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[Shadowlord]

Personally I think they should just make the whole profile thing optional, but possibly selling your data is part of their business model.

You don't have a problem with that?

[MoLAoS]

Personally I think they should just make the whole profile thing optional, but possibly selling your data is part of their business model.

You don't have a problem with that?

Irrelevant.

[Playergamer]

The ads for GameFly seemed cheesy, even cheesier then normal, and it removes half the fun of gaming (really. Studies show that a huge part of the enjoyment of gaming is in the purchase, not the play.)

[hemmingjay]

The ads for GameFly seemed cheesy, even cheesier then normal, and it removes half the fun of gaming (really. Studies show that a huge part of the enjoyment of gaming is in the purchase, not the play.)

Can you cite one of those studies for me? It would be of great use, thanks.

[Rez]

The Effects of Sunk Costs on Seratonin Production.

[TripJack]

You should actually be happy that they are diligent like that, imagine if someone tried to do that by putting YOUR credit/financial info into a purchase for their account, by catching it early like they did in this case it only helps you.

no, 'diligent' would be not charging the guy's card at all if they thought the transaction was suspicious

Honestly they did do the right thing.

nope

[Culise]

You should actually be happy that they are diligent like that, imagine if someone tried to do that by putting YOUR credit/financial info into a purchase for their account, by catching it early like they did in this case it only helps you.

no, 'diligent' would be not charging the guy's card at all if they thought the transaction was suspicious

Honestly they did do the right thing.

nope

Indeed.  I mean, in this situation, imagine if it really was a thief who had used someone else's credit card information in order to make a digital purchase.  In such a circumstance, the thief wouldn't have received the game they were attempting to obtain, certainly, but the person whose credit card was stolen would still have lost the money as a consequence of the act of thievery.  The end result would simply be that Gamefly benefits from the theft, rather than the original thief. 

[forsaken1111]

Which is still silly because all gamefly wanted to do to 'verify' his identity was conduct a phone call. The thief could have done so from a payphone or neutral location and gotten the game anyway.

[Culise]

Which is still silly because all gamefly wanted to do to 'verify' his identity was conduct a phone call. The thief could have done so from a payphone or neutral location and gotten the game anyway.

Well, it depends.  Sometimes, these cards have a linked phone number with the bank.  It might have been the case that Gamefly would have tried to contact that number.  I know that I usually get prompted to include a phone number with my contact information when I make a payment, though it's usually optional.

[forsaken1111]

Which is still silly because all gamefly wanted to do to 'verify' his identity was conduct a phone call. The thief could have done so from a payphone or neutral location and gotten the game anyway.

Well, it depends.  Sometimes, these cards have a linked phone number with the bank.  It might have been the case that Gamefly would have tried to contact that number.  I know that I usually get prompted to include a phone number with my contact information when I make a payment, though it's usually optional.

"Oh yeah gamefly I am not at home right now call me at this number instead it is my grandmother's house she is very ill"

[Lithare]

As a bank employee who has been on the bank side of this many times, Gamefly may not have known that your info was wrong until they charged your card.  In most cases, this causes an immediate reversal of the charge, canceling the transaction.  Not sure if this is from the bank side or the merchant card services side.  Should the charge show as "pending," they may not be able to collect on that charge, causing it to fall off after a few days.

If it does/did, in fact, post to your account, disputing it with your bank is one way.  If the money was actually debited, and they charged it back themselves, that can sometimes take several business days to post, and you'll have no idea until it hits your account.

I'm sure Gamefly is BBB regulated, so that's another route.


On top of that, the number a lot of websites want is not your phone number, but the customer service number for your bank, so that they may call your bank's merchant assitance department to go through cardholder verification.  Putting in your own number instead of your bank's is actually another thing that can cause the transaction not to work.

[Zangi]

You should actually be happy that they are diligent like that, imagine if someone tried to do that by putting YOUR credit/financial info into a purchase for their account, by catching it early like they did in this case it only helps you.

no, 'diligent' would be not charging the guy's card at all if they thought the transaction was suspicious

Honestly they did do the right thing.

nope

Indeed.  I mean, in this situation, imagine if it really was a thief who had used someone else's credit card information in order to make a digital purchase.  In such a circumstance, the thief wouldn't have received the game they were attempting to obtain, certainly, but the person whose credit card was stolen would still have lost the money as a consequence of the act of thievery.  The end result would simply be that Gamefly benefits from the theft, rather than the original thief.

So Gamefly is half way right, kind-of.  Yea, phone call is still prone to fraud anyways, but it does deter the less stubborn of the lot and those who don't know all the info.

On top of that, the number a lot of websites want is not your phone number, but the customer service number for your bank, so that they may call your bank's merchant assitance department to go through cardholder verification.  Putting in your own number instead of your bank's is actually another thing that can cause the transaction not to work.

Huh, did not know this.  (Actually always put my own number when they ask for it...)

[alway]

Which is still silly because all gamefly wanted to do to 'verify' his identity was conduct a phone call. The thief could have done so from a payphone or neutral location and gotten the game anyway.

So the issue with this is that it helps prevent both casual theft and large-scale theft. A phone call will generally scare off any kids who happened to grab their parent's credit cards. It also means a large-scale attack can't easily be done without raising alarms. If 100 people happen to have a suspicious charge in a short period of time and all 100 give phone numbers associated with a particular phone booth in a country completely different from their stated location, it's pretty clear what's going on. You could get around these issues, but it's about running faster than your slowest friend, not running faster than the bear. They aren't going to secure you against a targeted attack by someone with even basic pen testing knowledge, but nor will anything else tbh.