So you know those freestanding DVD rental vending machines? Red Box is one but there are other companies. These machines require a credit or debit card to rent and the fee is a dollar per day, and you have to return it by 9pm the following day to avoid another dollar’s charge for another day.
Well, suppose I go to a gas station and put 20 dollars on one of those prepaid Visa debit cards. Then I got to a Red Box kiosk and get 20 new releases, then don’t return them. Then I have a nice DVD collection, for a dollar a disc, and you can’t trace a prepaid card nor can they get anymore money from me. Could I do this?
Other Sites Movie Rental New Releases Site Online
- Regarding a Prepaid Debit Card | Christian Little
ZB says
You cannot pay with prepaid cards.
crazyaznpig says
Not that’s some shady tactics there. Cameras will still get you.
anthony V says
yes you could but the only thing you need to worry about is karma
im not going to lie if done it before but karma bites you in the ass
Bob B says
As mentioned, cameras. And if you kept it up and the police got involved, I doubt you’d last too long.
While a prepaid card doesn’t have your name on it, it would take the police only a few minutes to find out where you bought the card from. Someone might have seen you and you would probably get caught on camera. If you drove to the gas station, then they’ve got your license plate on camera, and busted.
Someone I knew simply rented them legitimately, copied them that night (you can get copy software off the net for free), and gave the originals back the next day. As far as I know, he was never caught, because the rental company always got the originals back, but he got to keep his own copy.
EDIT: I’ve never used the service myself (not actually being in the US), so I can’t tell you if prepaid cards will work. All I can tell you is this: buy a prepaid Visa card, try it legitimately and see if you can hire anything. But don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work, and if you do start scamming them, don’t be too surprised if one day you come home to find a detective asking some very embarassing questions about your DVD collection.
Lyle says
I’d look on google for "red box scams" and see who’s been caught doing what.
Also your card might be immediately rejected because of some code contained in the magnetic strip that allows things like Redbox machines to see that they have limited funds.
You’d also need to put in the zip code associated with the card, and that information might not be available to you. It might be the zip code of the gas station, and it might be the zip code of the factory that made the card somewhere on the other side of the country. It might have no zip code associated with it at all, and therefore you couldn’t use the card with Redbox.
At the very least, if you did get away with it, they would fix the problem. Then you might be tempted to try it again later and you’d be caught. Also if ever told any of your friends about it and they tried it, or they told their friends, and they tried it, it could get people arrested even if you get away with it.
And as a matter of fact, someone associated with Redbox could be reading your question right now and they could be putting something into place to catch people who try to use that system before you even get to try it.
In other words, I wouldn’t do it if I were you.
Mutt says
I don’t know how these things actually work, but I’m sure they have some means to prevent this. Maybe charge your card the entire cost of the DVD until you return it, then give a credit for everything except the $1 per night charge.
At least that’s how I would do it if I ran those machines.