More