Useful Thoughts and Actions Taken

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