Posted by m-theory@superstrings.com on 01/04/07 07:14

When Chronopay was processing AllofMP3 payments I felt fairly
comfortable giving them my credit card info. Now they only process
Diner's Club and some other obscure card, with the hupbub over Allof
MP3's legal battle. VISA has pulled their support. I heard MC did too,
but Mastercard payments *are* being processed for AllofMP3 through
a company called e-centru.

E-centru is in the Republic of Moldova -- a tiny country just outside
Russia. While Chronopay was a Netherlands company, they are a massive
company that didn't get that way by screwing over their clients. I had a
certain amount of trust in them and their privacy policy which stated
they did not retain customer info after payments were processed. I know
there is some speculation now as to whether they sold email addresses to
porn spammers, but I frankly think that happened through a breach that
could have occurred even at AllofMP3, either through needing money to
fight their court battle, or even through an ex-employee that wanted to
make a few bucks. IAC, if my email address is all that got shared, I can
live with that. (I never use my ISPs email address anyway, so I was able
to just delete the free address I used at AllofMP3, get another and
update my acct info there.)

But e-centru concerns me. Their website is tiny and has no oversight
seals. Their privacy policy is ambiguous, and their contact information
is minimal. It looks like the kind of site/outfit that could fold up and
disappear overnight. I'm not saying it IS that way, just saying that's
the impression I get. I hope I'm wrong and that they are as reliable as
Chronopay was.

I purchased $50 worth of music the other night, but it has been weighing
on me that I gave them my credit card. Identity theft is so easily with
the kind of info we have to provide to make an online credit card
purchase, and they say it is growing fastest in Europe where American
identities are being stolen/used. So I went looking for anything I could
find on e-centru this evening, and found virtually nothing, good or bad.
It's like they barely exist. So I called my credit card company,
explained, and am having them issue me a new card (number) just to be
safe. I won't be buying from AllofMP3 again until they find a better
party to process their payments. Or if they get closed down (I hope
not), that settles that.

Anyone else have reservations or information about e-centru?

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