[mythtv-users] Supporting schedulesdirect.org

[David Brodbeck]

On Aug 7, 2007, at 3:15 PM, Robert Current wrote:
> So, they got thousands of "ripped off credit card transactions" they
> were still charged fees on?  $0.50 for thousands is still only
> hundreds of dollars, and if they are shipping that volume of
> merchandise, I'd bet the business had to be VERY good anyway.  The
> merchandise loss is HUGE compared to the fees at that point...

It wasn't a merchandise situation.  They were a nonprofit  
organization accepting donations via credit card.  A scammer  
somewhere decided their site would be a good way to test lists of  
stolen credit card numbers to see which were valid, so he wrote a  
script that did nothing but attempt transactions, as quickly as  
possible.  They got charged a transaction fee on each one, and I  
believe extra fees for rejected ones as well.  Then came the  
chargebacks on all the ones that *did* go through, and the penalties  
for *those*.  All in all it was quite an expensive experience for them.

> And, one would think, if it were that risky, how come anyone does it?

Well, if you're a big enough company, presumably the risk is  
outweighed by the extra business you can do, and you can pay people  
to do nothing but make sure you don't get ripped off.