Scamerican dream
Chapter 52. From author 4 (2011)
Now as you are reading this book, please, don’t judge me too harshly. It’s my first serious work, and I am by no means a professional writer; I am just someone who did two years of a Journalism degree and feels bound to fulfill a promise. After some consideration, I decided not to publish the story in my personal blog, because, frankly, I was afraid that Max’s former companions or other unhappy carders would come after me, and, when they find out my real name, will turn my life into living hell. That’s the only reason why I am publishing this using a pen name.
I must confess that even though Max tried to explain everything, by the time I started working on the text, I was plagued by 1000 and 1 questions. But I had no one to ask those questions. Since I didn’t want to invent details of Max’s schemes, I decided to find those carder forums. The search took but a minute, and a few hours later having paid a membership fee, I had access to the boards. I decided not to lie and just write a text telling everything as is, saying that I am a journalist writing a big article about carding for a magazine, and that I found certain things confusing. Basically, I asked for help.
I sent my letter to twenty members with a verified status (that meant that they weren’t novices and their words were worth something). My account nearly got banned because several people reported me to the forum administration and I received a couple of warnings. To be honest, I don’t know what they were afraid of; maybe they thought that I was a cop. In that case I can understand their reservations. However, if they were afraid that I was trying to find out about some of their schemes and profit from the knowledge, that was sheer idiocy, because all of the schemes were ancient dusty history and didn’t even work anymore. Most members simply didn’t respond. A couple of times I was harassed and insulted.
I was about to give up on figuring out Max’s mysteries, but, luckily, several sensible people agreed to help me and answer my questions. You can read their opinions in the following chapters.
They also explained the reaction of other members to me. It turns out that not only were they afraid of the cops, but also the majority of them has never even heard of the schemes I was asking about, and if they did, it was so vague that didn’t know any more details than I did. All because the turnaround on the forums is very quick — most leave once they’ve made enough money to start a legal business. The rest, those who couldn’t make enough, eventually just quit the business altogether. Only the select few went all the way. However, they clarified, there was a lot of work going around.
