No, not at all. In my opinion, you couldn't drag the vast majority of people into this.

You may be right
I may be crazy
but it might just be a lunatic MSer you're lookin' for
:D

I'm not sayin' word of mouth is killin' it, but massive online exposure sure is. And for me, who lives in a more provincial-minded town of maybe 12,000 people, when someone walks into the store for GCs it raises eyebrows. If someone else does, they think there must be a fraud network hitting their quiet little town. This tends to be the attitude in a lot of towns around here as well.

When someone asks me what and how, I often say I am a travel consultant or booking agent, or better yet, a currency trader. And yeah, most dont really want to know anyway lol

Perhaps.
But it seems clear you can drag a certain set of criminals into this. Tampered cards have suddenly become pervasive on my regular route. Card packets virtually impossible to cull out before purchase unless the manager is willing to accommodate you stripping the card packet apart.
Much more destructive than even the most clueless noob.
Oh well. At least I am getting to meet LEOs and not be the person of interest for once lol.

:confused: First I've heard of this, and I must admit, I don't exactly understand what you are referring to. What kind of cards, and tampered how? I saw some of this with VRs, where the code is on the outside, but with OVs and VGs, where the code is inside, how can it happen?

+1

I don't see what this thread has to do with anything, since the small minority of people who do want to play can easily learn about it thru the regular blogs. Only the blogs don't usually tell them everything they know to do it correctly, so they are more likely to screw things up. Seems the more people who read about it here, the fewer major errors are going to be committed. IMHO

Its on usbank mcgc. i will post details in grocery thread later.

Apparently, some mouthy people told an entire synagogue congregation, and a number of them took up the cause. They killed the local OMax for gift cards by all coming in at once and buying up cards.

There has been a thread on it in the MS forum since June and numerous reports previous to that even...on 1st page of MS forum right now. Its called performing your due diligence and knowing whats going on, but here's the link for the ones who cannot hold there own spoon and are waiting on the airplace of applesauce

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...ard-fraud.html

I not gonna post #'s here, but we will just say well into 5 figures a week:D

.... Says the MS FFU session leader :) or it's ok to tell someone else's neighbor, just not yours?

While I think the whole "spoonfeed" thing has gotten all out of hand here at FT (does anyone recall FT being nearly so derisive before gcs came into fashion?), I will side with those slamming the bloggers and FFU celebretants, etc. for oversimplifying and glamorizing the whole MS subculture. (Yeah, and I think that goes for MS songs, too.)

While I'm not looking for anyone's pity, the reality of MSing, especially in an urban area, is that you are basically taking on some of the lifestyle of a narco mule.

I routinely have 5 figures of gcs in my unattended car, and mid-4 figures on my person. Some of my purchases are in neighborhoods where the only ones with that kind of cash are drug dealers or wiseguys. I stick out like a sore thumb.

It would not take a brain surgeon to catch onto my traffic pattern. In some stores the register display screen is turned so anyone within 5 feet can see the total amount. And only not looking just needs to keep their ears open as the cashiers are trained/required to verbally state the total sale amount.

Similar to how no one sheds a tear when a scammer gets scammed, don't espect anyone to be on your side if and when your MS purchases hit a glitch. Some store managers/clerks see MSers as akin to criminals and deserving of whatever misfortunes may happen.

Police may or may not have the same opinion of MSing, depending on the jurisdiction. And may or may not run a background check on you if you come in to report being scammed.

All of that, of course, is in addition to the AML-related LEO misadventures MSing can bring.

The bloggers are like a bunch of porn sites all chatting up the thrills while making small fortunes selling performance enhancement drugs/devices ... I mean to say credit card affiliate application links.

Like I said, not looking for any pity. Just saying that if you want to play the MS game you need to have your eyes wide open, expect there be some need to do your own due diligence, etc. And have the liquid capital take bad cards, busted deals, frozen accounts and LEO encounters all in stride.

The whole spoon feed band wagon happened months ago, some (including myself) have stopped answered those questions, or mostly directed those people to educate themselves by reading threads. YOu will always have people who are too important ( well in thier own mind) to read threads and/or fully understand the whole game before jumping into it.

I've told my immediate family about it. They don't want to do it. They don't think it is worth it! The sad part is that they don't even help me do it more efficiently by letting me open accounts on their names. I fly mostly solo. It sucks, having such a big family, and not being able to have lots of accounts.

My mother thinks what I do is unethical. You would think I'm doing something illegal. I decided it's best not to talk about this with anyone going forward. No one seems to care. We are unique creatures ;)

oh man don't get him started. He is just going to start another rant justifying his high spend on MS all the while arguing with the managers and of course why speaking at a convention is all good. While everyone else is doing it wrong. Not to mention the fact he is a blogger complaining about bloggers.

Logic and oldbies here don't go together very often.

oh, geezz, another dang thread I have never heard of? :(

Could you post a link to that thread for me please?

TIA

Edit: Never mind, I'll just follow your posted thread history to find it.

For anyone who wants to read more now, I found this thru google:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...-fraud-11.html

Apparently more of a problem than I had realized. :eek: