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Actually, I Meant to Give My Credit Card Info to a Russian Music Download Service

After reading what d.sankey.ca had to say about allofmp3.com, I thought maybe I’d try it out. I mean, if you could legally, and without installing a bunch of crapware on your computer, get high quality downloads of albums for about $1.50 apiece, wouldn’t you be curious?

I was.

So I then read the kind of FAQ that tells you what you really need to know. What I really needed to know was 1) is this really legal? and 2) is my identity and credit card info going to be harvested for evil?

Turns out, they’ve anticipated those two questions. “I am not going to let my credit card number fall into the hands of Russian mafia” is the language they used. And they explained in English why their setup, around since 2001, is legal.

I tried to set up a deposit account — giving them ten bucks for a gig of music — but my credit card wasn’t authorized. I was kinda bummed, since I downloaded two free songs (the 10MB you get for free when you register) and the quality was good.

Then my credit card issuer called me. Someone from the fraud protection unit actually called me about a ten dollar transaction. Okay, okay, a ten dollar transaction with an internet company in Russia. Did I try and do such a thing?

Well, yeah, surprisingly enough, I did.

So the credit card company apologized, and told me if I tried to run the transaction again it would be approved. And that is why I have 67 new tracks on the iPod and nearly five dollars left to spend. So far, so good.

I tripped across your site sometime last week and saw this post. I remember hearing about allofmp3 a couple of years ago (could it be that long?). Anyway, sfter seeing your post, I decided to check it out again and paid the Russians $15 to see what they had to offer. Really, not a bad service when you get past the legality of it all. Certainly more karma friendly than leeching from Kazaa-like resources.

Although at this point I feel a little jilted: my credit card company had no problem at all with me giving my number to them.

[...] When I wasn’t writing about serious issues, I took on big time topics like hamsters vs gerbils and why you shouldn’t care who Jason Kottke is. There was friday night geekery, “shady” Russian music service exploits and the joy of Thirty People and a Monkey. [...]