Why would a free(?) website want my credit card digits?

Factual Questions
1

There’s a fairly obscure movie from the 1980s that I want to see, so I went online to find out if it was available to watch on YouTube or a site of that ilk. Now, I’ve seen those Google entries that say “Watch Movies Online For FREE!”, but up until now I haven’t paid them any mind. This time, though, I said to myself “Why not? You won’t know unless you check it out.”

I ended up on Putlocker’s webpage. The site claims to stream all sorts of movies and TV shows for free, apparently without paying any mind to copyright laws. My ethics are, well,* flexible* on that issue, so I went to their site.

It was then that I was informed that to see my movie I had to sign up for Putlocker. O-kaay, I thought, it’s a pain in the neck but what the heck, it’s also my chance to see this flick, right here within the next few minutes, and continued following the sign-up directions.

And then all of a sudden, I was confronted with this bit of hitherto unmentioned information:

"No charges for Validating Account–In order to verify your account, we ask that you provide a valid credit card number. We GUARENTEE that NO CHARGES will be applied for validating your account. No charges will appear on your credit card statement unless you upgrade to a monthly membership or select to make a purchase. "

Yes. They want my card number, expiration date, and three-didget security code. On a webpage promoting a service that’s represented as being free.

Now, call me over-suspicious or even paranoid if you wish, but when I’m asked for my vitals by a strange entity, especially after being offered something for free, I smell an attempt to rob me. Either to charge my account after the fact for a streaming movie I was told was free, or else to use my account info to empty said account.

What I’m asking, then, is this: is this an unreasonable request on their part? Is it common for online businesses to ask for your credit card info if you’re not planning on spending any money? Do they have any legit reason to ask for it, and am I subject to be robbed or charged after the fact if I sign up and give them the information?

2

They are brazenly breaking the law by streaming these movies. They are also brazenly asking you to hand over your credit card info to a bunch of people who have already established themselves as law breakers.

I think the deal is “People who think streaming movies for free is totally legit and legal are probably also going to believe that we won’t steal their credit card info.”

3

But if they were legit (I don’t know if they are or not), they may just want to make it super easy for you to upgrade to the “premium” plan where they can charge you. One click, and you’re in!! This is not uncommon for “free” services. Forking over that info lets them know you ware at least open to the idea of getting more than just the free stuff-- they don’t want to be in business only for the free stuff.

4

Well, duh. What would you do about it if you fell for it and got robbed – complain to the cops that an illegal file-streaming site ripped you off?

5

Probably you’ll be immediately hit up for all sorts of “special offers” to upgrade to a premium account for only 99 cents, and of course it will automatically renew at the normal highway robbery price.

And good luck finding an easy way to cancel. Probably the only way will be to call a phone number and get put on hold.

If you would like to insist on using a shady web site (and you shouldn’t, because illegal things are bad and also you’re going to get a virus), go buy a 25 dollar visa gift card, spend 24 bucks at the grocery store, and use it as your “free trial” CC number. The worst any site will be able to do is steal that last buck from you.

6

Also, they might package that as a silence-is-consent thing: if you don’t explicitly opt out within the next 30 days, we’ll upgrade you to the premium plan by default and start charging the card as per the info you forked over.

Also, they may do that even if you do explicitly opt out, at which point they’ll claim that mistakes were made and we’re so sorry and it shouldn’t happen again. And then it’ll presumably happen again, ostensibly because someone made an oopsie.

7

Warning: this site (and many like it) keep getting their domain names confiscated so they have to go get another one on a regular basis.

In short, it is very difficult to determine which is the “legitimate” site (hah!) and what sites are scammers trying to phish things like CC numbers.

These scammer sites are good at getting listed high on Google and editing Wikipedia and such sites entries to point to their site.

You probably were at a scammer site.

Just leave the whole thing alone.

8

A free site could also use a credit card as proof of age, if they have any mature content, or for some other reason have a policy of excluding minors.

But this is all zebras. The simplest explanation for the hoofbeats you’re hearing is that they’re trying to rip you off one way or another.

9

Some banks will allow you to generate virtual credit card numbers with limits you set (down to $1 or so).

10

This.

I have had a couple free accounts on sites and you actually end up defaulting to a paid account that kicks in if you do not email them and opt out by the deadline. I never had any problem, but one time it was a bit difficult to navigate their web site to find the proper pace to cancel.

Dennis

11

Ms Lords would be offended by you describing her motion picture debut as “fairly obscure”, assuming that’s the movie you desire to pirate.

ETA: oh, and there’s this:

[QUOTE=wikipedia]
Putlocker has been reported by the Motion Picture Association of America as a major piracy threat.[4]
[/QUOTE]

12

You don’t need to get the cops involved. Just notify your credit card that you have some unauthorized charges on your account.

13

I’d call this unreasonable, leaving the ethics aside. I have no problems giving my debit card number to sites like Amazon or eBay for one-click ordering, but these sites are reputable and I do regular business with them. And if I order a free trial of Amazon Prime, I know I can cancel within 30 days and they won’t charge my account. But if a site I’ve never been to before wants my debit account info for a supposedly “free” service, then I’m hitting the “back” button.