[Asterisk-biz] Tomtelecom

[trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Sat, 2005-11-19 at 21:34 -0500, Paul wrote:
> 1) Setup a paypal account
> 
business or premium account, the 100% free normal account doesnt
qualify.


> 2) After 60 days request the card. It's free.
> 
Its not 'free' as such, you have to subscribe to an account that charges
you to receive paypal payments.  

You are entitled to two paypal accounts in total, a personal and a
business account.

Further paypal has been sued many times for wrongfully seizing money, in
some instances they placed a fraud hold on the funding checking account
via their payment systems (basically they call someone who calls somenoe
who gets hold of someone at your bank who then locks your account).
This has resulted in MANY lawsuits (far more than the class action I was
involved in).

For these and many other reasons there are a geat many people who dont
like paypal. google around and you will find many websites dedicated to
sharing such experiences, and resolutions.  

I am not saying dont use paypal, they do process billions of dollars a
year in transactions, so there has to be a certain level of customers
that decide to use it.  I am however saying dont go in blind, and then
get caught later.

Also be mindful of their TOS.  A colo company got their account
suspended becuase they allowed adult website customers colo boxes.
Pretty petty if you ask me, but meh.


> 3) Use the add money procedure to get a few dollars into the paypal
> account. It takes 2 or 3 days for them to debit my bank account and make
> the funds available.
> 
> 4) Now go to websites of vendors you hate and give them the new card
> number. You will typically see a charge for $1 that is voided a day
> later. This is how they check the new card number when you enter it.
> 
paypal has disposable virtual card numbers as well, you can get that
online and use that instead of the plastic one you get in the mail.  It
used to be a different number at any rate.

Bank of America and a few others have had similar online only virtual
cards where you can set a specific amount available on the card and only
that amount.  

Greendot.com has prepaid mastercard debit cards (part of mastercards
'wired plastic' program).

There are many alternatives, but there is a big problem with them all,
especially green dot which lets you pay in cash, while the patriot act
requires them to verify the info on the primary account person
subsequent cards in different names can be ordered (greendots student
card program allows for 2 cards linked, paypal lets you get 2 cards,
etc).  The second name can be ANYTHING and the billing address is easy
to get around.  So even if you have a merchant account that verifies
name, address, etc a customer can subscribe with only $20 on the card
and if its not a prepaid service they can rack up several thousand
dollars in charges in a month then walk.  You cant bill the card becuase
there isnt any value on that card.

This is harder for someone to do with paypal but there are many many
companies that offer this.  There are also some companies in foreign
countries that dont verify any info, but give you a mastercard debit
card.  Google for 'wired plastic' to see some examples.

It applies more than just to cancelations, it can be a vehicle of fraud.
Prepaid customers are generally safe from this type of abuse, however
subscription customers can have serious problems in this regard.


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
UK +44 870 340 4605   Germany +49 801 777 555 3402
US +1 360 207 0479 or +1 516 687 5200
FreeWorldDialup: 635378
http://www.sacaug.org/ Sacramento Asterisk Users Group
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