Scripting News: Stop payment on credit cards

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Stop payment on credit cards

I read somewhere (sorry no link) that there is no way to stop a payment on a credit card, like you can stop a check. I've found this to be true. And then there are all the trial services that require you to enter a credit card number that must, in the fine print of their EULA say they're allowed to bill your credit card every month even if you don't use the service. And then there are all the $19.95 payments in your monthly statement with names you've never heard of, that are too much trouble to investigate.

Did you think there's nothing you can do? Well, there is.

I tripped over this idea accidentally because one of my cards was stolen, presumably in a batch of credit card numbers stolen from some online service, so I got a new card in the mail, unsolicited, with a new number. All of a sudden the lurking quasi-legal fraudsters are popping up! We want our money, they say in their emails. Act now, give us that new number, or we'll have to close your account. To which I say, Make my day!

I expect to hear from a lot of them on or about March 1.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:31 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Mail: scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

Jan Mar