I am the person who started the infamous NYC "flame" last March when I described my experience with NYConfi and Jason.
Many of my posts at that time (and I assume those of others also), were heavily moderated. I will briefly rehash the events to see if a lesson can be learned here for the moderator and TER members.
I had an appointment no show because the young woman who I was to meet was "coked out" with Jason in New Jersey at his house, were he was under house arrest for assaulting his pregnant fiance. This information was not given by me in the initial posts (to protect the source), however when the March posts took on a more personal tone I felt this information was extremely important to NYConfi clients and included it. It was moderated because (pay attention here Captyve) of the rumour policy. At the time of my March posts I stated that this creep was an accident waiting to happen and a tangle with LE was inevitable. My reason for this opinion was because I had inside info and I attepted to share this with the board but was denied. I can appreciate that confirming rumours/slander etc is difficult at best but this board is here as a tool to help us all (or at least it was until recently). In hindsight it would have been easy for TER to cofirm bases on what we know now
Finally, for those of you concerned about conficated records, they kept computer records. This is not a rumour but a fact.
Why should you apologize? You acted upon information provided to you and made an honest attempt to notify everyone in hopes of saving them "grief" down the road. No need to apologize for that. If people read your concerns and decide to blow them off, so what, that is their problem.
My attempt at letting the world know of my experience was rejected by TER. Come on TER.. What's the point of this place if you are going to allow providers to self promote their business? What's the point of this place if we as members are unable to post our experiences on these providers? What's the point of this place if we as members are unable to be provided with a complete un-biased opinion of these providers?
As far as computer disks... You can format a disk till the moon turns green; the data can still be recovered. The only way to ensure a hard drive is not readable is to take it out, open it up and break each and every cylinder into a thousand pieces and throw those pieces off a very high bridge.... I know... I do forensic data recovery.....
Here is what I said about Seguy's original post. Truer words were never spoken. Rumors are for women who gossip under hair dryers snapping gum as they read about J.Lo and Ben.
From my post of 4/17/2004:
These threads are invaluable for anyone in NYC considering NYConfidential as an agency. For anyone who wandered in, here is the story--go to the initial post of 4/8/2004 9:47 PM post of seguy entitled: "A Warning to NY Confidential Customers" and subsequent threads, particularly "Regarding NY Confidential's Threat" by thats_amore from 4/10/2004 7:25AM.
"In a nutshell, here is what the threads say:
seguy complains that he didn't get to spend $1400 for a two-hour session with a NYCon girl. The initial complaint is of no real interest to anyone, except that NYCon, in two subsequent posts threatens to publish the real name of seguy. Caught in the spotlight, they try to back-track by propounding the wacky theory that because NYCon is owned by a lawyer, all of NYCons customers are protected by "attorney-client" Privilege. Astoundingly enough, both the threat and the wacky legal theory substantiate what seguy had predicted in his initial complaint: that NYCon was very sloppy with customer confidentiality and that the management of NYCon thought their customers were idiots. NYCon's posts proved just those two points."
No rumor-mongering, no drooling, simple dissection of fact: NYCon was condemend by its own words.
The no rumor policy without posting the source of the rumor should remain at TER.
-- Modified on 1/13/2005 11:45:01 AM
So Mr Captyve under your scenario Watergate and Nixons antics would never have seen the light of day. I have already said that dealing with the rumour/fact issue is complicated. The fact is if my posts were not monitored in March 04, people would have been better informed. Captyve you are suggesting that I should have either betrayed my word to the individual who gave me the information or kept my mouth closed.
PS The reason for the Apology in the subject line was because of bringing up this NYConfi matter again.
As you may--or may not--be aware, the Federal Trade Commission prevents General Motors from saying that every Ford Explorer was involved in an accident that was caused by one of the wheels flying off a moving Ford Explorer. The FTC investigates the truth of every advertising claim. If the only people who had an interest in evaluating and publishing the results of test drives of automobile were the editorially independent salaried reviewers from Car&Driver, than there would be no need for an FTC. Unfortunately, both the proclaimer of virtue and the denouncer of competitors have an economic interest in puffing up an escort agency or denouncing a competitor.
Mr. Woodward and Mr. Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters, played by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in the movie--it was movie, not a documentary, Robert Redford wasn't really a Washington Post reporter--did a tremendous amount of actual investigative reporting which you don't seem to be aware of. They didn't hang around in bars and pick up rumors. They hung around bars, heard rumors, and then confronted the source of those rumors until they got incontrovertible FACT and published both the FACT and the SOURCE. I'll let you have the last word if you don't know the difference between investigative journalism and a competing escort agency spreading a vicious rumor, something that NYConfi frequently did.
...I heard through a friend, who told me he heard from someone very well-connected and high up in the hairdressing world, that Ben adn JLo broke up. Imagine the shock we all must be feeling!!
Of course, this is a rumor. I won't believe it until I read int in the Daily Globe (Right next to the story about an Alien giving birth to Arnold Schwazzeneggers love child).
C'mon guys, lighten up. Make yur own decisions, and trust who is worthy of trusting. Pretty simple. This is supposed t abe fun, right?
WBD
Well, my questions that I beg to have answered is --- what will happen with these computer records. Is it common for prosecution to extend to the users of the agencies too? I am wondering when I am going to get a phone call from NY finest....
Answer please...
More than likely they will be used to determine the amount of revenues that came through the door which will be the beginning of a money trail.
I doubt they will come after the johns... They will try to establish how much came in, what was paid to the girls. They will then go after Jason and some if not most of the girls and attempt to locate the money, freeze their assests and hit them with tax evasion and money laundering charges.
Giving us a view based on real expertise about
computer data recovery.
From the lay-man point of view: the claim "we never
keep records" was SO inherently implausible. Especially
I heard that guy would routinely solicit repeat
business even from 1st-time ccustomers.
I really don't think they'll bother you. But, hope
this helps, if you never used a credit card--just
say all a mistake. Yeah, you may've made 4 or 5
phone calls to them and they have your #--but
without the card receipt? You just MAYBE telephone-
sought something that there's no record you got,
so don't sweat it. (You guessed, I only use cash,
and NEVER came near NYConfi due their integrity
rating per the Board).