Hacking Reality

EDIT In response to a large number of hits this entry is generating, I'm editing it somewhat to make it less obtrusively fatuous and to move the relevant information nearer to the top.

I was just checking my credit card account on the internet, and I noticed a charge for $29.99 for www.webartoffer.net. Now, I've never heard of webartoffer, and their website appears to be down. A cached copy on yahoo.com doesn't ring any bells. So I called the credit card company and they cancelled the charge. I'm a little concerned that someone may have pilfered my card number, although a much more likely explanation is the generic catchall of "computer error" (ie someone typed the wrong number into a computer). So I'm posting this here in case anyone else gets a mysterious charge from these folks and looks them up, since nothing turns up on google about them. And I'll be watching my credit card statements like a hawk from now on in case any more spurious charges pop up.

Update 20th April 2005
The website has been up most of the time (along with some quite shockingly bad embedded sounds) since I've posted this, and there's no mention of this on their website (it seems quite plausible that the charges have nothing to do with the company, but are just something plausible pasted on the credit card statement to look innocuous; I don't know how merchants verify their details when they post information about the source of the charge). I'm tempted to give them a call later and see if they have any official line on this since there have been several comments and websearches using the "web art offer" or "webartoffer" keywords. The charge has been re-credited to my credit card account, but I'm still wary and confused about exactly what happened.

Hmm, curiously the company does sell templates for $29.99 and $19.99, figures which are mentioned in the comments.


The original post is mostly irrelevant to the rest of this, and went as follows:

I am a l33t hacker. Not only do I pwn teh internet, I also pwn teh reality. Let me give a demonstration of how this is the case.

I enjoy doing xwords. In particular I quite enjoy doing the cryptic crosswords in The Atlantic Monthly. These used to be freely available on the website, but as of a few months ago, they have pushed everything behind a login screen which only subscribers can access. I didn't particularly want to pay up for this, so I looked into ways I could hack the system. All my attempts to bypass the high tech security system were frustrated by prime numbers, so instead I found a way to beat the system through reality.

I went to my local library, where they had a copy of the magazine. I took it to the photocopier, photocopied the puzzle from the magazine, returned the magazine to the shelf and took the copy home. Pwned! I have just completed the puzzle, and a very satisfying feeling it is too.

Lastly, on a completely unrelated note, [stuff about webartoffer]

As I believe I may have mentioned earlier, I pwn teh reality. But no one tries to pwn me and gets away with it. Feer me!