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AsianSurprize
2009-01-14, 04:32
Now I know a lot of these scams/thefts have been done before, and talked about I just want to perhaps open up a few more ideas and give a more personal insight as to what works and what may not work.

I would also like to express that these 'stories' may not be necessairly true, just incase the po-po are around.

I started off with Barcoding which I found to be a very safe way of theft. The downsides were that collecting barcodes were tedious work, and making a database was equally tedious. However it paid off in the end. I hit up big chain stores such as Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc.

I essentially would go into the store and collect codes on similar items with much cheaper prices. (Ex. I wanted $300, I would get a code for a $50 one). I then duplicate the barcodes using Barcode Magic and then would print a sheet out of them onto mailing labels that I bought a staples. I cut them out and stuck them, on my way to the till. In my experience I found that self check-outs tend to be the safest bet for Barcoding, however dumb women were also safe. Men usually knew what was going on, and depending on their current state they normally would not take action. A few examples of what I got would include. A wine cooler, a mini-fridge, 1TB external hard-drive, 5 sleeping bags, 5 tents, etc. I would carry these around and use them as 'coupons' essentially. It got so ridiculous to the point where I was buying backpacks for 1.50. What I learned was 1. Don't get cocky when coding. 2. Self checkouts are the best place to do it. 3. Make a large database of codes, and then get a portable print such as the Canon IP90. I also found that Home Depot was the easiest store to get through the check out with the most value.

I then started selling/returning this stuff. I would take the barcode off and return it full price without a reciept. For most things I got gift cards, however at places like Princess Auto you can recieve cash back. I would generally then use the giftcards to buy more coded stuff and it would be a cycle. I would also remember to use my fake ID so that they would not be able to trace it back, however they rarely asked. The best example I have of this is at Home Depot again, where I coded a $300 sander for 7 dollars, and then returned it, recieved a gift card, and recoded the same sander. I eventually had 7 Home Depot Gift Cards valued at $300 each. The thing about being safe while coding is to be smart and choose things that generally have either ambigous names such as 1/2' Set Tool and code it for something with a similiar description. I had previously attempted Ipods and high end electronics however the security was very high as Sales Reps would not even let you touch them.

After a few months I got caught by Wal-Mart, however it was after I had already left the store. I had found 1TB external hard drives that were outside of the shelves, I took one up looking at it like I was going to buy it, and then my friend took the other one and we walk around the store. We used this as a decoy while we put the codes that were already in our hands on. Obviously we did this while we were walking and away from Cameras. I kept all my codes in a Ipod Touch box that I also carried around however I used the second compartment of the box to hide the codes. We proceeded to the self check-out. Being the cocky bastard that I was... we had tagged them as $7.00 Duracell Batteries. In hindsight that was probably the smartest thing I have done in a long time. Anyways we went through the check out, however the scale picked up the fact that the hard drives were much heavier than the batteries and the till told us to wait for a Sales rep to help us. So we waited, and along came an old lady. She asked us what happened and we simply told her that we had scanned the items and put it in the bag and it was ringing. She asked us if these were duracell batteries, and we told her that, that was what it had come up as. She asked us to scan it again and it obviously came up as the batteries. She then let both the items through. However before letting us go she asked what was in the ipod box. I lifted the lid revealing that it was empty, and then we left. After that we did not have any troubles. However 3 weeks later my room mate said he recieved a call from the president of that Wal-Mart saying that they had my friend and I on video barcoding these items. And it had come up as duracell batteries that we had paid $7 for each. I immediately destroyed all evidence and denied it to everyone. However I never recieved another call from Wal-Mart or from the police questioning me about it. I also have no clue how they found my phone number or how they knew my name and where I lived. If anyone had any idea it would be interesting to know for future reference. Over 5 months I scammed about 100k in stuff, however I tend to be a hoarder so I kept most of the stuff or gave it to associates that had helped me.

I then moved onto carding however found it too difficult to gather the right resources and proper help to do it. My original plan was to have a associate work in a high end restaurant and swipe the cards on to their given portable mag stripe reader, and then we would duplicate the cards and decode pin numbers and laugh straight to the bank. The plan fell through and no other work went on.

I also did car shopping, where we just found unlocked cars and took everything we could from them, it was short lived however we did get a few hundred dollars and a stereo system and some wallets.

I moved onto scamming Winners which is my most original idea. In case you guys are unaware of Winners it's basically a store that collects all the high end clothes that don't get sold at department stores and sells it for 20% cheaper there. They don't have set tags for all their things and so I did one of two things. I either took my clothing tagger along with me into the change rooms and changed the tags from cheaper things to more expensive things and bought them... or I bought the clothing full price, and then used my clothing tagger at home to retag the item of clothing onto an older piece of clothing, such as a new-looking shirt that had been sitting in my closet for a while. I always carried my fake just to ensure safety if I was being asked for ID. I found that it worked well and I over a month scammed about 5-8 grand in new clothes. I got clothes such as Boss, Armani, RingSpun, Parasuco, G-Star Raw. So if you're really into fasion and like to get a lot of new clothes all the time, this is a definite way to go.

As I got into using my fake ID more I got another one, and then took the clothing tags off clothes in the store, and put them on my old clothes and returned them without reciepts and recieved gift cards. I got about 12k in gift cards from that.

I lastly, having bought the MSR505c decided to try a new scam that I had never seen before. I took one of my Winners gift cards and stole a bunch of unactivated gift cards from Winners. I put a Craigslist ad for Winners gift cards saying 10- $500 Winners Gift cards for sale. I would usually sell them in lots of 3-4, and would tell them if they bought 4 they would recieve one free. We would meet at the store and they would verify with the card swiper machine that they were all legit. I recieved my money and left. Later they must have realized that they were all the same card, just copied. I only did this 3 times to avoid too much attention. However got about 3k off of this.

I am now interested in starting up some Novelty IDs and am working on Canadian IDs. If anyone found this helpful and wants to help me out, or just talk about possible scams. Just leave your email and I'll get back to you.

That's my story, If you have any questions or want further detail please ask. I developed the last two on my own and I thought I came up with barcoding on my own until I had read about the couple that had coded from Wal-Mart and gotten caught. Anyways a lot of these store you may not have heard of, and that's because I'm in Canada.

Ed Lister
2009-01-14, 06:07
Holy shit. Nice post.

SLP
2009-01-14, 06:14
Did Wal-mart call you or your friend? I doubt it was the president of Wal-mart calling you.

It may have just been that your friend was scared and didn't want to do it again so he claimed someone from Wal-mart called. As you said, there is no way they could have gotten your phone number.

LJ
2009-01-14, 07:00
He said it was the president of that specific Walmart.

OP: There's some different ways Walmart could've figured out who you were, most likely they got your friend's license plate and used that to get his contact info.

Wats Doing Boyz
2009-01-14, 08:54
Did Wal-mart call you or your friend? I doubt it was the president of Wal-mart calling you.

It may have just been that your friend was scared and didn't want to do it again so he claimed someone from Wal-mart called. As you said, there is no way they could have gotten your phone number.

Yeah your friend probably lied to you Op cause he got spooked.

SLP
2009-01-14, 09:50
OP: There's some different ways Walmart could've figured out who you were, most likely they got your friend's license plate and used that to get his contact info.

I read in another thread a similar business has surveillance in car parks for that reason. I don't know about where you live, but records of number plates are not made public here. The only way you can acquire that information is through the police. So unless records are public, why didn't the police get involved?

celler_dweller
2009-01-14, 09:51
this thread is shit fuck you

LJ
2009-01-14, 10:07
I read in another thread a similar business has surveillance in car parks for that reason. I don't know about where you live, but records of number plates are not made public here. The only way you can acquire that information is through the police. So unless records are public, why didn't the police get involved?

Well since nothing happened after the Walmart president called the kid, they must not have had enough evidence to actually press charges. The cops couldn't really do anything about it so they probably just gave Walmart the info, letting them use some scare tactics to try and get a confession or maybe just to keep both guys out of the store.

ScaryDangerous
2009-01-14, 13:10
i like to read stories about asian people. and i wouldnt mind speaking to you about stuff.

but you could try getting into the gift card scam, it worked with me, and i bought some expensive stuff.

ratman1
2009-01-14, 13:15
very inspiring A.S.
have to give
barcode magic a try.

AsianSurprize
2009-01-14, 14:00
Sorry I wasn't very clear about it earlier, but my room mate is a different friend from the one I did the scam with. I'm assuming it was the surveillance cameras that got his license that tipped them off, because we took his car when we left. My car was still sitting in the parking lot because we were picking another guy up, and never really assumed that they would have cams in the parking lot. However, I knew for sure they didn't have substantial evidence so I never replied to their call and just denied. I was "surprized" to never hear from them again. My other friend who was helping me did not recieve a call, so they must have thought that he wasn't involved and that I had just tricked him into coming with me. Either way the whole thing was just straight fucked up. I have since then stopped coding, although I'm getting broke again... so there's always room....

LSA King
2009-01-14, 16:33
Holy shit. Nice post.



Agreed!


http://images.despair.com/products/demotivators/success.jpg

sam_fisher
2009-01-15, 08:01
You don't happen to live in Calgary do you? I'm into similar shit. I was never busted for scamming but I was caught for some other bad ideas. I've got more than a few ideas on fake Canadian ID's, I used to make them for a while. Got outstanding results.

cheeze
2009-01-15, 08:37
hey AsianSurprized,

From what i know, most stores (fashion stores inc.) would only give you back your money if you have the receipt for the product. Is that right? What is Walmart policy anyway? do they give you full refund without a proof of purchase?

fishmonger
2009-01-15, 10:09
good post. In your experiences what was home depot/lowes policy on returning with no receipt?

-God-
2009-01-16, 00:07
These are the sorts of threads we could do with in BI.

Pandoras Assassin
2009-01-16, 00:43
I didn't read ur post OP but I love ur name.:)

TheGreenBastard
2009-01-16, 00:59
bro sounds like your from ontario me and you think alike ;) hit me up on msn dom.pom@live.com

peace.

AsianSurprize
2009-01-16, 05:17
Hey guys,
Sorry to have burst your bubble to the people that have replied asking where I am from... but I am from Saskatchewan.

Basically the chain store I work with for clothing is a pretty big one, they don't have set database systems for specific clothes and it's therefore really easy to do the switcharoo without them noticing.

I had different experiences at different Home Depots. The first time I returned it I went to the west-end branch and they gave me a gift card with no ID shown. Then I went to the east-end store, and they said they couldn't return things over 100 without a gift card.. It would be a good idea to just test the tolerance for this. I know that you probably won't be able to get in trouble either way. You could probably just ask the staff at the return desk and they will tell you. However from my experience it varies from store to store.

I never returned anything to Wal-Mart however they have a no reciept return policy as well. I would assume that Wal-Mart would be more consistent with their policy from store to store.

I also know that in Saskatoon there are a few small clothing stores that don't have barcode scanners. They essentially just write the price in marker on the tag, if you really wanted you could always go into the store and change the price with your own marker... It probably would be more sketch but if you have the guts you could probably pull it off.

If anyone from Canada wants to talk about potential shit to do I have loads of tricks up my sleeve and maybe we could bounce ideas off each other? Maybe start a crime ring? email me at poopadoobee@gmail and we can talk..
I also just remembered a few stories that I forgot to talk about... but I guess I'll save that for later.. I've got Finals tomorrow. I hope I have sparked a little innovation in everyone's crime-minds.

oh and I actually have a question for you guys. I was at work the other day and I was walking in a parking lot having a smoke, and I found a key fob for a car. I went back the next day and it turns out that the guy works in the same building as the parking lot I was smoking in. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I should do, and how I would maximize profitability with this? There is no key, just the unlocker/fob.