andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2006-10-30 09:47 pm
andrewducker) wrote2006-10-30 09:47 pm
So, I wanted to listen to the new Snow Patrol album...
The easiest way to do so is to pop to AllOfMP3.com and download it. I mean, I'd _like_ to download it from a more reputable place, but there's nowhere that will do so in a non-DRM format, so AllOfMP3.com it is.
Anyway, I wander along, find the album, hit download, and bump into the problem - Visa have stopped supporting payments to AllOfMP3.com. However, they are still taking payments from a number of cards providers - just not any ones I have. A quick scan of the website shows they _are_ taking money from Xrost - who do prepaid cards for use on sites where you don't want to be handing over your credit card (or where you want to buy credit for a friend). And while Xrost won't let me pay by Visa either, they do take payment via BT's Click&Buy. Who I have an account with because they provide the payments service for The Independent's archive/premium articles. Oh, and they get the money out of my Bank of Scotland account via Direct Debit.
So the money is now going Me->Bank of Scotland->BT->XROST->AllOfMP3. I'm in Scotland, as is the Bank of Scotland. The BT site appears to be based in the US. Xrost seem to be based in Germany, and AllOfMP3 are of course based in Russia.
Money laundering through three intermediary companies in four countries, to listen to music of (at best) questionable legality. I'm remarkably amused.
Anyway, I wander along, find the album, hit download, and bump into the problem - Visa have stopped supporting payments to AllOfMP3.com. However, they are still taking payments from a number of cards providers - just not any ones I have. A quick scan of the website shows they _are_ taking money from Xrost - who do prepaid cards for use on sites where you don't want to be handing over your credit card (or where you want to buy credit for a friend). And while Xrost won't let me pay by Visa either, they do take payment via BT's Click&Buy. Who I have an account with because they provide the payments service for The Independent's archive/premium articles. Oh, and they get the money out of my Bank of Scotland account via Direct Debit.
So the money is now going Me->Bank of Scotland->BT->XROST->AllOfMP3. I'm in Scotland, as is the Bank of Scotland. The BT site appears to be based in the US. Xrost seem to be based in Germany, and AllOfMP3 are of course based in Russia.
Money laundering through three intermediary companies in four countries, to listen to music of (at best) questionable legality. I'm remarkably amused.
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But that's a cleverly sneaky thing you do there - subscribing with an email address whose alias is the service you're subscribing to (therefore allowing you to trace who's passing your email addy onwards).
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www.Tracespam.com
a very usefull service put on by a respected and clever company!