NEW YORK – Six alleged mobsters pleaded guilty on Monday to participating in one of the largest consumer scam campaigns in the history of the United States. The various scams involved a variety of consumer fraud activities, and one included the use of “free” porn sites to collect credit card numbers from unwitting visitors. Charges against the six men included money laundering and conspiracy to commit fraud. They face prison sentences of up to ten years at sentencing.The six men’s adult website scam twisted the popular “Age Verification System” business model, a common form of adult website still in use today by many legal adult businesses. In this case, site visitors were told that they could obtain “free” access to adult content by entering in their credit card numbers as proof of age. They were also told that their credit cards would not be charged. Those visitors who complied were charged up to $90 on their credit cards, an activity that netted the men more than $230 million in fraudulent charges.
“The defendants bilked thousands of unwitting consumers in the United States, Europe and Asia of more than $200 million through bogus free tours of adult entertainment websites, which resulted in fraudulent charges on the credit cards of more than a million consumers,” said US attorney Roslynn Mauskopf.
According to Mauskopf, the six men will forfeit their assets, which will be used to provide relief to their victims.
“Today’s guilty pleas not only ensure that the perpetrators of one of the largest consumer frauds in history will serve significant time in prison, but they will also forfeit the spoils of their crimes, including luxury homes and other significant assets, which will be used to compensate the victims of their crimes,” said Mauskopf.
One of the men involved in the scams, Richard Martino, has also admitted to conspiring to extort money from Richard Desmond, the owner of several adult magazine publications. Desmond’s holdings include Asian Babes and Forum, and he was reportedly threatened after one of his former business associates was beaten by mobsters.
Martino reportedly became a “made” member of the Gambino family in January of 1990.
Altogether, the men netted $650 million through various internet and telephone frauds, which also included bogus psychic, horoscope and phone sex lines.
