ScottPB back in the news again

[gonzo]

Porn king fined $2m in dating scam

Lisa Martin

December 1, 2010 - 4:59PM
AAP
A Brisbane internet pornography king has been fined $2 million in the Federal Court for his involvement in an SMS dating scam.
Scott Gregory Phillips, 35, faced civil legal action from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for breaching federal anti-spamming laws and the Trade Practices Act.
ACMA has successfully prosecuted three companies and four Brisbane men involved in the fake dating operation, which ran for three years and cost Australian phone users more than $4 million. Those prosecutions netted fines totalling $22 million.
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Phillips was the only one to defend the allegations levelled against him but lost his court battle last month.
Justice John Logan imposed a $2 million penalty in the Federal Court in Brisbane on Wednesday to cover the breaches, which took place over 54 days between December 2005 and April 9, 2006.
The court heard backpackers were recruited to set up fake profiles on dating websites.
They were photographed and posed as people seeking legitimate relationships to harvest mobile phone numbers from dating site users.
These numbers were then fed into special software that sent premium SMS messages inviting people to use a secure SMS chat gateway called Safedivert at a cost of $5 per message.
The scheme sent thousands of messages and netted $140,000 in profit during Phillips' involvement, Justice Logan told the court.
"It was a systematic and studied deception of those who used internet dating websites; the end to which that deception directed was the (pursuit) of profit," he said.
He said the victims of the scheme had suffered not only financially but experienced "personal humiliation and embarrassment".
ACMA said some people had spent large sums on hotel rooms and gifts and waited at airports to meet dating matches who never arrived.
Justice Logan said it was important to send a strong message of deterrence.
The court heard that in the witness box, Phillips deliberately lied about his involvement and had not shown remorse.
Phillips' involvement in the scheme ended when he was jailed for an unrelated matter, the court was told.
The court was also told that one of his homes was used during the set-up phase of the scheme.
ACMA won costs but the amount is yet to be fixed.
Justice Logan also ordered Phillips be banned from setting up profiles on dating and social networking websites for seven years but allowed him personal use.
Phillips has 28 days to pay the penalty.
In October 2009, the Federal Court fined Mobilegate Ltd ($5 million), Winning Bid Pty Ltd ($3.5 million) and Simon Anthony Owen and Tarek Andreas Salcedo ($3 million each) and Glenn Christopher Maughan ($1.25 million).
In December 2009, the same court fined Jobspy Pty Ltd $4 million and Scott Mark Moles $2.5 million.
ACMA has since set up a spam reporting text message service: 0429 999 888. It can also be visited at www.spam.acma.gov.au.

[softball]

Great news.

[Evil Chris]

Sounds like the recent story of that BC guy.

[softball]

As long as scumbags get fucked, its a good day. These guys are all bad for business. Like Nick at ilinks.

[gonzo]

Looks like he was trying to scam mobile by using a variation of the dialer for bogus charges. 2 million dollar fine on a 140K profit.
Times got to be tough these days. I know back when these guys would have laughed at this little money.

You can see that hes trying to join the FFNs with his photo and more details here ... http://www.xbiz.com/news/127934

[RawAlex]

Scott always had the problem that he was a little too clever, always looking for an angle. These charges certainly show someone who was trying to work an angle, no matter how dishonest they had to be to make it work. There are plenty of dating sites out there that are packed full of fake profile, have bots sending out come on mails to try to convert people to paid memberships, etc. I think it is only shame that keeps some of these people from talking it up.

It really does look like Scott has picked up a few extra pounds on the way around too.

[DannyCox]

He has gained a wee bit of weight there! I'll never forget when he just missed me with his projectile vomiting in the elevator at the Clarion hotel in Orlando! That was the night he also had the shit kicked out of him.

I actually thought he was older! He's 35 now which would have made him only 22 back then.

[Evil Chris]

He looks like an asshole.

[angelic]

You REALLY cant be this fucking stupid.. Scott did considerably more than $2M.. He also wasnt running the show..

But please do stick to bitching about "bros" and tubes.. it only benefits the rest of us..

And the ONE thing you dont ask yourselves is.. who launched tubes? And for those of you that might not know (even tho you all just "ignore this little fact"), AEBN did.. at least on a major scale..

So, without AEBN, there wouldve been no tubes..

[Toby]

Originally Posted by angelic

And the ONE thing you dont ask yourselves is.. who launched tubes?

That would be Youtube. They were the first on a large scale, well before AEBN launched Porntube.

However, tubes in and of themselves are not the problem. It's the use of pirated content to bring in the traffic that is the problem.

[angelic]

Originally Posted by Toby

That would be Youtube. They were the first on a large scale, well before AEBN launched Porntube.

However, tubes in and of themselves are not the problem. It's the use of pirated content to bring in the traffic that is the problem.

YouTube mightve been among the first, in mainstream.. But theres still a fairly big difference between that.. and porn..

And my point was, everyone here bitches about tubes.. and its obviously horrible to own a tube even if you converted it to licensed-only.. (even though thats, of course, what AEBN did..)

I guess RedTube, YouPorn are perfectly fine, since they dont allow user uploaded videos, only have licensed vids etc?

You (and I dont mean you Toby..) need to either stop feeling like youre above the people actually making money, or shut the fuck up..

[shall]

Hey YO!

I know ya gotta make a buck where you can.
I loves the tubes.
Great place to entertain the friends for free and a smart guy with an angle can turn it into bank.

Say anyone know of any studios hiring a damn handsome man?
I can guarantee them dollars from the tubes!

If youve got a studio and looking to cash in on the latest sensation of them tubes let me know!

I can show you how to chop up your inventory into scenes and license it out and make some cold hard cash!

I know what Im talking about and they wont resist my deal.
$50 for a scene and Ill give em a 5 year license!

Count that as another win for da bad guys!

[DragonKing]

Scott stayed with me in Antigua back in 98 and prepaid $5k a month
on Condom Project Ads. Back then that was a windfall.

He seemed like a good kid, He was always doing karate motions like katas whenever you would have a conversation with him. It was very amusing, I thought he was a black belt or something..

Danny who kicked his ass back at that show? lol

[DannyCox]

Hey DK, I've been trying to remember who it was. Scott was drunk, acting like an asshole, and had his ass handed to him. That was earlier the same night he threw up in the elevator we were all in.

That was when the only webmaster board was the original YNOT one, and it was a fun topic of discussion for a while.

I actually got along quite well with Scott, but for an Aussie, he sure couldn't hold his drink!

[angelic]

Originally Posted by DannyCox

Hey DK, I've been trying to remember who it was. Scott was drunk, acting like an asshole, and had his ass handed to him. That was earlier the same night he threw up in the elevator we were all in.

Prophet8.. was one of them.. and Im guessing theres a few that he never mentioned too..

[Evil Chris]

Wasn't it Pushrod that beat his ass?