Confessions of a carder by russian writer

[AlekceyM]

Confessions of a carder
By Alexey Malov

As soon as there was a first bank card, there was a man who stole money from it. And he was called a carder. And to this day this man is alive and what he started and called “carding” is growing and developing throughout the whole world. End of the 90’s. Russia, that has completely shed its Soviet skin, is thunderously crashing into the epoch of market economy. People, who have now felt the taste of money, are starting to rake them in and share the country between each other. It seemed that everything in the motherland was already divided, but the new genius of the financial swindles and machinations is growing and it needs a niche. It’s these kinds of people who are becoming the first carders in Russia.
The Robin Hood of the modern era, the great carder, still being hunted by the Interpol. A man, shamelessly stealing from the Western banks: Izya Piterskiy. It was his story that this book is based on.

AUTHOR WOULD LIKE TO THANK

— Volodya, Inga, Fara, CheMa for pushing me to write this book
— My LJ friends for supporting me through the writing process
— Zhenya Garin and Dima Kivenko for helping me in all of my Internet beginnings
— Irochka, Nikita, Sasha and Ludmila for just being there
— The reader for holding this book in your hands right now




I had an acquaintance once, maybe a friend, even. Nobody knew his name or his last name, everyone just called him Izya. It’s not really known how it started. Some say that it came from the English word “easy”, some think that it’s a Jewish name (abbr. from Israel), yet others suggest that it actually came from Saint-Petersburg abbreviation SPb (if you look at the English/Russian keyboard and notice how English letters match the Russian one, then you get “ызи”, which kinda sounds like “Izya”), but even Izya himself probably does not exactly know how It came about anymore. His nickname replaced his last name. Piterskiy. So there he was, Izya Piterskiy, a carder, who always had a pile of cash and never thought about tomorrow. His favorite catchphrase was “Even Alla Borisovna (Pugacheva)* says that you had to live by the present, and she hasn’t just heard it on the grapevine!”
But, one of these gloomy St. Petersburg days Izya disappeared. That happened to him, he could disappear for a week or even for two. But this time when he was gone, I thought it was forever. I had all kinds of thoughts about his fate, starting from arrest and ending with murder or an accident.
But then just a bit over a year has passed and I got this unusual number on my caller ID. It was Izya! He said that he missed me a lot, but it was going to be a long time until we get to see each other again. He was alright and he was through with carding. All my questions were met with a rather strange response:
— Once in a few days, I will send you one letter. Whether you are going to publish them or not – you decide. Just make sure they reach those who need them or are simply curious. And now I am ready to put these letters forth before your judgment. I only edited them a bit, so that you can better understand this mysterious and beckoning, though at the same time dangerous and criminally punishable world of carding.

[AlekceyM]

FIRST LETTER

MOSCOW, 2008
THE BANK BUILDING ON TVERSKAYA STREET

— Good afternoon. Young man, how can I help you?
— Good afternoon, I would like to cash some money. A week ago my friend from the USA has made a wire transfer into my name. I hope it’s arrived already.
— Let’s take a look. Your documents, please?
— Here you are.
The clerk girl has taken my passport and started to check something with the database in the computer. A few minutes has passed and she got this surprised look on her face.
— Sergey Andreyevich, could you come here for a moment?
— What happened, Svetlana?
— We have a transfer for the young man here who is trying to open an account in our bank.
— So, what’s the problem?
— The amount, Sergey Andreevich
The manager took one look at the monitor and his eyes also became the size of quarters. He took my passport in his hands, kept checking the data for some time and even checked whether the document was fake:
— Smirnov Gennadiy Stepanovich, I’m happy to greet you in our bank. Allow me to offer you some coffee or tea?
— No, thanks, I’m in a hurry. — Gennadiy already had an approximate understanding about the sum of the transfer, so he wasn’t really surprised by the dumbfounded looks of the clerk and the branch manager. — Would you cash the whole amount, please?
— I’d love to, but we’re going to need time for that, — the manager lingered, thinking that there is basically enough money in the safe, but they would definitely have to close the branch for the day.
— Okay. One percent from the amount will be yours if I won’t notice this time.
— The manager made a frantic gulp and quickly rushed to the inner sanctum. Not even twenty minutes have passed, as he came out with a briefcase.
— Gennadiy Stepanovich, here is your money, you can come into my office and count everything.
— Thanks. I trust you. — The young man opened the briefcase and gave a couple of banknote stacks to the manager. — Cheers.
After the bank, Gennadiy headed straight for the “Zhiguli” with tinted windows, parked on the other side of the street. In the car he handed the briefcase to a guy in the backseat.
— Take your twenty percent right away, — said he.
— Okay, but can I ask you where you get this kind of money from? — Gennadiy pulled a few stacks out of the briefcase
— Of course, it’s all very simple. I’m your regular financial partisan. And this money is from our kind American comrades who care about the growth of our economy. Does the word “carder” mean anything to you?
— No, — said Gennadiy
— Well, don’t ask then. Thanks for your work, you may go.
— Gennadiy exited the car and, with a smile, headed home. Peacefully resting in his backpack were more than sixty thousand bucks, so he was in an excellent mood. In a week, he had a rather rude visit from the police and Interpol.

MOSCOW, 2004

The 90’s were over, the mayhem was over, they stopped shooting even in St. Petersburg. Russia was regaining its health, thunderously crashing into the world economy. There were more tycoons than there were mushrooms after the rain. Those who already had the opportunity to use their brains (and, somewhere, pistols) were reaping what they sowed. We finally had a strong and charismatic leader, the Czar and father figure whom the people could trust. Everything was slowly getting back to normal. Pelevin’s “Generation Next” has quieted down, some were quieted down and everyone took their spots by the feeders.
Though, a new generation has grown up: children of the 90’s who have seen and eaten the real stone soup, who have went through the poverty with their parents-on-a-budget, now they were the ones who had to be checked for toughness.
They have come of age, but were too late for the property exchange. They are the ones who go to work as waiters, bartenders and they feel the taste of money, big money for them. Having earned $80-100 a day on tips they feel like they are kings, but they understand that those who have left those tips have way more. The young generation sees how the older ones party, what kind of women surround these unattractive people and they want to be the same. But how? I got into the Internet pretty early, so by 2004 I felt there like a fish in the water. Then, only knowing HTML, I was easily creating pages and sites, gaining respect from those who have discovered the worldwide web much later.
I was sitting in chatrooms and online-games for days. It’s like a drug, much stronger than heroin, but, thankfully, much cheaper.
Having abandoned work, I spent all of my time by the computer.
Two-three days without sleep became the norm because it’s so cool – to always know what’s going on, even if it is only in the virtual world.
But in a month, the first reality call rang – I had to pay rent and I had nothing to pay it with. Four hundred bucks wasn’t much, but where do I get them? I have completely given up my bartender job, there was no way back, I don’t really know any other ways to get dough. Although…
I remember, while searching for some information I needed in the depths of the Internet, I saw something about earning money on the Web. I sit by the computer day and night anyway, may as well get some use out of it. Having put “earning money online” in the search engine, I went link surfing. Every site I visited offered me to follow links onto specific sites and hang out there for 60 seconds. Every link followed – up to 20 cents. As soon as you get 50 dollars, you get a check sent out to your name. How simple, I thought, following my first links. I had to spend time on ridiculous websites with ads on how to increase your penis or breast size. And these ones were just flowers. There was worse too. Only now I noticed that the pay for one link followed wasn’t one-fifth of a dollar. It was one-fifth of a penny. Having counted how much time I am going to waste to earn just 50 lousy bucks, I dropped this thing. And it was a good thing too. Turned out that in the financial section of the contract, it was written in fine print: no checks are currently being sent to the CIS countries. I continued my search. I gained respect for the guys that created the search engine, the robot. In the end of the 90’s, when the Internet was only gaining popularity in Russia, you had to remember or write down the majority of site names. We would write down the sites how they sounded in Russian and wrote them with Latin letters with Russian domains. If I needed to talk to somebody, I would type in chat.ru in the address prompt, and so on. Other sites we would come to know through the ones we already knew, thanks to primitive advertisements.
After half an hour of searching in Google, I found what I was looking for.
Forum xakepy.ru
All kinds of hackers and carders would gather here (as if I knew who they were back then). From certain messages I understood that people here make money, maybe if in not very legal ways. Hackers would sell their programs for data gathering as well as offer their services to cause all kinds of trouble. Carders were the opposite, they kept always buying something. All over the place were scattered classifieds that I didn’t understand: will buy cardboard, will wash and cash dirt, need drops, will buy a stick, etc. I decided to study the newbie section first, where I was hoping to find at least some answers to my questions.
And I wasn’t wrong, at least many abbreviations now made sense. For example, “cardboard” (aka “cc”) – is a credit card, a “drop” is a front man in whose name money transfer is made or merchandise is sent. The “stick” turned out to be the international payment system Paypal, and to “buy a stick” meant to acquire hacked user accounts. The virtual world of financial machinations has become a bit clearer and I dashed to study how payment systems worked in practice.
The first payment system in my way was Webmoney. To hack it, as the salty seadogs claimed, was unreal. It’s rumored that the creators of WM (Webmoney) once opened an online wallet in their system and put one million dollars on it. They have spread the information and declared that the one who will be able to hack the wallet, can keep the money, nobody will report anything to the police. Hackers throughout the world have darted to climb the financial Everest, but in the end money remained untouched. Whether it is a rumor or the truth, to this day Webmoney was considered the safest system, plus all the transfer information was hidden from all tax and revenue services and it was anonymous (that is, back then it was like that. Now, as different sources say, WM leaks all the info to the government at their first request), which gave us the possibility to conduct deals on any scale. Therefore, I had to start with that particular financial instrument; otherwise you are not going to make anything in the world of carding and hacking.

[AlekceyM]

After another sleepless night was over, I had a cup of coffee and ran to look for a store where they sell Webmoney cards. I decided to spend my last money on the Web. It turned out I didn’t have much, only 30 dollars, but, at least, it should be enough for 5-6 “cardboards”, meaning stolen credit cards. I decided to start with the simplest thing, with a punch-in. What’s a punch-in you’re going to ask? I buy electronic copies of credit cards, and with their help I pay for necessary merchandise in European and American Internet shops. Then you can sell the merchandise for real money. I’ll bring up an example. For instance, you are playing an international online game that happens to require payment. Actually, at first it is as though it is free, but, in a couple of weeks, if you wish to continue playing, you will need to pay. In order to do that, there are special extension cards that you can buy in many European Internet shops. By the way, an Internet shop is basically an online store. So, I type in the shop’s website address and buy virtual cards to pay for my game time with a stolen credit card. Usually they are not too expensive, maybe 30-40 bucks. Then I go to a Runet auction, which is an online-auction in a Russian segment of the Internet and sell them for web-money, which I can then quietly exchange for sweet darling rubles. It’s all very simple and pretty fast. Russian users did not know how to use credit cards online yet and even paying for stuff on Runet was fairly rare. Therefore everyone would walk to the closest kiosk where they would get a pre-paid Webmoney card, so that they could pay for merchandise online with its help. And I would sell them these extension cards, having previously paid for those in a European store with a stolen credit card. That’s it. Well, now that’s it, but back then that was exactly how I decided to start making money.

[AlekceyM]

SECOND LETTER

Work turned an ape into a human; computer work, it seems, started the reverse process. After sitting by the computer for two weeks almost without sleep, I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. Only about twenty years old, yet I had the facial hair of a middle-aged mountain man. The keyboard was sticky with Coke, two ashtrays were full of cigarette butts, whatever didn’t fit was scattered on the floor. I didn’t just have bags under my eyes, I had whole containers. But the most disappointing thing was that nothing turned out to be as simple as I thought. Electronic commerce in Runet was not developed to the point where you could make a million right away, though I did get my thirty bucks back, even made 20 more income. The landlady should be making a visit the next day, so I only had one choice – to have my roommates loan me money. I think I will say a few extra words about the roommates. I would probably dedicate a whole book to them. Dima and Serezha. A while back we worked together in a restaurant, I was a bartender and they were waiters. Then I dove head first into the Web, for which they always scolded me. Dima blamed me all the time that I keep playing and don’t work. Serezha didn’t really care about my material situation, he liked online games himself, so he often hung out with me in the evenings. Serezha is five years older than me, but it was always nice to talk to him heart-to-heart or about something intelligent. Dima though, only two years older than me, didn’t really shine intellectually, but he was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, and the coolest part was that he was strong. His “two by two” proportions had you feeling secure even in the word parts of Moscow. During my time as a food service worker, we would go out every night, meet girls, invite them over, and so on. Now I did not have any money for parties, so I had to quit drinking. I’m probably one of the few avid drinkers who believe that it’s better to drink nothing at all than to drink some kind of crap. I couldn’t even afford cigarettes, because I invested all my money into the Web. I had to collect change and smoke “Prima” and “Belomor”. Food also could have been better. First days I only had enough to buy hobo packets, that is instant noodles, now I couldn’t even pay for this delicacy. So I ate peas. Many Russians probably remember the kind of dried peas that would sit for 20 years on the shelf and wouldn’t spoil. I found it in the kitchen. Perhaps the landlady thought it was inedible and didn’t take it with her when she rented out the apartment. Whole two bags. Mmmmm… How tasty it became when you don’t eat for two days. The most important thing is to have salt. And if you also have bread, then no kind of black caviar can compare with this dish. Boil it in a saucepan for an hour or two, salt it, break off a piece of bread, pour in a glass of tap water and your lunch is ready.
Once I asked Dima to leave me some cigarettes. He would smoke “Russian Style”, which, comparable to “Prima” was the biggest bliss possible.
— Screw you, wanna smoke — go work, — followed an answer
— Come on, Dima, I was never greedy with you not just with cigarettes, I would sometimes totally pay for our going out.
— Yeah, well, I don’t give a damn, go work.
Annoying and painful, but oh well. I’ll keep smoking “Prima”. Soon a moment came where the threat was clearly in sight, I couldn’t just live without cigarettes or food — plus, I could easily end up on the street. I wasn’t really attracted by the perspective of spending my nights on a park bench, digging through garbage bins or beg for change, so I had to humiliate myself. Having gathered the guys in the kitchen, I said:
—We have to pay for the apartment tomorrow, I have no money right now, can anyone loan me some?
Instead of an answer I got these looks into nothingness. I’m sure that everyone knows this look. When you ask someone for help and they ignore you. They pretend that they don’t really notice, that it isn’t directed towards them, and, well, who are you to dare ask them something like this? And this is despite the fact that you are supposed to be friends and it’s not your first year knowing each other. When you are riding a horse, everyone follows you running, but as soon as you fall — they will trample you. I decided to ask each one of them personally:
—Dima, can you help me? I really don’t have anywhere to get this money, I promise you, I give it back as soon as possible.
— You know what? If you worked, I would give them to you, but like this, no way, you shouldn’t be sitting by the computer day after day. If you don’t want to work — go be a dum.
I lost my speech for a moment. This was a person whom I did a lot for, any minute, I would help and support him.
— Serezha, can you loan me money?
— Dang it, you, know, Dima has a point, maybe it’s enough to just be sitting in front of a computer? Go work as a bartender, you’re real good at it.
— I’d love to guys, but it’s not my thing. It just isn’t. I’m asking you for a small amount. Times past, I would make this money in 4-5 days. Are you really gonna just leave me like that? I’ll make it, believe me, I’ll get mine and we’ll have our own happily ever after.
— Fine, — Serezha gave up, — I’ll loan you the money, but only for three weeks, then you are going to give them back, otherwise you are going to live on the street. Agreed?
— Agreed.
Now I had three more weeks. I was thankful to Serezha. Despite everything, he believed in me at least a little big. And Dima turned out to be a ghost of a friend. Just a roommate. I went back into the Web and decided not to come out until I earn at least another hundred bucks. There were a bunch of classifieds about jobs on the forum. It’s not the type of job you might think, it was work as a punch-in guy. The post said that you had to be ready to give cardboard and necessary wares, for every successful punch-in (when the card worked and the merchandise would reach its destination) you would get 20 bucks. To card, meaning, to pay with stolen credit cards, meant you had to pay for hosting and specified servers, dedicated ones. I added the post authors contact to ICQ and wrote:
— Here?
In fifteen minutes I got an answer.
— Here.
— I wanted to ask about the punch-in guy work. Do you need more?
— Yup, sure do. Have you been carding for long?
— To be honest, not very. But I already know how to punch in cardboard. I used to buy access to online games and sell them on auctions.
— Do you have recommendations?
— What do you mean?
— Have you worked for anybody or with anybody?
— I used to work as a bartender, — I wrote. And put a laughing smiley.
— Don’t be dumb. I mean in carding.
— I don’t want to lie, I never worked with anybody. But I learn quick. Honest. Give me a test job and a time, if everything turns out alright, are you gonna trust me to the fullest?
— Alright. Give me your e-mail, I’ll send you the cardboard. I need dedicated servers in Asia and South America. Can you do it?
— Yes. Where can I buy them?
— You need the site addys or something?
— Well, yeah.
— What the hell I need you for if I’m gonna look for shops for you? Google help you J_
— Sounds good. When do you need it?
— Doesn’t matter. As soon as the money comes in and the server is ready, you give me access. For each dedicated server, I give you a twenty. I need a lot, so you’ll have plenty of work.
— Okay, thanks. Here’s the e-mail: ******@mail.ru.
— Are you stupid? I thought you punched in before, who makes a Runet e-mail address? You’re either gonna arrested or get your e-mail closed. Make a Yahoo account, I’ll send it there.
— I’ll do it.
— And one more thing. While you’re making an e-mail. Since you haven’t been in carding for too long, you probably don’t know all the rules. I’m not gonna tell you everything, you didn’t hire me as a teacher, but remember this forever: DON’T EVER WORK IN RUSSIA OR AGAINST IT. Otherwise you’re screwed. And all the carders will stop respecting you and the government will take a real quick interest in you. Have you ever heard about the “K” section?
— I read something about them on the forum.
— Well, these guys know about you as soon as you made the first post on the forum. They’re passive, they don’t touch you, because you’re a kind of financial partisan. You steal money from the west and bring them into our economy. You spend them in Russia. But as soon as you steal a hundred rubles in Russia — consider yourself screwed. Well, no. They are not going to touch you for a hundred, but they will warn you. For real sums though, you will go by the 159th code, real quick. Do you get it?
— Yes.
— Got a mailbox?
— Yeah, here you go *****@yahoo.com
— Okay. I’m sending out the cardboard.
A couple of minutes has passed, I checked my mail. The virtual credit cards really did come
— I got it . Thanks for the trust.
— Hope it’s tasty. I’m waiting for results.
So, I began my virtual work.

[AlekceyM]

It’s hard to be a punch-in guy. But it’s perfect for a newbie. The most important thing is to practice in easier payment systems. My training site was a very famous resource in the states. You register, transfer your money to an account from a credit card and enjoy women who do whatever you ask for before a webcam. The funniest thing was that I met a lot of Russian girls this way. We would chat about nothing for hours. Actually, I would write them and they would respond right into the camera. One minute of such pleasure costs two bucks on average. I spent a day there without a break in communication. Poor Americans and their bank accounts. Perhaps someone will say that it’s bad to spend honest people’s money, even if they are Americans, just because, on pornography. But I have something to say to that. I let these Russian girls earn money, the ones that sit there and do all kinds of perverse things before these dirty and far outlanders, while they only think about that they have to put their kids through a good kindergarten, school, or maybe just to buy them pampers. I let my account open while I let them do their thing and the money went from my account to theirs. Do they really have to suffer if they made a mistake in choosing a partner? No! But it’s their business, I only tried to help.
The next day, I did start doing the real thing and I was able to win over two hosters. Two dedicated servers in a day — not a bad beginning. In the evening, I gave my “employer” access to the servers and after a tough checking process, I got my 40 bucks. It turned out to not be that difficult. Or maybe I was just used to the fact that I had to sit for 24 hours before the computer to make a 40. My dreams about fast millions flew far, far away. I would make at least twice as much as a bartender, but there, there was a limit. Here there are no limits. Actually, I’m lying, there is one — “go to jail or become a tycoon” (It’s the beginner carders’ call, who don’t understand yet that no amount of money will replace real freedom)

[AlekceyM]

The book consists of 25 letters. Want continuation?

[AlekceyM]

Third letter.

So, I was successfully carding dedicated servers. It's a shady business, though after one week I had 220 bucks on my WM wallet. Not a lot? Perhaps. But it was something. At least soon I would have been able to return my debt to Serezha and start earning an income. I still had "Prima" on the table, though now I had a battalion of tea cups join it. I decided to quit Coca—Cola, I still can't get my teeth back to normal after it. Myths may be myths, but that drink eats through stuff like nobody's business, I'm scared to think what it did to my stomach.. Though as a reward, I had a radio with a Coca—Cola brand design on it. Stupid? Yes.
My so—called employee started to treat me seriously and even promised that in case of a successful collaboration, he will teach me something more profitable. However, he warned me right away that I should save up a bit of money because I'll need resources and they are not cheap. I already wrote you that it's not difficult to card dedicated servers. I reinstalled the operating system, replaced it with an English version and changed the settings to an American user's, fixed the settings in "Opera", switched to a proxy server in the USA and voila —now all the identification programs consider me a real American. Mostly it is done not so much for safety, as so the credit card payment goes through. Billing systems are very sensitive to everything aforementioned. Therefore you have to cheat them. Of course, it is possible that an American happens to be in Russia, in front of a Russian computer, but then you might get check—up calls from the merchandiser and that's definitely undesirable.
Using the stolen credit card data, I would pay for renting a server in China or Korea. The amount was insignificant, so the cardholder would usually not even notice it missing. I never understood why my partner needed dedicated servers, even though once I tried to start this conversation in ICQ.
— Hi. I got another three servers, will you take them?
— Hey. One second.
— Well, I'll just send you the access via e—mail, tell me as soon as you check them.
— Ok. Wait.
While he was checking the results of my work, I was able to go to the kitchen and brew myself yet another cup of tea, probably the 31st for the day.
— Alright, look, I'm taking two and throwing out one, it's crap — my collaborator wrote me.
— Why?
— The host isn't very dependable, if the cardholder will do a chargeback, then the support will shut off our access.
—And? — I didn't get it.
—Dammit, a *noob* on my head. Look. Why do you think I only need Chinese or Korean servers from you?
—I don't know. Maybe you just like them.
—No. It's all much simpler than that. Chinese and Korean companies don't really care about *Pindossia*, they get their money and that's it. What happens next isn't their problem. But the market is developing and therefore the companies are entering a new level of cooperation. They pay more attention to their clients, etc. But those whose only main goal is income are becoming fewer even there. And that's bad for us. Understand?
— Uh huh.
— So, the third dedicated server you carded from a company that already entered that different level of customer service. And if a *Pindos *notices his money missing from the card and writes an abuse letter, then the server will not just get annulled, everything that's there will be handed over to the police.
— And what's gonna be there? — I asked, after all it was this question that I wanted answered.
— Well, this already isn't your business. Actually no, I will tell you a part of it. There are gonna be some fairly expensive programs. Not very legal ones. And it's very undesirable that antivirus companies get their hands on these programs because you'll have to order new ones and it's not very cheap.
— Now I get it. — Though I thought to myself: "Looks like my partner is a pretty complicated guy if he orders expensive viruses to be written. After all, in order to steal credit card data, regular Trojans are more than enough. Here there has to be something more serious."
— Alright. By the way, our collaboration with you will soon come to an end. I need seven more servers and that's it.
—Well, that sucks. I only started to get into it. And there can never be too little money either. — I complained.
— Don't worry, bro. I don't you that I'll teach you a new thing. Finish these seven and I'll give you something more interesting. I think you're a pretty smart guy, even though you ask stupid questions sometimes. So I won't refuse a good *lamer* assistant. You gotta have somebody to be an errand boy and do all the dirty work. Kidding. Don't be offended.
— Okay. I'll do it.
Seven servers were not a problem. Less so now that I knew the main criteria for choosing a host. The most important thing was that the company wasn't too big and chased after income above all else. Though they were becoming fewer and fewer. Ah, the capitalism of developing countries, you are headed in the right direction, just don't make any turns. The work took four days because I had to wait the confirmation from the payment systems about payment going through successfully. As soon as all the servers were ready — I signed into ICQ.
— Hi, it's me again.
— Finished already? Hi.
— Yep. I just e—mailed them to you, check it.
— OK. I'll look in a bit. Knock in an hour.
— No problem, — I thought that it's a perfect time to take a walk to the store.
Clean air. Actually, no. Not clean at all. Moscow, summer, heat, exhaust fumes... What air? But after another 24 hours behind the computer, I was happy to breathe even this kind of air. Lately I'm outside so rarely that I'll become a houseplant. That's alright. I'll pay Serezha back, make some more money to pay next month's rent and will definitely go have a dinner at a restaurant. I'll spend at least a hundred bucks or maybe even two hundred. Maybe I'll meet a girl too. A girl... I had no communication with the opposite gender more than a month, I'm not even going to mention sex. One can switch to masturbation that way, when the only girls you see are ones from porn sites.
Being lead by my thoughts, I bought a couple of packs of instant noodles and bread at the store — I still had "Primas" left — and went home.
— Here? — an ICQ message was blinking.
— Here.
— I checked the servers. Everything is gooood. As I thought, you are living up to my hopes. I already transferred the funds to your Webmoney wallet. Check, did you get them?
— One sec. — I turned on my wallet. The program loaded, the sound of falling coins followed, which meant that the money has come. Woohoo! Now I had 450 bucks. This is enough to give my debt back and if I earn a little more, then I can pay the rent next month.
— I got them. Thanks.
— Hope it's tasty. With this we'll finish our job with the servers for now. This will definitely be enough for a month or two.
— Okay. So what's this new thing?
— This I will tell you tomorrow. And for now I'm going to give you an advice, read everything about the stick on the forum. You'll need it for our conversation — I don't like stupid questions.

[AlekceyM]

Fourth letter.

The Stick. There is so much in this word. And this topic is probably still alive. For starters, I will explain what it means. "The Stick" (from Russian "palka" - "stick") is Paypal, the world famous Internet payment system.
It's all very simple. You tie your bank account to the Paypal account and transfer money from it. It is done this way to ensure safety of bank accounts. The Stick is tied directly to your credit card, so you do not have to input it while paying for stuff online. You can use the Stick to pay for all Ebay auctions, etc. In fact, it's one of the most developed international payment systems. Almost all Western online stores accept it for payment. Besides, these payments are hailed as some of the safest. I was reading about Paypal all night and was able to fall asleep only by morning. I had a dream about a restaurant and lots of friends in it. Everybody was congratulating me with something and drinking expensive drinks. No, it wasn't the type of party a la "lots of dancing chicks", even though it wasn't without the opposite sex. Though these ones eclipsed any "chicks" with their grace and beauty of their evening dresses. Classical music, live mini-orchestra and fire in a real fireplace. I wanted to start earning real money so much. In my dreams I already held them in my hands, but in reality I was still saving up and smoking "Primas". (Since then, many years past I would remember these times with a kind of tenderness. Nostalgia would take over me to such point that sometimes I would dress a certain way, come out onto the street and collect bottles in a park, then I would turn them in for money and would give this money to some grandma begging for change or buy a couple of bottles of the cheap "Zhigulevskoe" beer). After lunch, I turned on the computer with a reflexive movement of my foot. Yes, yes, foot. This movement was perfected to automation. The elegant turning on of the computer with my left toe when my right foot was planted on the floor. This way I would always wake up from the "right foot". ICQ gave out a message right away:
— You awake?
— Hi. Yes.
— Have you read everything about the stick on the forum?
— Uh huh.
— Tune your system to UK. I'll give you a couple of accounts, so you can train.
— OK. I'll tell you as soon as I tune it, — I signed off in order to change my computer's settings.
It's not difficult to switch your system's settings to Britain from the US. I changed the time zone, plus UK English settings and switched to a proxy from the glorious city of London.
— Ready.
— OK. The accounts are already in your mailbox. You also have a list of merchandise that you need to purchase from Ebay auctions. For starters, I'll give you the drops, then look for them yourself.
— Alright. Let's try.
The drops turned out to be British. Where he got them was a mystery, but it made everything easier. All I had to do was pay for the merchandise from my Paypal accounts. In principle, it was the same punch-in.
In the meanwhile things were getting better. For a month I was working with my partner's drops, for which I got 10% from the merchandise cost. It's not really big money, but with enough volume, I would make 60-70 bucks per day. I would work for the whole month without weekends. Everything took me over to the point where sometimes I would buy telephones, cameras and other inexpensive gadgets in my sleep.
Soon a day came where I decided to cash in.
I went to geo.webmoney.ru, found a couple exchange terminals that would satisfy me territorially. I chose one around the "Tverskaya" metro station, picked up a phone and called.
— Greetings, how can I help you? — I got a clearly non-Russian male voice.
— Hi. I need to cash... — then I thought exactly how much I needed. I already had over two thousand dollars but I needed to leave some money for resources, in case my employer will disappear and I have to start doing business by myself. But I really wanted to go out too, to finally give myself a worthy break about which I had been dreaming. I think I'll cash fifteen hundred. This way I'll have enough for life and for the rent and I'll be able to throw a party. — I need to cash fifteen hundred *WMZ*.
—Okay, go ahead and transfer the money with a protection code to the online wallet that we will give you and come to our office.
— I'll be there in half an hour, — I answered and proceeded to transfer the funds.
— I ironed a clean t-shirt and went outside. What a great feeling it is — looking forward to getting money. It's probably even better than having money. Because when you have them, you don't think about them anymore, you just start spending. But this way you are just walking and thinking about what you can buy or do with them. It took fifteen minutes for me to walk to the metro. On my way, I smoked my last "Prima" cigarette and decided that I'll never smoke this crap again. Sure, I was used to it, but the bitter nicotine aftertaste on my lips was annoying me and the yellowing fingertips were scaring me a bit. Now everything can change. Maybe it won't change but at least will go back to the previous level, when I worked as a bartender. But! Now I had no limit, I could make money whenever and however I wanted.
Having reached Tverskaya, I quickly found the office. I knocked on the door that said "Webmoney" on it and I quietly entered it.
— Hi, I transferred the money to you half an hour ago so I could cash it.
— Yes, yes, come in and sit down. May I have your passport?
Whoops. I didn't think about a passport. It didn't make sense to show them my real one and I didn't have a fake one yet.
— Is it necessary? It's just I live in a Moscow suburb and I forgot it at home, — I lied.
— Actually, yes. Fine, we'll do the transaction using a passport of one of our clients, but next time definitely bring it with you.
— Sounds good. Thank you.
In five minutes, I had the whole amount in cash, except a few percent transaction fee. Now, I went outside again with a dreamy glisten in my eyes. Having left the office, I decided to take a walk on Tverskaya street. I haven't been here for a long time, even though I don't live too far. I bought a bottle of beer and a pack of L&M lights and started thinking how to spend the evening. I was thinking that I really wanted some female company. Maybe I should get a prostitute. Or go to a club and meet someone new there. But for starters I could try to have one of my old girlfriends keep me company. I took my phone in my hands and started to go through the contacts. Oh yes! Zulya!
Ah, the beautiful flights of love! The mixing of Tatar and Russian blood made Zulya one of the most beautiful girls that I ever knew. Her personality was amazing too. But the most important part was that she wasn't just a very pretty girl, she was my first love. A long time ago we attended the same grammar school and even went out for a half a year. Then we parted ways. Zulya started to go out with my friend and I went to study in a different city. After that we met only once when she came to Moscow to attends *RUDN*. Our relationship entered a new phase — that of love of an older brother and younger sister, but in my heart I kept dreaming about her being mine.
As I was dialing the number, I was hoping that I wouldn't hear the regular — "the person whose number you are trying to call is out of network reach".
— Hello, — A voice that was so close sounded in the receiver.
— Zulya, hi, how are you? — I was happy to hear her.
— Hi! I haven't heard from you for so long. I'm doing fine. Thanks for calling me, how are you doing? — She recognized me right away.
— I'm doing this and that. Do you have plans for tonight? Lady, I would like to invite you to go to a restaurant with me. What do you think of that?
— I guess we could. Just not for long, I got a class tomorrow at 10, I can't be late for it.
— Okay. I'll be at your dorm at 8 in the evening.
— Sounds great. See you soon then. Glad to hear from you.
— Me too, see you soon.
I hung up. She was the same angel as I remembered. But where would I take her? There are lots of restaurants in Moscow, I just have not been to any for a long time. I think I'll take her to the one I worked in before I finished my career as a bartender. It's a great place on Sretenka street, mostly for foreigners, peaceful and quiet.
We met at eight by the dorm. We caught a *bomber* and headed for Sretenka, to Simple Pleasure. The emotions were endless. She is still just as pretty. Actually no, she became even more beautiful, like a flowering bud. While we were riding around evening Moscow, I couldn' take my eyes away from her. And she just went on talking. She told me about her student life, about how she went to the States for internship and for in-depth English study. A half an hour passed by like a moment. I paid the bomber and we exited the car.
Simple Pleasure really did end up being an ideal choice. I ordered a couple of bottles of Italian sparkling wine and we comfortably settled in on the first floor by the fireplace. The real fireplace, into which the bartenders would sometimes throw more wood. I won't overload your brain with our conversations, I don't even remember anymore what we talked about. I only clearly remember what we concentrated on, — our first meeting in Moscow.
— Remember our promise? — asked Zulya, who was already a little drunk.
— Of course. You were just trying to get into a few universities in Moscow and was preparing for your exams and I was already having fun on my first vacation.
— Yes, thanks for your support then.
— Oh, don't worry about it. You know, I'll never forget how we were standing there on the bridge across the river in *Sparrow Hills* and swore never to give up. To never surrender in the face of any problems or misfortunes and to always help each other...
— ...And to get all the best from life, — she finished my phrase.
— That's exactly how it's gonna be, Zulya, believe me. Soon everything will change in our lives. I promise you!

[AlekceyM]

Sorry, if you find mistakes in translate. I'm russian author and my english not excellent.
My book popular in Russia, that's why I want to publish it for all world.