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Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

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Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#121
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

loading across multiple providers won't alter the chargeback ratio so what is the point?

Chargeback ratio's are per account, but also have a minimum absolute threshold. So it's say, 2% chargeback AND at least 200 chargebacks before penalties kick in. In a past life I worked for a place who had a few hundred processing accounts to load balance it all out because their chargeback rates were way too high. If an account gets close, you just don't use it for a month, or you throw a bunch of "safe" recurring c…

They went to prison for load balancing, or how does this relate?

Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#122

Cascading payments might be the real answer, and shuffling higher risk charges to non-Stripe providers, but in my experience, Stripe can get pretty moralizing pretty quickly. We built an adult ecommerce site (purely toys for purchase, no porn) and because other adult toy sites had been successful on Stripe, Stripe assured us this wouldn't be a problem. Six months and several million dollars processed later, Stripe in…

>where Stripe suggested we alter the colors available What? Like flesh colored was ok but definitely not green ones or something?

I'm going to suggest that it's `whose flesh` colouring that they are most likely offended by.

Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#123

Cascading payments might be the real answer, and shuffling higher risk charges to non-Stripe providers, but in my experience, Stripe can get pretty moralizing pretty quickly. We built an adult ecommerce site (purely toys for purchase, no porn) and because other adult toy sites had been successful on Stripe, Stripe assured us this wouldn't be a problem. Six months and several million dollars processed later, Stripe in…

This is the best thing I've read all week.

Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#124
post #121
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chargeback ratio's are per account, but also have a minimum absolute threshold. So it's say, 2% chargeback AND at least 200 chargebacks before penalties kick in. In a past life I worked for a place who had a few hundred processing accounts to load balance it all out because their chargeback rates were way too high. If an account gets close, you just don't use it for a month, or you throw a bunch of "safe" recurring c…

They went to prison for load balancing, or how does this relate?

Gambling.

Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#125
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

loading across multiple providers won't alter the chargeback ratio so what is the point?

Chargeback ratio's are per account, but also have a minimum absolute threshold. So it's say, 2% chargeback AND at least 200 chargebacks before penalties kick in. In a past life I worked for a place who had a few hundred processing accounts to load balance it all out because their chargeback rates were way too high. If an account gets close, you just don't use it for a month, or you throw a bunch of "safe" recurring c…

Don't tease us like that! Sounds like a fantastic blog story.

Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#126
post #25

How much of the internet traffic is actually pornography in general? I have heard a lot of anecdotal hearsay that it constitutes a majority.

At least in the US, Netflix and Google/YouTube represent over 50% of web bandwidth use, I believe.

Somewhat old statistics here: https://www.cnet.com/news/netflix-youtube-gobble-up-half-of-... and https://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/11/21/netflix-now-accounts-... and https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/05/28... (all from Sandvine, mind you)

I would have to imagine that, also being a streaming video service, PornHub and the rest of MindGeek's properties consolidated probably take up another decent portion.

Those of us just posting on Internet forums, reading news, and sending emails use a tiny minuscule portion of Internet traffic comparatively. There's a reason ISPs want to charge extra/differently for high bandwidth streaming video: It's the vast majority of what's loading up their networks.

Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#127
post #9

Onlyfans is a platform for content subscriptions. It just happens to be a popular platform for adult content. Also, it surely makes them a ton of money.

You can say this about literally anything: Pornhub is just a platform for VOD. It just happens to be a popular platform for adult content.

I think that’s a stretch. There _is_ a line and OnlyFans is at the very least _on_ it.

While I am aware of the adult content on the site, the only people that I know of that use OnlyFans are subscribing to physical training, musical talent, or other creative content. Unironically.

Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#128
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stripe JS uses an iframe for card number which blocks the site from accessing the number. And the only way to access the card number is either a security hole in the iframe message handling or in the browser.

Not really. It's true that the main site (parent of the iframe) wouldn't normally have access to the card numbers, but there's nothing preventing you from replacing the iframe entirely. There isn't an "address bar" for iframes, and people certainty aren't manually checking the address by right-clicking, so there's a very high chance you can get away with it. Even if some user checked and noticed the iframe was missin…

Yeah that is true. I guess in the end you still have to trust the site unless it uses the stripe hosted checkout.

Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#129
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend and I were 13 and called 1-900 numbers back when it was popular. We took his moms credit card and changed some numbers around. Eventually a number we made up worked. It was a hilarious moment but I was scared to death we would be found out. Nothing ever happened but somebody got a charge.

Do they not ask for a CVV or any other verification?

In the 90s many sites didn't ask for CVV, including AOL. And many gas station receipts printed the entire credit card number. And that's how some kids got online in the early-mid 90s...

Re: Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule?

#130
post #121
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chargeback ratio's are per account, but also have a minimum absolute threshold. So it's say, 2% chargeback AND at least 200 chargebacks before penalties kick in. In a past life I worked for a place who had a few hundred processing accounts to load balance it all out because their chargeback rates were way too high. If an account gets close, you just don't use it for a month, or you throw a bunch of "safe" recurring c…

They went to prison for load balancing, or how does this relate?

The technical reason was bank fraud for all the shell corporations they set up in the process. The bank claimed they had no idea they were all related, even though every application had the owners name on the paperwork.

To be clear, it was a bad company. However, the bank 100% knew what was going on and the merchant accounts 100% knew what was going on. So long as they were making money, and chargebacks make them a lot of money, they were happy. In my opinion the people running the company were just naive enough to not know how to cover their asses as well as the money guys.

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