Slashdot Mirror
Users Conned by Cable Con
RJ Mansfield writes "MSNBC is running a story on users attempting to con their cable companies being connned. The high-cost filter being sold on Ebay and through email Spam to bypass Pay-Per-View (PPV) digital cable systems is a readily available filter that only temporarily blocks the PPV charges. Users are getting shocked when the cable company then bills the cable user for all of the ordered PPV."
Sounds fair to me, but knowing the type of people who do this, their first reaction is going to be one of "What a second! We weren't told about this!! We were busy reaching around your jacket to get your wallet, we didn't know that you were grabbing ours in the process!"
Suckers; Look what happens when you try to 'Steal' without research.... hehehe
Users are getting shocked when the cable company then bills the cable user for all of the ordered PPV."
I imagine Nelson (from Simpsons fame) saying "Ha-ha!"
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Wahhh!! That's so sad!! I need some tissue to dry away the tears!!
Not.
Anyone who is stupid enough to buy one of these devices is getting what they deserve. If you want the premium channels, then pay for them. If you think the cable company charges too much, then complain to them and rent DVDs. But that doesn't give you any right to steal the programming.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Morons for not downloading a divx movie on Kazaa instead =P
That's much more effective piracy.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
I just read the article, and the people are getting charged HUGE bills for watching TV that they didnt pay for, live, while it was being broadcast.
Hey they watched pay per veiw, a service that has been around a while and been accepted as being viable, and they are being told to pay for it. They dont even have ground to complain, it would be like getting robbed by a drug dealer who gave you bad drugs!
"well officer, I was trying to by some cocaine, and i found out that it was 50% sugar!"
I just find it funny some people are complaining about about being "cheated" by the product.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
It seems fair to me that someone trying to cheat on PPV charges would get burned.
A more interresting question is who did more wrong... Is it worse to try and circumvent PPV charges, or are the people selling these devices the real bad guys?
Opinions?
.: Max Romantschuk
And two years from now, the RIAA charges everyone that's been using Napster/Kazaa/Morpheus/Gnutella/Etc for all the music they've "bought".
Sky in the UK have cottoned on this sort of thing as well. With SKY if you order PPV the box dials up sky to get authorisation. People realised this, unplugged the phone and found that they sky box would then grant them access as it gave them the benefit of doubt.
:) Fantastic
What they didn't realise that they box has a £50 credit limit so if you hit this then it stops. So people then plugged the box back in, it dial sky and they get a bill for £50
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
This is what we're talking about. A little crappy coax coupler. I saw this on ebay a couple days ago, and thought to myself 'This must be a scam -- such a little thing can't work, since real descrambler boxes are pretty large and complicated'. Guess I was right.
As the saying goes.
Though I have to say I'm slightly puzzled by the consensus here that it is wrong not to pay for content and the 'victims' deserved all they get, but elsewhere on Slashdot there is outrage when action is taken against filesharers. When is copyright material not copyright material?
A couple of years ago, when i was addicted to quake, lived at home and only had access to dialup i got hold of some strolen accounts. These were not ordinary "free" dialup accounts that looks like just another phonenumber on your phonebill, but a toll-free number that billed the owner of the account.
:)
:)
Yeah, i know, it was a really low thing to do on my part.. but i knew i was not the only one using the account, and the real person that owned the account would never end up having to pay the bill. So i felt i only screwed over a "big company".
I was young and dumb
Anyways, a couple of months later, my ordinary phonebill dropped down in the mailbox. It was a *little* bit bigger than usual. There were no additional notes on the bill and there was no warning about legal actions from the company, so i payed the bill and kept my mouth shut.
I got what i deserved and i learned my lesson
>"well officer, I was trying to by some cocaine, and i found out that it was 50% sugar!"
How about I was buying coke and half of it was cut with cyanide and a few friends died? Do we laugh them? If the nanny state says, "No drugs for you" that doesn't mean con artists get a free ride to do whatever they please.
I see no reason why the users of these devices shouldn't sue the retailers and manufacterers for false advertising. Just because something is contra-band doesnt give you the right to do what you please.
Its illegal to make lethal booby traps for criminals and for a good reason too. Not just to protect the police who might stumble on them (or kids or whomever) but because criminals actually have rights! Due process and all. Look it up sometime in the Constitution, its a fading fad thanks to post 9/11 hysteria but its still a good idea.
This is not a descrambler at all, that's handled entirely by the cable box. The only thing this particular device achieves is to prevent the PPV order from being transmitted back to the cable provider. The digital cable box, or "DCT" will let you order as many movies as you want, up to a credit limit set by the cable provider. For AT&T Broadband in the greater Chicago area anyway, it usually defaults to $100 or $150. As far as the DCT is concerned, you're watching the movie, and being billed for it. Once the DCT fails to respond for a certain time period, usually a couple weeks, it'll be shut down, and prompt you, the subscriber, to call in. You're then forced to have a technician come out and check out the DCT to find out what's going on before you're allowed to have the service restored, unless the problem can be determined by a bit of quick troubleshooting on the phone.
;)
All in all, this little filter does the same thing as leaving the phone cord unplugged on older networks where the cable network wasn't two-way. I have no sympathy whatsoever for anyone who thought they would get away with it. There would be no use in trying to convince the tech that the DCT is broken either. They have diagnostic tools and whatnot. Even if you were to convince a technician that the DCT is broken, and they swapped it for a new one, guess what? You're still billed for those PPV movies that are remaining in the DCT. They clean those out once the DCT is returned and put them on your bill, sometimes as much as 6 months later
(disclaimer: i worked for at&t broadband chicago until about 2 months ago)
I think a lot of /.ers suffer from hypocrisy.
it is ok to con the PPV channel.
it is ok to con the music industry
it is ok to con Microsoft by copying all their software (for those of you who use it)
but when someone else (other article some time ago) violates the GPL by not opening their code, you rant and rave about 'theft'.
seriously, it is all the same.
the only difference is POV.
Int.
Satellite TV in Spain (cable didn't catch on) relied on a smart card that contains all the information about what the subscriber has paid for. This meant that if you reprogrammed the card to contain the most recent user codes, you could access all the PPV channels for free. If you have a legit card, it recieves the new codes from the satellite signal itself.
There was a huge underground industry around - it got to the point were people where actually selling cards with PICs on them which would reprogram themselves automatically, getting the info from the satellite signal.
Obviously the satellite company knew about it, as did everybody else. I cannot think of anyone that didn't have one of these cards (if they had satellite obviously). The TV company didn't do anything about it for a couple of years. Why? Market share. The more people that signed up for their service and got a box, at a higher price than it would be with the compentition, the better in the long run for the company. People were signing up left right and center with the expectation of being able to unlock all the channels.
And then all of a sudden - clamp down! The company started verifying the user info in a different way an bingo - millions of subscribers that are addicted to 24/7 PPV.
The people buying these filters are clearly :
1) Trying to break the law by stealing cable content
2) Complete morons
Why is anyone spending time and money taking out adverts on Ebay to warn them?
While a 1-{800 | 888 | 877 | 866} number is free to the calling party, except for some nefarious call redirection scams, it is NOT free to the receiving party. They pay for the call. They can receive ANI information detailing which phone number is calling them.
Unlike Caller-ID information which is transmitted in-band (on the same line) between the first and second telephone ring and can be blocked by the dialing party, the ANI service is transmitted off-band and CANNOT be blocked when you call an 800 number. It's always there.