Unbeknownst to Us…
This page was last updated on February 15, 2020.
“As the Supreme Court has long recognized, speech facilitating criminal conduct—
including adult and underage prostitution—is categorically excluded from First
Amendment protection. ”
“TER has always operated within the law, and it takes FOSTA seriously.” LOL
Woodhill FOSTA Lawsuit Announcement
The Erotic Review magically came back by allowing users from the USA to access their website with no virtual private network (VPN) needed.
Whatever you do, I advise using a VPN while perusing that board. Seriously.
TER was originally THP Internet Resources LTD, but they are now No Excuses Agents LTD. ZoomInfo
Do Not Pay Using Your Real World Information
TER uses a Cypriot shell company to accept payments for their sketchy business.
The Erotic Review was mentioned in some government document about money laundering and human trafficking, so avoid having your personal financial info linked to them and their payment processor… Following the Money: How Human Traffickers Exploit U.S. Financial Markets
So. don’t use your credit card linked to your personal bank account to pay for VIP access.
Best to use the gift card payment option for discretion!
The term “shell company/entity” refers to a limited liability company or any other legal/business entity that bears the following characteristics:
It has no physical presence or operations in its country of incorporation/registration (other than a mailing address);
Physical presence of a company/entity is construed as having a place of business or operations (own or rented premises) in the country of registration/incorporation. Also, absence of meaningful mind and management could be construed as lack of physical presence. The presence of a third person providing merely nominee services including company secretary duties does not constitute on its own physical presence
and
it has no established economic activity in its country of incorporation/registration, little to no independent economic value and no documentary proof to the contrary.
What Are Shell Companies? — Cyprus Legal Consultants
TER’s servers and company registration may all be offshore, but many of us speculate that their associates are indeed here on U.S. soil.
PROVIDERS, BE CAREFUL DELISTING
The Erotic Review was being cooperative in the beginning with the delist requests from providers, but they are now resorting to threats.
TER is threatening to report providers to human trafficking organizations (yet, TER would just be telling on themselves with their reviews promoting trafficking).
NOTE: Regarding the two images above, TER claimed that these responses were fake because they were sent from their support email (support@theeroticreview.com) and not their admin email (admin@theeroticreview.com)
Umm…. Last I checked, ALL delist requests were instructed to email TER’s support email, so it’s way more believable that revolting human trafficking threat response from the TER support email was REAL.
How & why would TER admin email address respond to a delist request when the request wasn’t even originally sent to the admin email in the first place???????
As readers keeping reading, they will see that I have more images from email responses from TER Support to providers with issues with TER’s website.
CLIENTS, IT’S NOT EASY FOR PROVIDERS TO DELIST
This is control. If TER were just a simple review site, they would honor a provider’s request to be delisted. Nothing more, nothing less…
“No TER Review Companion” by Atlanta strong-minded provider, Storm. Bad Review Site | The Erotic Review
Contrary to popular belief, those who side with TER believe that TER truly delists all providers who request to be delisted from their website.
However, TER makes it very difficult for us to delist, and they’ll also threaten how we’re still able to be reviewed just because of our online presence.
TER is creating a buyer’s market where they dream of providers being their profit takers instead of the profit makers…
CLIENTS, TER WANTS TO DOMINATE THE ONLINE SEX MARKET
“We owe our members the duty of posting their reviews irrespective of what the provider has on her site.” — The Erotic Review. y’all!
The image above with TER’s private message response to a provider requesting to be delisted back in 2017 details how TER wants to take over the online prostitution scene. The image to the right side here is another example of TER wanting to control a provider’s reputation online.
Let’s not forget back in July 2018, it was reported that TER canoodled with Backpage to corner the online prostitution market as well.
The other aspect of Lacey and Larkin’s plan to knowingly corner the prostitution market, prosecutors now charge, involved a quid-pro-quo deal with the site Erotic Review, on which customers posted consumer reviews of prostitutes and prostitution services. Under the deal, each site placed ads on the other, creating what Backpage executives called “huge brand awareness.” Backpage garnered more than 1 million additional page views as a result of the deal, according to internal documents cited in the indictment.
Read More: New Indictment — Backpage Bosses Schemed to Corner Sex Ad Market
I hope this shows clients how difficult TER can be towards providers who do not want to be affiliated with their website in any way.
Read More: Satan itself… The Erotic Review is Back
CLIENTS, PROVIDERS DON’T HAVE CONTROL OF THEIR PROFILE PAGE ON THE EROTIC REVIEW
Those provider profiles are damn near advertisements.
“Aggravated Violation — Whoever, using a facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, owns, manages, or operates an interactive computer service (as such term is defined in defined in 1 section 230(f) the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f))), or conspires or attempts to do so, with the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person and—
(1) promotes or facilitates the prostitution of 5 or more persons.”
There’s the provider’s contact information, their rates, their services, their appearance along with their reviews which just adds on further to the promotional aspect of these provider profiles.
Clients, please know that we don’t have the power to edit our own profiles. TER controls the records of all the providers on their website — yet, that could make them potentially liable for facilitating prostitution…
“By inserting The Erotic Review links in Backpage
postings, Backpage was knowingly facilitating prostitution. ”
Example of my request to change information in my profile that I sent to TER awhile back. If I were TER’s lawyer, I would of immediately told them to STOP editing these profiles themselves. Seriously.
The fact that TER edits the provider profiles themselves makes them liable for promoting prostitution. For example, they can be liable for facilitating prostitution due to adding links to other escort directories with the ‘Ad Link’ on the profile pages.
Read More: How Liable Are You For Your User-Generated Content?
Furthermore, TER’s control over our profile pages just adds on to their whole destined plans to takeover the online prostitution scene.
TER is recklessly fighting their way to be king with no regards to all the potential risks. Especially during FOSTA…
Nevertheless, Backpage's approximately four-year reciprocal link business relationship with The Erotic Review further demonstrates that Backpage knowingly facilitated prostitution.
TER likely returned due to all the profit loss they had from their absence from the USA. TER’s Cypriot shell company isn’t going to save them from FOSTA. The FBI has arrested foreign folks for cyber criminal activity. Just sayin’….
CLIENTS, THE EROTIC REVIEW’S RATING SYSTEM IS RIGGED
The rating system makes providers compete against one another, the review system pressures providers to engage in unsafe activities in order to get a higher rating. Take note of the highlighted text in the screenshot below from TER’s FAQ:
How a provider is rated on The Erotic Review. TER Reviewer FAQ.
CLIENTS, DO NOT WRITE FAKE REVIEWS FOR VIP ACCESS
Yeah, it’s cheaper to write some pornographic BS review just to get some free access to the VIP features of TER; however, be aware that reviews have been used in the past by LE to prosecute clients.
Read More: Inside the Fight to Take Down Online Prostitution Boards
The founder of The Erotic Review, Dave Elms, also wrote fake reviews himself. Since TER was so influential in the online sex market, some agencies would pay Elms to keep up 10/10 perfect rating reviews of their providers on his website to keep business flowing.
THAT FAKE REVIEW COULD COST YOU
Those who do engage in writing harmful fake reviews with intent to ruin a provider’s reputation could easily be sued if the market were regulated.
Individual users on mainstream review sites such as Yelp have hit with a lawsuit from businesses for writing a fake and negative review.
Be aware of the difference between an opinion and a fact. If the customer reviews a negatively about how they didn’t like it, then that’s their opinion. So, they’re free from legal worries. However, if the customer reviews, comments, etc. with harsh lies about how the business stole their money and the business did this and did that, then if that customer has no proof at all, then they’re liable to get served…
Read More: Lawsuits Against User Comments
With the previous images showing TER’s threats to out a provider to government agencies, as a client, do you really think TER wouldn’t hand over your information as well if they were cooperating?
Think about it…
PROVIDERS, TER CATERS TO CLIENTS
Well, that’s a no brainer. Quartz
TER EDITED PREVIOUS REVIEWS IN 2016
In December 2016, TER initiated a new rating system that is now the current system that requires providers to perform certain acts in order to generate a high score.
TER will outright reject the review, and then tell the reviewer to add more graphic details. Backpage used to tell users what to edit in their ads, but stopped once they realized it could make them liable. TER is only digging a deeper grave for themselves with their reckless moderation of illegal content…
TER, of course, claimed the rumors of them altering past review ratings was FAKE NEWS.
However, it was REAL SHIT.
TER doesn’t care about anyone else’s feelings but their own. Why do you think they came abruptly? They finally got the balls to run business again, so they can make money that they lost from a near two year absence. Nothing more, nothing less… @FCKTER
The fact that TER willingly edited user-generated content such as review ratings, to their liking, makes them potentially liable for that content now.
TER alters their user-generated content such as the reviews written by their users by editing the user’s original rating to a new rating based on their liking.
TER CANOODLED WITH BACKPAGE
In 2007, Backpage established a reciprocal link business relationship with The Erotic Review — which BP paid thousands of dollars.
The Erotic Review and Backpage made a business deal to generate ‘brand awareness’ for each other by allowing Backpage advertisers to put their TER ID in their ads.
Google Analytics revealed that The Erotic Review was Backpage’s #1 referral source for Backpage’s web traffic.
Dave Elms (founder of TER) invoice to Backpage.
THE EROTIC REVIEW PROSTITUTION BUSINESS DEALS
“Backpage also engaged in another business practice by entering into a financial
arrangement with “affiliates” or “super affiliates” like “Dollar Bill,” an individual who
earned fees for knowingly arranging for prostitutes and pimps to post ads on Backpage. ”
The Erotic Review reviews are allowed on P411, another website known for prostitution. So, I’m sure TER cut a deal with P411 to allow providers to post reviews from TER back onto their P411 pages. This business arrangement could make TER liable for facilitating prostitution along with their affiliate program.
WHY IS TER BACK ALL OF A SUDDEN
Note: The reasoning below is my own personal opinion of why I think TER magically reappeared. Don’t take my opinion as fact since it’s just a theory…
TER was once ranked high in the 3,000s for the USA on Alexa, but it quickly went downhill when they got cold feet after FOSTA first hit.
LEGAL
The Erotic Review got cold feet when FOSTA first hit.
I’m not believing the attorney, lawyer, etc. story that TER is feeding us for their reason for closing shop abruptly because an attorney would definitely NOT advise their client on risking a potential human trafficking federal offense by re-opening its doors during FOSTA.
TER was affiliated with Backpage, so when they heard that they got seized, of course their first instinct was to GTFO!
“Hyer described Backpage’s relationship with The Erotic Review in the factual basis of his guilty plea as follows: Among other things, the true nature of the ads was obvious and we sometimes used ads appearing on The Erotic Review (a website where customers would post “reviews” of their encounters with prostitutes, including descriptions of prices charged for particular sex acts) as the source of the content for the new Backpage ads we were creating. ”
No lawyer, attorney, etc. told them to block US access for their safety. In my opinion, the way that TER left so suddenly on Friday, April 6, 2018, makes me think they made that decision to ban US visitors themselves.
I feel TER doesn’t look out for anyone’s best interest but themselves. They never warned their users of their sudden closure nor informed them about their random return, and they didn’t take the proper precautions to prepare for the wrath of FOSTA. Fear made them leave.
“CNN wrote that in one day alone it “pulled up over 12,000 postings in the [Backpage] escort category,” “the vast majority of [which] appeared to be for illegal prostitution.” Many ads “contained an identification number for a separate web site. The Erotic Review ,” “where men rate the sexual performance of the women they buy. The inclusion of Erotic Review numbers on backpage.com ads offers strong evidence that these current ads are in fact for illegal prostitution.”
”
During TER’s absence, there was likely no lawyer present telling them to keep away from the US. I think TER was just observing the scene to see if the risk was worth it. Since no other review board had endured any FOSTA related issues during their ban, they decided to test the waters again.
Finally, nearly two years later, they found their balls again and re-launched. After all, they got a business to run…
MONEY
The Erotic Review has made millions for their illegal reviews of an illegal industry.
So, when profits took a hit after they banned USA access to their website for almost 2 years due to FOSTA, they were likely flipping out over the loss and how quickly their empire crumbled down.
POWER
TER’s biggest motivation for returning is desire to control.
PrivateDelights, TNABoard, and other boards were up during FOSTA, but TER doesn’t want these boards taking the top spot.
So, they had to come back sooner or later to let everyone know who’s boss, of course.
NEW DECADE, NEW RULES, NEW OUTLOOK
I personally do not mind reviews since I use reviews myself as a consumer. I want to know what I’m spending my money on, and if it’s even worth it. I get it!
However, I don’t think mainstream review websites such as Yelp is trying to dominate the restaurant scene by making restaurants serve up meals based on their liking and downvoting them when they don’t prep meals a certain way. Yelp also doesn’t make restaurants delete all their online ads, their Google My Business listing, their TripAdvisor page, etc. if they want their business removed from their site.
That’s how The Erotic Review fucks up the review scene…
The owner of CityXGuide becomes the first to be indicted under FOSTA — sex trafficking law aimed at seizing online escort directories.