You can pay for a gay escapade

[lovingboth]

Along with someone else, I do websites for escorts. Confidentiality is a Big Thing in this market, and one thing that's been useful is taking payments via Amazon gift certificates. You can only spend the money at Amazon, but that's not been any sort of problem.

Their big feature in this context is that they're anonymous: if you don't add a note, there's no clue as to who sent it to your email address...

... until recently, when Amazon have started adding what they think the sender is called, in the same way that PayPal have always done.

I'll probably continue accepting them - my Amazon spend is not zero, cough, and no-one cares about having Amazon appear on bank statements etc - but is there a useful, simple and stable anonymous remote payment method left?

Some people use mobile top-ups, but my mobile spend is zero plus the five or six quid a month for data plus more calls than I use. Bitcoin's lack of stability rules that out, plus there are too many steps involved. PayPal is possible, but I'd prefer something that doesn't do refunds.

Comments

[katieastrophe]

I'd ask them to purchase the gift certificate, send it to themselves, and then tell you what the code is for you to apply to your account.

[lovingboth]

I very strongly suspect that will still show what Amazon think the original purchaser is called.

[katieastrophe]

Having done it myself I can verify it doesn't. (I receive codes for doing online surveys, and have also bought myself cards in the past, when they've been doing "buy £X in gift cards and get £Y free offers.)

[katieastrophe]

Next time I have a code (should be in next few days based on current survey points balance), I will take screenshots you can use to reassure yourself and your clients, if that would be helpful?

[lovingboth]

It will be interesting to see, but a) this is a very recent change, so unless you've bought something for yourself in the past week, it was probably the old anonymous setup and b) I wonder if reward bulk purchases will be shown differently.

[katieastrophe]

I have bought in the last week using a gift card - but yes, the other explanation is possible. Of course, you could test it yourself by buying yourself a certificate and emailing it to yourself, to see what putting the code into the website gives you?

[sfred]

Does Amazon take National Book Tokens? Would you spend them somewhere not-Amazon?

[lovingboth]

As far as I know, no, it doesn't.

Among the thing I like about Amazon is the range of things it sells from a large number of vendors, new and s/h, so while I do shop elsewhere, it'd need to be something very widely accepted.

[sfred]

Yes, that makes sense.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Interesting - and may postpone the demise of the postal order!
Looking at egift sites, I think it might work if someone bought an Amazon egift cert for themselves, so it would be emailed to their own email, then the voucher code or link could be copied and pasted and sent to you, if the default email from Amazon includes details they don't want to share.

Recently been reading obituaries of Cynthia Payne and her Luncheon Voucher scheme - I'm now wondering if there's a modern version using emailed John Lewis certificates - enabling one to shop in Waitrose!

[lovingboth]

Someone did that a few months ago, to prove to themselves that the email didn't have any details in it, but I strongly suspect that Amazon will now still invite the redeemer to thank who it thinks the original purchaser is.

The other classic option is a pre-pay debit card, but those tend to come with silly fees.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Well, that's rather a pain. I suppose, not entirely unexpected - the more authoritarian sorts have long sought to dismiss anonymous transactions, and with every terrorist attack, the Flail's call grows stronger, though no more sensible.

It's a very good point, and one I'll have to ponder. I'll see if anyone can suggest options from a future LJ entry; I'll maybe tag that entry f-locked, with no need for global visibility.