Fudgy McFarlen

Amp-Games.com is it a front for accepting fraudulent credit card purchases of 4.95 Dollar?

A friend recently found that his credit card was already used on a existing PayPal account.  Thus he could not add this credit card to his existing account.  Upon review of his credit card bill several purchases for approximately 5 dollars appear randomly over the past year from various websites.  One of the sites is Amp-Games.com.  If you look up Amp-Games.com on Alexa you will see that it has no traffic numbers.  In order to have no traffic numbers it has to have almost nonexistant traffic.  Thus here is what I theorize is happening.

  1. Joe Blow sets many many websites where he can sell some stupid game software like on Amp-Games.com.  The idea is to deliver an electronic product that you can claim is not bogus.
  2. Joe then hacks or gets a big list of credit card numbers.
  3. Joe uses this credit card info to set up a PayPal accounts.
  4. Joe goes to a coffee shop off site and makes purchases from his websites using paypal accounts.  Now he can just say he receives money for a legitimate purpose. It is not HIS fault someone used a fraudulant credit card transaction.
  5. Since it is only 5 bucks most people will not even notice the charge on their account
  6. If you read the user agreement Amp-Games.com you will see: Refund Policy – We guarantee a full refund of purchase made on our website if the customer is not satisfied with the quality of the product or has additional requirements. The refund is processed within 2 business days.  …………..Thus if anybody sees the charge on their credit card bill and complains they just give the money back.

If I was a scoundrel this is how I would do it.   Its low on the radar.  The scam may go on for years or forever for that matter.

Addendum:  This scam looks alot like something mentioned in this story:   FTC Says Scammers Stole Millions, Using Virtual Companies

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Visual Basic Connection to MySQL

I want to use MySQL with Visual Basic in an effort to bypass the difficulties encountered when trying to use the Microsoft database tools.  Those problems include chronic difficulties getting my distribution packages to work on customer computers.

Download zip archive of vb project that connects to MySQL database

Making a Visual Basic Installation package including MySQL

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

El Conde Lucanor – Chapter 1

Una vez estaba hablando apartadamente el Conde Lucanor con Patronio, su consejero, y le dijo:          One time was speaking apart  Count Lucanor with Patronio his adviser, e they said:

-Patronio, un hombre ilustre, poderoso y rico, no hace mucho me dijo de modo confidencial que, como ha tenido algunos problemas en sus tierras, le gustaría abandonarlas para no regresar jamás, y, como me profesa gran cariño y confianza, me querría dejar todas sus posesiones, unas vendidas y otras a mi cuidado. Este deseo me parece honroso y útil para mí, pero antes quisiera saber qué me aconsejáis en este asunto.

"Patronio, an illustrious man, powerful and rich, not does much (not long ago) me told in mode of confidence that, how had some problems on his land, would like  to  abandon  for no to return of more, e,  how me profess great love and confidence, me want to leave leave total of his possessions, some sold and others in my care. This desire seems honorable and useful for me, but first wanted to know what you advise me in this matter.

-Señor Conde Lucanor -dijo Patronio-, bien sé que mi consejo no os hace mucha falta, pero, como confiáis en mí, debo deciros que ese que se llama vuestro amigo lo ha dicho todo para probaros y me parece que os ha sucedido con él como le ocurrió a un rey con un ministro.

Sir Count Lucanor  -say Patronio,  good I know that my councel not do much fault, but, how confide in me, I must say you that this you call your friend  has said all for I prove and appears that  I have succeeded with it how occurs a king with a minister.

El Conde Lucanor le pidió que le contara lo ocurrido. 

Lucanor Count asked me to tell him what happened.

……….more

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Onward to Copenhagen

Damn The Torpedos full speed ahead

" Damn the torpedos! "  Captain Obama shouted.   We'll deliver this load of government cheese come hell or high water!   Just what kind of cheese I could not discern.  It was the foulest case I had ever encountered.  It stunk to high heaven and we were going to be smellng it for weeks on end.   When finally I saw the mark of the maker on the cheese disks I saw that it was some sort of circular symbol with a sky and earth.  I would say heaven and earth but heaven can not smell like this cheese.

As we sailed at flank speed towards oblivion I could not help but think of the horrible view of the hull below deck.  I could not put the ominous hole in the hull of the ship where I saw water gushing  out of my mind.  The image of the men trying to fix the bilge pumps who looked panicked and shot furtive glimpses that seemed to say without words:

" We are doomed for the fool that runs this ship "

……more

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

What eventually happens to most stamp collections

I was at the post shipping some items when in came a man with a stack of boxes.  The boxes were all covered in stamps.  Seems what he does is buy large stamp collections on ebay and use them for postage!  The reason why this works is people who inherit stamp collections want money not the stamps.  Thus when they sell the collection most times they sell at a discount over face value.    After a quick review on ebay I realized I could not recreate this scenario for my own shipping needs.  Any ideas why students?   A look at ebay quickly reveals why.   You have to sort through a large number of junky stamp auctions to do this trick.   The only way you do this is to be very interested in stamp collecting yourself.  It is my guess that this fellow probably sifts through collections and looks for any gems and removes them before using the more ordinary stamps for postage.   I would not be surprised if  he is selling some of these winnowed collections again on ebay.  The size of boxes he ships are large enough that if he is doing this then he is selling large notebooks full of them. Likely more than one book too.

The world is full of arbitrages.  Some of them require a genuine interest.  I find stamps boring to the extreme.

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago