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There are not many times that a person can visit one of the many forums and not see a thread containing drama about money or products owed. It can be someone who paid for services or a product not received or even affiliate programs or those that have contracted work not coughing up the dough they owe. Is the problem really that others are intentionally committing fraud or are they just extraordinarily bad at business and cannot manage time and productivity well?

I think that both scenarios are equally rampant within the adult industry. Although in the mainstream world you run into these types of issues it doesn't seem to be as apparent. Perhaps that is because so many of us that rely on the adult industry for our incomes are slightly out of touch with the real world and don't really pay attention to the incidents as closely as we do with it being in our own backyard. But, when it affects our income we tend to notice a bit more and shout a bit louder about it.

One of the largest problems with people losing money in the adult industry is through the result of purchasing or selling a product or service and not getting paid for it. This happens with affiliate programs not paying their webmasters and it happens with suppliers not providing the product or simply disappearing from the face of the earth. There have been countless industry people with great reputations that have seemingly disappeared with a few hundred or few thousand dollars only to never be heard from again. This typically is a problem when there are international transactions. Either the U.S. based people are scamming and thinking that a foreign webmaster will not have the resources or legal rights to pursue action but most often it happens with foreign webmasters who just disappear after accepting money from a company or individual and agreeing to provide work. These aren't the only instances but it is two of the most common occurrences. The other issue of sponsors not paying doesn't seem to be as prevalent because it is easy to make a post on one of the forums with your claim and the sponsor either typically finds any accounting error that prevented payment or claims that there was some other problem and they send payment along thus placating the webmaster and other concerned affiliates.

It seems as if the largest problem is just time management and prioritizing work when it comes to contractors not being able to provide the goods they were paid for. The allure of money can cloud their judgment and it is easy for them to accept payment or deposit for multiple jobs and then get overwhelmed with the amount of work they now have pending.

There are ways to ensure that you get what you pay for when you contract work from an individual or service provider. You can use a credit card to make payment through whatever service they use for payment processing. This will allow you to charge back any funds you spend with them if you do not receive what you paid for. You also can post on the forums and sully their reputations. However, use this only as a last resort because often there are very good reasons for you having not received the work. It could be as simple as a miscommunication on either end or something as serious as illness. The contractor should always maintain a line of communication but it is not always feasible depending on the circumstances. You also can secure several ways to contact the person that you are contracting with. You can get phone numbers, physical addresses, multiple email addresses and messenger contact information. This will at least allow you to contact them through multiple channels. If the contractor is unwilling to provide this information you might want to look elsewhere.

The affiliate program non-payment is either very easy or very difficult to collect. As stated above often if you out the program on the boards as your last result you will get payment. This is almost the only way to guarantee payment from a program that has stiffed you because the only other route is a civil lawsuit. However, lawsuits are not feasible for most because of either their geographic location or the lack of resources that it would take to fight the offending program.

Fraud is fraud and there is no other way to describe it. However, if it is not a large amount of money and many people are not willing to take the time or effort to ensure that others know about the fraud. It would be helpful to have a centralized location of businesses and individuals that are known for not paying but this type of site would encounter several legal issues that may not make it feasible. The only thing that you can do to protect yourself is be diligent and work only with people that you trust. Sometimes saving a few bucks only costs you more in the long run.