$1.5 Million Bar-code Scheme Bilks Wal-Mart Stores

nomrniceguy writes "Two couples have been charged in a price-switching scheme that allegedly defrauded Wal-Mart stores in 19 states of $1.5 million over the last decade. Authorities said the scheme involved using a home computer to produce UPC bar codes for cheaper products and slipping them over the real codes on high-priced items. The suspects then allegedly sold the merchandise, or returned it for refunds or store gift cards that also were sold."

Comments

Doesn't add up

[jardin]

If they were rung up as lower priced items, then wouldn't it show the wrong items on the cash register/receipts? I don't understand how the cashiers didn't catch on. And how did they go about returning these items when the wrong items (and prices) were printed on the receipts?

Re:Doesn't add up

[stickystyle]

Have you been to a WalMart?
The people that work there are not like in the commericals, they are just scaning you product, waiting till it's there chance to die.

Re:Doesn't add up

[tmbg37]

The article said the the couple purchased items during busy periods, so probably the checkout clerk either didn't notice/didn't want to hold up the line. It's also likely that the employees just didn't care enough to make a fuss about it.

Re:Doesn't add up

[trevdak]

Having worked in a Wal-Mart for one summer, I can assure you that I not only didn't pay attention to the register display thing, but I would've welcomed some excitement of someone actually stealing from the store. Then again, for there to be any excitement I'd either have to be an accomplice or actually bust them. Hmmm.

Worst job I've ever had.

I never noticed anyone stealing so Wal Mart don't sue me when you read this.

Re:Doesn't add up

[petecarlson]

Perhaps they printed their own recipts with the right item and price. I did this once at best Buy when I needed a recipt for a cell phone that I had bought the stupid insurance for. The reciept had faded to the point where it was hardly legible. They told me it wasn't valid because they couldn't read it. I went home and printed a new recipt with a thermal printer and took it to another store where they replaced my phone.

Re:Doesn't add up

[robslimo]

Hmmm, I think I see a weakness in the 'self checkout' concept. How the heck do you prevent the UPC abuse there? I guess they will have to rely the old security cams to spot folks sticking labels on boxes.

BTW, kudos to the submitter for providing a link to the light-weight (printable) version of the article.

Re:Doesn't add up

[cmallinson]

They would only be able to return something with the same code and so they would be given the same refund anyway

They probably returned the items without receipts. Many stores will give only store credit, or gift cards in the amount of the lowest sale price for the item when it is returned without a receipt. They still would have made money, and that would account for them having gift cards to sell.

Re:Doesn't add up

[trs9000]

The receipt first of all has the wrong item, and secondly says it was only purchased for $10. Even if they are dumb enough to mistake the plasma television for a toaster, wouldn't they only get their $10 back?

Yes, in theory. However, one of the reasons my mom loves walmart (and i cant really argue this point) is that they will take *anything* back. No receipt? Fine! Got it somewhere else? No problem! You broke it?! and coughed on it and it's a food product?!! Sure, we'll take it back! They are very accomadating with returns.

Re:Doesn't add up

[BinaryOpty]

The possible reasons why the cashiers probably didn't notice are: 1. they don't care enough to name-match things they're scanning, 2. they didn't speak/read english well enough to know the difference, 3. the couple selected objects that had multiple versions spanning a price range (like buying a 512MB flash card with the price of a 128MB one), and 4. they used self checkouts (once Wal-mart implemented them). If they did bilk Wal-mart out of 1.5 million, then I'd say at least one of the four above were true at some point in their spree.

On the returns side, if they returned it for refunds sans reciept (like most stores will allow around Christmastime) then they could possibly do return them to make money.

Re:Doesn't add up

[iocat]

One of the most ironic things that ever happened to me was at Walmat. I usually don't shop there but got bad service at Sears and left, but still needed a seriously cheap 13" TV. So I went to Wal-Mart, browsed for a while, bought one and left, only to be assaulted at the door by some Nazi who insisted she had to check my receipt to make sure I hadn't stolen anything. Very irritating. Then I got to the car, put the TV in the trunk, looked down and saw a small craft item that I had thrown in the cart on impulse and *totally* forgotten to pay for... It was kind of a funny situation, as I then had to surrepticiously sneak it back into the store to pay for it while trying to explain to my son that I hadn't stolen it. Bottom line is -- even with their high security, you gotta figure if someone like me can *unintentionally* steal from Wal-Mart, others are probably ripping them off left, right, and center.

Re:Doesn't add up

[mondaypickle]

Most of the self check-out things weigh things after u scan them to make sure its the right item, so this wouldnt work on self check-out machines

Re:Doesn't add up

[iocat]

This is exactly how this scam works. They busted some people who were doing this at Home Depot around San Francisco (San Leandro and Emeryville, I think, if you want to be specific -- read the article), using a bar code for a really cheap light fixture and putting it on a much more expensive fixture (by $150 or so). They did the same thing with sinks, too. They'd buy like 10 at a time along w/ a ton of legit stuff, then sell the legit stuff to a contractor and return the light fixtures for the higher price. If they couldn't get cash (because they had no receipt) they'd get a gift card and sell that for a slight discount elsewhere. The scam netted them maybe ~$400K over 18 months. Check out the link, it's a pretty interesting story.

Re:Doesn't add up

[TrentC]

I used to work at Fry's Electronics, and we had a pair of thieves who did this.

They'd paste the UPC of a lower-priced item over the sticker of a higher-priced item of similar make (handhelds were good for this). Even if the checker was looking at the display, you might not catch the fact that the model numbers on the PDAs didn't match. The guys at the door didn't always catch it either.

Basically, they took advantage of two things at my location: the fact that relabelling items that had price changes did not always happen 100% (the result being that sometimes an item scanned at a different price than was ont he sticker; and believe me, I handled plenty of customers who complained that the CD/DVD/software that said $19.99 on the sticker rang up at $29.99) and the fact that many items Fry's purchased were often bought at clearance or through a special arrangement, so oftentimes the items had custom stickers over the original barcode.

So you have A) items that legitimately had UPC stickers on them, and B) items that scanned at different prices. It was a recipe for disaster; we only caught them when someone noticed them sticking a label on a product.

Jay (=

Re:Doesn't add up

[UniverseIsADoughnut]

You could pass a nuclear warhead across the scanner and have it come up as a ethernet card for $9.95 and most cashiers there would never notice.

Re:Doesn't add up

[Gordonjcp]

My girlfriend worked in a couple of supermarkets when she was a student. She checks every receipt carefully for mispriced or mis-scanned items. Apparently it's really easy to get ripped off by incorrect pricing, but no-one ever checks.

Of course, she takes the piss out of me because I look at every receipt to check the print quality, but that's because I do tech support for most of the UK's supermarkets...

Re:Doesn't add up

[ErikZ]

When you pay your workers as little as possible, they don't give a damn.

Re:Doesn't add up

[shufler]

It should be pointed out that this is in fact, honest to goodness Wal*Mart policy. The official Wal*Mart literature and training clearly states it's their policy to take back ANYTHING. The reasoning they give is that a happy customer is a returning customer.

Ask anyone who's worked there long enough, and they'll tell you all sorts of stories about people returning things which they don't even carry. Inventory time becomes hilarious in a very unhilarious way.

The policy doesn't extend to everything though. I belive things like CDs and DVDs can only be exchanged for the same item. It should also be noted that opened murchandise isn't resold, and that stores will donate a certain amount to charity. The rest is thrown in the trash compactor.

Re:Doesn't add up

[idolcrash]

The weight thing doesn't seem to actually measure the weight, it just makes sure something is there. I always put stuff there when I'm buying and it doesn't touch or something I just push down with my hand and it works.

Re:Doesn't add up

[eclectro]

It's also likely that the employees just didn't care enough to make a fuss about it.

I don't think that it is a question of caring.

You must remember that Walmart has a HUGE inventory and for all purposes impossible for any single checkout clerk to be aware of price fluctuations. Couple this with the fact that Walmart awards clerks who are very fast at checking out, and it is apparent that by time the thieves made it to the checkout line it was too late already.

The article mentions that they were well travelled covering stores in multiple states, and that there were other retailers beside Walmart involved. So it was a pretty complex and effective scam, never giving any one clerk a chance to recognize them.

It must suck for them to be spending New Years (and likely a few more) in jail.

Re:Doesn't add up

[jesdynf]

How the heck do you prevent the UPC abuse there?

By not using UPCs -- Wal-Mart's pushing for RFID tags in all God's merchandise. That'd make self-checkout both faster and more difficult to defeat.

Although... with a portable software RFID reader and tag broadcaster, and a soft canvas tote bag lined with copper mesh, you might be able to scam it after all.

Yeah -- a Faraday cage with a reader on the inside and a multiple-channel transmitter on the other. (Hardwired together. I know.) Stick a recycle/globe logo on the bag's surface, so it's a hippie shopping bag.

Items are dropped into the bag and their code is stored. The bag transmits either that item code or a previously scanned code of a similar but cheaper item. Field user interface is dead simple.

If they use and trust RFID for self-checkout, wait until things are /very/ busy, grab a bunch of items that turn into much smaller items in your tote, wave it at the stand, pay in cash, and saunter on out the most crowded door. Flash the receipt at the harried greeter on your way out.

Primary weakness is either visual inspections by /sharp-eyed/ and diligent greeters or trained professionals who recognize aberrant behavior and have the leeway to follow it up.

Honestly, though, these people deserved to be caught. They found $10K in stolen goods? They used an /informant/ to track 'em down? Waaaaaaaaay too big a footprint. Bound to happen. Bringing in friends and making it a /business/ and -- you just know they had to brag about it. Mention it to people.

Dumbasses.

Re:Doesn't add up

[Anonymous Coward]

It's also likely that the employees just didn't care enough to make a fuss about it.

It actually has nothing to do with caring. I worked at a grocery store for quite a long time earlier this year, and store policy, it seems for most retail stores is not to do anything to interfere with a customer who is shoplifting, ripping you off, ect. Furthermore, the customer is always right rule still holds. The only time a lowly checker is supposed to even consider doing anything is if the manager instructs them to do so. And since they are told to wait until after it's over to notify the manager, and they probably didn't goto the same cashier twice, it's not hard to not get caught doing it (although, they did it too much, and eventually did get caught).

Re:Doesn't add up

[NevermindPhreak]

1.5 million / 10 years / 365 days / 4 people

an average of just over a hundred bucks a day per person. shouldnt be too hard, espically once you get your shit together, to keep up that type of scam rate.

also, you have to figure in the fact that any loss prevention team is going to quote any damage estimate at as high as possible. when i was younger, me and some friends tried to rip off walmart in the same way, except we just cut the UPC from one product and put it on another. trust me when i say the cashiers could really care less. however, we were busted by some undercover shoppers in the process. we put a $20 UPC on a $30 product, but the police report quoted $50 worth of stolen property.

Re:Doesn't add up

[zakezuke]

Wal Mart is the king in data tracking. They are the people who know that pop tart sales go up after a hurricane. I would find it hard to believe that someone could forge a walmart reciept as each one has it's own unique code which is associated with the specific transaction. Even if it's just a stick of gum or some rolaids they keep track of it all. I would think it would be hard to forge.

It makes me wonder why anyone would try to rip off walmart.

Re:Doesn't add up

[Zork the Almighty]

Sounds like an IBM commercial.

Re:Doesn't add up

[eln]

Large items don't usually carry the little theft prevention devices that trigger the annoying "You have activated the Wal-Mart Inventory Control System" thing when you walk out, because they're too big to rub over that rubber thing by the register that deactivates the device. Thus, the only way to make sure you paid for it is for the door greeter to check your receipt. In short, the only time the greeter will ever do that is if you have a large piece of expensive equipment in your cart.

Re:Doesn't add up

[Tet]

It makes me wonder why anyone would try to rip off walmart.

Judging by the article, there would appear to be at least 1,500,000 very good reasons...

Re:Doesn't add up

[roie_m]

No, because they didn't try to steal the $30 product, they tried to pay $20 for it. By your calculations, they stole $20+$10=$30.
But, when someone else went to buy the original $20 item, they probably just looked up the price and charged them $20. The real value of the steal was $10+(five minutes of some cashier's time at minimum wage)

Re:Doesn't add up

[welshie]

Self checkouts, or at least, the ones I have used, will weigh the output in the bagging area, and compare the added weight to the weight as declared in the shop inventory system. That stops you buying two litres of milk and tagging it as one litre, however, it wouldn't stop a 512MB flash card instead of a 256MB flash card. Mind you, the self check-outs that I've used will know that certain items (like 20 year old single malt whisky) are security tagged, and will automatically signal assistance from an attendant. Flash cards would probably be security tagged; hell, I've even seen a pack of two AA batteries security tagged - they're far too easy to pocket.

Re:Doesn't add up

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

The policy doesn't extend to everything though. I belive things like CDs and DVDs can only be exchanged for the same item.

Yeah, they've got all their employees brainwashed into believing that accepting returns on opened DVDs is a violation of federal law! Literally, I've heard that at two different stores. A few months back I bought a DVD (for all of $5.50) that was labeled widescreen/full-screen but when opened, the actual disc was only full-screen.

They had no more copies of that disc in stock (and even if they did, I had learned that they were all defectively full-screen only). It was the most amazingly difficult experience trying to get my money back. Had to escalate it three levels, ultimately to someone who was not forced to wear a wal-mart uniform.

And then they wouldn't give me the tax back -- I didn't have the receipt and they claimed I could be working a scam of buying it in some other state that did not have sales tax.

Jesus Fucking Christ were they morons.

Re:Doesn't add up

[drawfour]

I worked at Wal-mart during college. I worked in the Sporting Goods department -- so I sold ammunition and guns. Ammunition is something that you are NOT allowed to resell once it has been returned -- it's an explosive, after all. Well, wouldn't you know it, but we would accept returned ammunition with a smile on our face. Luckily we never restocked it... instead we donated it to the local police department. It was a tax write-off, and the local PD got plenty of ammo for target practice and stuff. But it was plain stupid to accept a return on an item that we knew we would not be able to sell again and that we couldn't return to the manufacturer (defective items are returned with usually no problems). But we did it to keep people happy...

Re:Doesn't add up

[rah1420]

I just can't see them having the weights of every single purchasable item in the database.

If they're doing Item Data Sync (and I know for a fact Wally World is, along with some other retailers -- since they're doing it with my employer) not only do they know the price, the UPC code, the weight, the color, but they know the inner pack (how many in a "multi-pack" if any,) how many per case, and the cube of the item so that they know how much volume the item will take up in the truck and how much real estate it will consume on the pallet. We have Logistics Strategy Analysts who think it's a Good Day (tm) when they can get a truck that gets closer to the nirvana of 4000 cube (which is the theoretical capacity of a 53' trailer.) The cube data that is provided by Item Data Sync allows them to max out shipments without "weighing out" (being overweight) or "cube out" (being too big to fit on a single trailer.)

It's a trivial matter to send this weight data to a checkout scale.

Re:Doesn't add up

[Nogami_Saeko]

Ya, I had a similar problem with a DVD that I got as a gift - opened it up and discovered it was infact fullscreen.

Brought it back to Walmart where I waited in line for 20 min at the returns counter to find out that "they had to process it at the DVD counter", so off to the DVD counter.

Give it to the guy at the DVD counter who says "no problem", gets the widescreen version, and proceeds to whip out a big knife to cut the package open (store policy! if you bring back an opened DVD, they have to cut-open the replacement they give you!). Bozo's knife slips into the DVD case as he's hacking away, and scratches the disc (which I don't discover 'till I get home - fortunately it still plays OK).

Then it's back to the original line I waited in to wait for another 20 min so they can "process the return". I was about ready to kill...

N.

Re:Doesn't add up

[Splab]

Speaking of morons - you wasted at least half an hour, or more likely an hour complaining. Dont know how much you make, but at my sallary you could have bought that dvd 5 times...

Re:Doesn't add up

[16K Ram Pack]

There's a couple of major stores I know in the UK that don't like to give returns. And you know what? Once people experience an obstructive refund policy, they'll think twice about giving you any money again.

So, for the sake of 1 refund of 1 product, you can lose years of business, as well as people telling all their friends what a bunch of bastards you are.

Friends of mine have switched all their games shopping because one time a game failed to work, even though the computer met the spec. Rather than the store giving a refund out of grace, they argued like mad that "look, it works fine on our machine" and refused. Rather than pursue legal channels or spend time escalating it, they just have chosen to shop elsewhere now.

Re:Doesn't add up

[TobiasSodergren]

You can buy them at Wal-Mart too? I thought nuclear warheads were eBay only.

Re:Doesn't add up

[bryanp]

I wish you were at my Wal-Mart. I bought 5 boxes of .45ACP earlier this year, and when I got home one box had magically transformed into .40S&W. (IOW, the clerk stuck the wrong box in the bag and I didn't notice) I took it back and was told that they couldn't accept ammo for a return or exchange and that it was a "federal law" (translation: we don't want to do it).

I argued for a bit and eventually gave up and just gave the box to a friend of mine who owns a .40. I wasn't going to get into a huge argument over $10. Now I don't buy ammo at WM anymore - I'd rather spend a few extra $ at the local independantly owned gunstore and get decent service.

Re:Doesn't add up

[dsmitchell1]

As a former Wal-Mart cashier (I worked there for one summer between getting my BA and starting grad school), I can tell you that the two things that matter most are (in no particular order):

• How fast you scan items
• Making sure that you don't make any customers mad

I, for one, hardly ever paid any attention to what was coming up on my screen, and when I did, it was often pretty incomprehensible (their displays don't show too many characters), so as long as they didn't try to purchase a TV for $2 or something like that, it's not likely that a cashier would notice.

Re:Doesn't add up

[pizzaman100]

One time I bought an item at a Idaho Walmart (6% tax) and returned it at a Washington Walmart (7% tax), and they gave me the extra. I made something like $0.40 on the transaction!! :)

Re:Doesn't add up

[Dolly_Llama]

This is only kharma for the returned products Fry's stocks on their shelves.

Re:Doesn't add up

[bsane]

Of course the parent said he paid 5.50 for the DVD, and speculated that it would have taken up to an hour. That would make it $25/hr...

Re:Doesn't add up

[kd4zqe]

Actually, Wal-Mart has their receipts printed with their logo as an invisible UV Watermark on their receipt paper. Try holding it under blacklight sometime... After all, almost everyone has a Wal-Mart ticket somewhere...

Under every Wal-Mart customer service counter is a blacklight to test this if the authenticity of the sales ticket is ever called into question. They even go so far as to store blank receipt paper rolls in a lockbox.

Additionally, on every Wal-Mart ticket, there is a transaction identifying barcode and transaction number. If I remember correctly, they keep the sales record in the database for at least 5 years before it is archived to more permenant storage. In a local legal case, the local court was able to subpeona (sp?) Wal-Mart for a copy of a receipt as evidence to replace a ticket that was faded out after something like 4 years.
______________________________
Paranoia is a state of mine...

Will RFID help them out of this ??

[Nikker]

Now with all the contreversy will they be safe once it all runs on RFID?

Or will we all be able to do the same just from outside the store ??

Re:Will RFID help them out of this ??

[Create an Account]

Actually, I just read that several of their suppliers have started to resist the rfid implementation because of cost and poor performance. I think they said that the rfids were only getting about 60% accuracy.

Re:Is it that simple to make UPC codes?

[stupidfoo]

Are you new to computers?

That weird box sitting on your desk is called a "printer". Some of these "printers" can even print "pictures".

Now look at a UPC. It's made up of black lines (the numbers are just for show) which is about the easiest thing to print in the world. Now, look in your desk drawer for "Glue".

I think you can figure it out from there. If not, this topic has been covered ad-nasuem in 2600 for about the past 10 years (or longer?). Hell, skip the computer. You can make them with a black pen if you're bored. I've done so and tested them out when I worked in retail. It's really not that tough.

idiots + crime = caught

[FuturePastNow]

returned it for refunds or store gift cards that also were sold

That's how they got caught. This was actually a fairly original idea; if they'd used it very sparingly, and only kept the items for themselves, they most likely would never have been caught at it. Most criminals' undoing is in not knowing when to stop.

Re:idiots + crime = caught

[__aafkqj3628]

Romeo & Juliet, Act 2, Scene 4 -

Nurse
Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say,
Two may keep counsel, putting one away?

Re:Is it that simple to make UPC codes?

[Frostalicious]

One would assume it would be pretty hard for your Joe Sixpack to go out and just print these things willy-nilly.

All you need is a barcode printer and some software which are publicly available for a few hundred dollars, like from these guys. Get a UPC number off a pack of chewing gum and put the sticker on a mountain bike. The hard part is finding a checker who won't notice. I can't figure out that one.

Use similar items

[jamesbulman]

This works if you put new barcodes on for similar (but cheaper) items. For example, stick the barcode for a Sony ultra-cheapo DVD player on a Sony top-of-the-range DVD player. No checkout assistant is going to notice/care.

done in by greed

[circletimessquare]

it's hard to stop using a drug, from quitting a winning streak at the casino, from selling a rising stock, or from successfully bilking walmart of over hundreds of thousands of dollars over the span of a decade

the greatest enemy to a criminal or anybody on a power trip is himself

kid's play

[thetzar]

I did this when I was about 8 years old; swapped the price tag for one thing that I could afford (that was like $1) over another which I wanted (which was like $5). The sales drone didn't notice, but the guilt was enough to keep me from doing it again.

Fancier bells and whistles, but this is the same thing. It'll be interesting to see how they pulled off bilking one of the defining features of UPC codes which I didn't have to deal with: When scanned, the register should display a description of the product. The answer was probably lazy/unmotivated register drones. Some things never change.

Bebeep!

[trs9000]

what kind of television is this? Bebeep! oh oh its a... toaster....? huh... oh man is that a ten-speed? Bebeep!... no.. huh... tricycle... Oh.... alright a Lindows machine!!.... Bebeep!... n-no?.... i see... 5 gallon jar of pickles....

Too bad Re-code.com isn't still around!

[cdf12345]

I saw the guys who did Re-code.com at 2600's 5th hope this summer in NYC. Basically you could create a barcode for any item, and print them.

Finally they closed down because of pressure from walmart and huge legal fees needed to fight them.

But they got their point across, so I could see someone doing this quite easily. Now I'm wondering how they got caught.

I think the best thing to do it go to a walmart and just sticker random items, so that random people are buying the altered items.

There's a 10 min video on Re-code.com about the case. It's worth a quick viewing.
Seems like a way to say "I didnt put the sticker there!"

Self-checkout fraud possible

[turtlboy]

I worked at a Wal-Mart for a while as a cashier. Our store had 4 self-checkout machines where you ring up the items yourself. One cashier was assigned to "Paystation" where people could pay with checks, and other assorted stuff the machines couldn't handle. When working at the Paystation, you were given a barcode card which when scanned would bring up an admin-like menu with price override options and other assorted "cashier" tasks. At one point, I scanned that barcode at my register, printed a receipt to show the number it represented, took that home and recreated it on my computer and printed a new version. I taped it on the back of my name tag, and it worked like a charm. Here's the scary thing: Cash Office also used a barcode for those machines to refund money, etc. They could literally empty the machine of cash with their card. If one took a picture of their card (which usually was worn around the neck in plain sight), it wouldn't be hard to recreate the bar code without knowing the numbers. Talk about fraud potential... I almost wanted to do it as a proof-of-concept, but thought that just being caught with the barcode would get me in big trouble, so I didn't end up trying.

Re:Self-checkout fraud possible

[Rie Beam]

The Self-Checkout system has always struck me as a bit abusable. One thing I've always noticed at my local check-out station is the ability to cancel a purchase midway through - of course it requires the approval of the cashier at the machine, but they usually don't give a damn. Maybe I'm ignorant, but if you cancel the purchase after scanning half of your items, what are you left with? Are the items technically "purchased", or is there some kind of de-activation scheme on those items I'm not aware of?

Re:Self-checkout fraud possible

[geekoid]

if you remember, slashdot poswted a link to an article that tlaked about rfid.
The jist of it was people didn't like it, so they came up with a plan to bet consumers used to it.
Enter self checkout.
The ones I use want to press my items against a yellow strip after I scan them. I don't.

If there damn infernal machine starts making noise, I don't stop on the way ot, either.
I am not a thief, and I will not prove my innocents.
I will defend it, however.

Re:Is it that simple to make UPC codes?

[cmallinson]

Get a UPC number off a pack of chewing gum and put the sticker on a mountain bike. The hard part is finding a checker who won't notice. I can't figure out that one.

I think the cashier would notice you paying for the plasma TV with a $5 bill. That's what differentiates dumb criminals, and the ones you don't usually find out about. You don't swap the code from a $1 item with 1 $3000 item. You take the sticker off a 17 inch lcd, and put it on a 19 inch one. I wouldn't even put the sticker on there permanently. It just has to be the first sticker the cashier sees. Once it's scanned, get rid of the evidence. Walmart is the perfect place to do this. They sell everything, and pay their people nothing, so the cashier will likely not have a clue what you are doing.

Just one more reason...

[NanoGator]

... to use RFID!!!

(Man I hope people are in good humor today.)

Let the buyer be aware!

[Homer's Donuts]

Reminds me of the stories in the early 70's of people changing their utility bills. Bills came printed on punch (IBM, Hollerith) cards.

"Enterprising" students would run them thru keypunch machines and make the number negative or add a decimal point.

These machines are also the origin of the "hanging chad". Always check your input. Like the state of Florida, Walmart could have caught this by auditing returns.

Re:Let the buyer be aware!

[fataugie]

I think Johnny Cash sang a song about it...where the utility company kept hounding a guy for a penny or something, so he took the card and took his pocket knife to it, mailed it back and the utility called to aplolgize, it owed him $300 or something.

It's even simpler than that.

[H0NGK0NGPH00EY]

It's even simpler than that. One summer about 8 years ago when I was in high school, I sat down and decoded the UPCs of a few products in an afternoon. Once you know what the codes are, it's trivial to draw your own bar codes using MS Paint. You can then print them off using any old ink-jet printer. Don't believe me? This is the page that I wrote up after figuring it all out. I made the UPC graphics on that page using just Paint. I also printed off some test barcodes using the cheapo inkjet we had, and ran them by the "price checker" thingys in the local Target. They scanned no problem.

I've wondered for years whether it would really be that easy to get away with switching UPCs just like this. I guess the answer is "pretty easy." Of course, if you get as greedy as these people did, you're obviously going to get caught before too long.

Re:It's even simpler than that.

[H0NGK0NGPH00EY]

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention. This wasn't available 10 years ago of course, but now you can just write the number under a UPC code down, then go to Google and type it in, and viola, auto-generated UPC graphic, ready for printing. Try it out.

Re:It's even simpler than that.

[The Cornishman]

That's twice we've had an orchestral string instrument in this thread. En francais, on dit >, n'est-ce pas?

Re:relapse

[SuperIceBoy]

Like http://www.upcdatabase.com/?

GOOD policy

[Anonymous Coward]

I love that about walmart. It's because of that that I am a returning customer.

I remember when they tried to force me to use a TI graphing calculator in middle school. I used my HP for the most part, just as long as I had the TI with me the school didn't complain. But I've never had an item break as much as that TI, and each time it broke I just brough it back to Walmart. Seriously, a little bump on part of the screen and the thing would shatter. One broke when I slid the case on at an odd angle. Fuck you TI! I love you Walmart!

Why bother?

[Nine Tenths of The W]

$1.5m over 10 years between 4 people=$37500 a year. Call it 80% of that, $30000, as stolen goods never retail for full value, and you have to wonder why they bothered, given that this must have been close to a full time occupation. They'd have done much better to sell the means rather than the goods.

HOWTO: print your own barcodes with linux

[lkcl]

1) install debian
2) install a thermal label printer (the dymo 310 is nice)
3) install pbm2wxl if using dym310 (use google to locate)
4) type "apt-get install barcode"
5) run echo thebarcodenumber | barcode | lpr -Pdym310
6) when the local law enforcement agencies come knocking on your door claiming that the GNU barcode program is illegal and subversive software, RUN LIKE HELL!

Shady, but probably legal

[Basje]

The pricing on the goods can be constituted as an offer. On accepting the offer, a contract is entered. The new pricing (bar code) can be viewed as a counter-offer. If the cashier accepts, the counter-offer is accepted and a contract is entered, making it a legal sale.

Of course, ethically it is wrong, but legally, it's not done yet.

Re:Shady, but probably legal

[jcr]

The new pricing (bar code) can be viewed as a counter-offer. If the cashier accepts, the counter-offer is accepted and a contract is entered, making it a legal sale.

Clever argument, but the chances of a court going along with it are about the same as the proverbial snowball's chance in hell.

-jcr

Re:Shady, but probably legal

[TiredGamer]

Except there is no legal representative of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. at the time of sale. The cashier is a customer service representative that is aiding you at the time of sale with the computer transaction. The offer of sale is made at the shelf and by completing the transaction at the point-of-sale you are accepting the offer of sale and completing the terms of the contract. At no time can you negotiate the sale unless you approach a Customer Service Manager, in which case you lose any sort of advantage since they are actually semi-knowledgable.

Re:Shady, but probably legal

[Nurgled]

By replacing the barcode, you are not saying "I will pay $5 for this microwave oven", you are saying "This microwave oven is a bottle of soda".

I suppose the same argument could apply -- the customer service representative agrees that the oven is a bottle of soda -- but you can't argue that you are offering a lower price for the item because barcodes identify what an item is and not how much an item costs.

Re:Shady, but probably legal

[dk.r*nger]

The pricing on the goods can be constituted as an offer. On accepting the offer, a contract is entered. The new pricing (bar code) can be viewed as a counter-offer. If the cashier accepts, the counter-offer is accepted and a contract is entered, making it a legal sale.

No. A barcode isn't just a price, but a code representing an item, which in the cashregister is linked to a price.

If you put the barcode from a pack of chewinggum on a mountainbike, the barcode still represents the offering of gum at $0.77, and that is the offer the contract is concerning. The fact that you are carrying a $300 bike out of the store is just theft.

Re:Shady, but probably legal

[Senior Frac]

By replacing the barcode, you are not saying "I will pay $5 for this microwave oven", you are saying "This microwave oven is a bottle of soda".

A smart [read: not greedy] thief would do their homework first and put an $80 microwave barcode on a $120 microwave model. The text that displays would be very brief, displaying Microwave Oven or something similar, and would not trigger suspicion with an attentive cashier.

Social observation shows that this type of self-restraint is rarely found among criminals. Greed takes over quickly.

Burger King and Super Mario

[Geburah]

A handful of years back, in a time when my morals weren't exactly as defined as they are now, (heh) I really wanted the brand spankin new "Super Smash Bros." for Super Nintendo. Problem was, I was fresh outta coppers. Yep. Not a dime to my name. So I 'borrowed' my dad's credit card, (who I share the same name with. Rock.) and headed on down to Kmart and bought the game.

Obviously all this hard work of buying video games would make anybody hungry, so I went to silence my grumbling belly meats by making a stop to the Burger King. After ordering my food and taking a seat, I began to unwrap my new Super Smash Bros video game over an 8-piece chicken tender value meal.

It is here where the clouds parted, and God himself reached down and touched me. It is here, that I calculated and measured the exact balance and weight of the Super Smash Bros cartridge in comparison to the equal amount of ketchup packets.

I took the packets and placed them neatly back in the cardboard game housing, packaging everything back up. I took the instruction manual as well, and replaced that with a good 7 or 8 napkins, folded rather nicely. Then, I went next store to Office Max, and had them shrink-wrap the game. Viola. Slap on one of them sticky-hangy-tab thingies, and you got yourself a game fresh off the shelf from behind those locked glass windows.

So, now the scary part. Time to find a differant Kmart. Sweaty and horribly nervous looking, I went inside to make the return. I claimed something to the tune of it being my birthday and that I had already owned this gift, so I wanted to return it. Everything went surprisingly smooth, except for the camera staring at my face. I still wont go back there to this day. :)

Now - Think about the possible following scenario for just a moment. Imagine - Your in your early teens, and you did your chores. It was a nice sunny weekend afternoon, and your dad felt like doing somethin nice for you. He remembers you going off about that new game. He buys it, brings it home to surpise you... your so excited! You guys have one of those rare but really heart felt father and son kinda hugs. Life, is perfect...

You open the box to your new game. In it, you find a small brick of ketchup packets and neatly folded napkins.

Sweet Jesus, I would give my first newborn child to a rabbid tiger just to see that facial expression.

PS: I used to work at Office Max. One day, a guy came back in after just buying a typewriter. Instead of a typewriter, he found a bag of potting soil. He was irate - I smiled. =)

Re:Burger King and Super Mario

[Timo_UK]

You bastard! I bought that box of Ketchup!

Re:Burger King and Super Mario

[Hognoxious]

Sweet Jesus, I would give my first newborn child to a rabbid tiger just to see that facial expression.

LOL! I bet it was like my brother's when he found no toy in his Kinder egg.

Why was there no toy in his Kinder egg? Because I got home from school before him, carefully opened the foil, cut the chocolate shell along the seams with a sharp knife and removed the toy. A simple matter of soldering the chocolate back together with hot tea and replacing the foil and voila - one kid roaring his eyes out.

Re:Burger King and Super Mario

[tepples]

Smash Bros. was on NES before it was on N64. There existed adapters to run NES games on Super NES.

Re:Wal-Mart, the apotheosis of mediocre consumptio

[thegreat682]

Sometimes, it is impossible to not shop at WalMart. I never really noticed this until I went to college and began driving out to some of the small towns neighboring the school. There are areas where WalMart has monopolized all business, others are just unable to compete. In some of the places that I have been, the only place to get your groceries and other supplies is WalMart. There is nothing else.

Retailers use this for competitive pricing...

[switzer]

This method is used to obtain competitive pricing all the time. For example, if Half Life 2 is going on sale at the beginning of the month, and Joe Retailer wants to know how much his competitors are going to charge:

Just print off the UPC code onto a sticker, and go into a competitor (like Walmart) a week before it goes on sale. Put the sticker onto another game, and ask the cashier for a price check. The scanner computer already has the pricing information in it, so the price that they are going to charge shows up on the register!

Re:Retailers use this for competitive pricing...

[jdludlow]

You probably don't even have to get an employee involved, since a lot of larger stores (Target for instance) have barcode scanners set out specifically for the customers to do their own price checks.

Print off a list of all the products you want to check, and take care of it in one trip.

Re:Is it that simple to make UPC codes?

[xchino]

"All you need is a barcode printer "

No barcode printer necessary. A regular run of the mill printer will print barcodes just fine. I did this a few years ago when I was archiving my media collection, some of the items didn't have a UPC printed on the case or media so I had to print my own. If I was able to print with an old canon bubbljet and read with a cheap (free actually) CueCat
then I'm sure they could do the same.

"some software which are publicly available for a few hundred dollars"

There are several barcode generators available online for free. There is even a database of UPC's available here, which is fairly extensive, I tried picking random things with barcodes up once, and it recognized almost all of them.

"The hard part is finding a checker who won't notice. I can't figure out that one."

If you've been to a walmart recently you've probably notice they now have self check out lines, you just scan your items, it calcualtes your charge and you can pay with cash or credit. I can see very easily how you could get away with it.

I found it interesting that I could actually read barcodes directly off my screen, though it often took a few swipes. But it goes to show that barcode readers aren't really that finicky about reading barcodes.

Old News

[salesgeek]

Back in the day to do this you needed Corel Draw (it had a neat little tool called the Corel BarCode) and a decent 24 pin dot matrix printer with a fresh ribbon and a pack of labels.

In the same direction....

[raehl]

Wal-Mart says that if I present an item to the cashier, and I have done something so that the price scans lower than the posted price, I'm guilty of stealing from wal-mart....

Then if I present an item to the cashier, and it scans a price higher than the posted price, is Wal-Mart guilty of stealing from me?

Doesn't seem like they should be able to have it both ways. How is swapping bar codes to get a lower price any different than "accidentally" entering a higher price for a particular barcode into the database?

Re:In the same direction....

[fish waffle]

How is swapping bar codes to get a lower price any different than "accidentally" entering a higher price for a particular barcode into the database?

Aristotle described the core of the distinction long ago: intention. If you as a customer swap barcodes in a store your goal is clearly (usually) to sneak a higher price item for a lower price. You are misrepresenting the transaction to get take advantage of someone/thing else. If some retailer makes an error in pricing they are not necessarily intentionally misrepresenting the transaction; they are still acting in "good faith."

Of course some retailers have intentionally done database/bar-code tricks to the disadvantage of consumers, and that would be theft (i vaguely recall at least one court case a few years ago though i don't remember the retailer or specifics and google isn't helping).

Re:it can be done...

[Lehk228]

walmart does not barcode their products, the manufacturer does, and UPC's do not encode any data other than error correction data for the UPC number, which serves as a unique identifier for each product, anything beyond that is done by the backend database.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Wondering aloud

[anon*127.0.0.1]

Does this explain Wal-Marts big hurry to get RFID on all their products? These people got caught because they got greedy, and involved someone not quite as clever as themselves. Not quite as clever person got caught and squealed. I assume that there are quite a few clever, not so greedy people who have homes very nicely furnished and extremely low prices from Wal-Mart.

And where the hell did that 1.5 million come from? Did the crooks still have 1.5 million worth of stolen stuff in their home? Did the have a nice detailed spreadsheet of everything they'd ripped off since day one? Or did somebody at Wal-Mart just pull a number out of the air?

At Home Depot, the cashiers just don't care

[Powercntrl]

A few months ago I was buying the parts to put together an entire irrigation system from Home Depot. Had the whole deal in two carts, one full of PVC fittings/heads/etc., the other full of pipes.

The cashier just looked at the entire mess of items with disgust and ended up tossing every part into a bag regardless of whether or not it scanned on the first try. For what was supposed to be $300 - $350 in parts, I ended up paying around $180 for.

If you don't pay your employees enough to care, you're gonna have losses. :-P

Walmart doesn't care

[tentimestwenty]

So one group made 1.5 million from switching UPCs. That's a drop in the ocean compared to Walmart's overall sales. Think of what it would cost to hire employees who cared, just to catch the rare occurrence of something like this. Totally a no brainer, you just keep doing what you're doing.

The Decay of Trust

[hburch]

Which gets us to the meta-hack: take the typewriter box back to OfficeMax with a bag of potting soil, and complain that the soil was in the box.

The return system would not be difficult to game at small scales, if you were untrustworthy. It's unfortunate, but true. The truly unfortunate fact is that a small set of people can game the system so much that companies are disuaded from offering returns, except as required by law, and making them as painful as possible. This has already happened, to a large extent, with data copies (software, music, and movies).

Somehow I'm not surprised at quite a few responses

[YukiKotetsu]

At first, I was just disgusted at these people who decide to scam the system the best they can and for as much as they can. When I saw they'd be getting 8-whatever years for this, I felt a little better.

Then I see people posting on tips how to do this more efficiently, how they have done it at Home Despot, Best Buy, and so on, and I wonder...

Are these the same people that think downloading movies and music is just fine? How are you justifying this, since every thief I know has some way to justify it.

They charge too much, therefore it is right of you to systematically lower the price via a UPC swap?

You couldn't afford it, therefore it is right of you to systematically lower the price via a UPC swap?

You wouldn't have bought it at such a high price, it is right of you to systematically lower the price via a UPC swap?

So, by stealing an item for a lower price, you're driving up the price of the rest of their inventory. You can now justify their high prices by requiring them to set the prices higher to account for loss, the loss you have created. Nice job.

Everyone has some kind of justification, I bet these criminals had some as well. They did not want to work, found the system easy to exploit, and wanted free money... what better reason is there really? Sure, they are "innocent until proven guilty" I suppose.

I'm not sure if it's the lack of morals, or just the lack of brainpower that causes such things. Self-justification of stealing is still just stealing and it makes me sick.

Someone tried this with me once... kind of.

[cvd6262]

When I worked at REI (Camping, climbing, etc, gear), we were always told to handle the merchandise ourselves. A customer once came to my register with a large internal frame backpack, and instead of handing it to me, he just pointed the pricetag at me. I grabbed the sac out of his hands and said, "Hmmm. This seems a little heavy." At which point I opened it and found a $110 rope. They guy was totally pale and muttered, "Huh. I wander how that got it there." I asked if he wanted to buy it and he said, "no," so I rang him up for the backpack and restocked the rope.

More on topic, this was something that was part of the training. they taught us how to find fake pricetags, hidden items (carabiners in shoes, tents in backpacks, etc.), and a whole bunch of other tricky stuff. It goes to show that if you don't pay for good training up front, you'll pay for it later.

Re:Someone tried this with me once... kind of.

[whiskeypete]

Guilty until proven innocent, huh ? Nice...

No, Guilty only when proven guilty. The clerk didn't necessarily assume anything before picking up the backpack. He just followed standard procedure.

Saying that checking the product is assuming guilt is like saying the doctor is assuming you are sick when he takes your temperature.

They should've waited

[Rich Klein]

Surely that bouncing smiley face would've "rolled-back" the prices after a couple days. The crooks could've obtained the merchandise for the same price *legally* if they'd only waited a couple days!

The subtle art of Curtation? Ha!

[Dogtanian]

Though, the cash does display items using abreviations and other weird short forms to fit it on the line. I've seen items scan simply as "12 pack" or "toy", which isn't descriptive in the least.

Check this classic out from "The Devil's DP Dictionary", via the Linux fortune cookie program:-

curtation, n.:

The enforced compression of a string in the fixed-length field environment.

The problem of fitting extremely variable-length strings such as names, addresses, and item descriptions into fixed-length records is no trivial matter. Neglect of the subtle art of curtation has probably alienated more people than any other aspect of data processing. You order Mozart's "Don Giovanni" from your record club, and they invoice you $24.95 for MOZ DONG. The witless mapping of the sublime onto the ridiculous! Equally puzzling is the curtation that produces the same eight characters, THE BEST, whether you order "The Best of Wagner", "The Best of Schubert", or "The Best of the Turds". Similarly, wine lovers buying from computerized wineries twirl their glasses, check their delivery notes, and inform their friends, "A rather innocent, possibly overtruncated CAB SAUV 69 TAL." The squeezing of fruit into 10 columns has yielded such memorable obscenities as COX OR PIP. The examples cited are real, and the curtational methodology which produced them is still with us.

MOZ DONG n.
Curtation of Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte, as performed by the computerized billing ensemble of the Internat'l Preview Society, Great Neck (sic), N.Y.
-- Stan Kelly-Bootle, "The Devil's DP Dictionary"

Re:Somehow I'm not surprised at quite a few respon

[rusty0101]

I look at most of those posts and think of them in the same sense as posts on how to make a nuclear bomb. There are actually a lot of people who have access to a large percentage of the material as well as the technical knowledge and resources necesary to construct one. You or I may not have ready access to fisionable materials in the quantities and purety necessary, but even if you or I did, that would not make it at all likely that we would create a nuclear bomb.

Do I have the resources to do UPC label creation and swaping. What I don't already have at home I can easily pick up at a local office max, or office Depot. Possibly even at the very stores mentioned in the article.

I look at the responses earlier in the listing as "Idiots, if you are going to do this, you need to do it this way..."

If I were to decide to use UPC relabling at Best Buy to get that great new 42" LCD HDTV, I would visit first, find a manufacture with both a 42" LCD HDTV, and a 35" LCD HDTV, write down the UPC for that 35" edition, go home print up an approprieate sized copy of that to overlay the UPC on the 42" edition, then during a busy time at Best Buy, go in, put the 42" set on a cart, go stand in line, and while waiting in line discreatly overlay the UPC.

Now note I began that with 'If I were to decide..' I honestly have no interest in doing this. I may like the idea of having a 42" LCD HDTV, but I happen to have worked for the stuff I own, and I have no interest in changing that.

I don't have a justification for such an action, as I have no interest in performing the action. That doesn't mean that I can't participate in the thought experiment, or write about what I know about the topic in question.

-Rusty

Re:Somehow I'm not surprised at quite a few respon

[OldManAndTheC]

Self-justification of stealing is still just stealing and it makes me sick.

You see, there's this thing called the Social Contract. It isn't written anywhere, but we all ascribe to it, not because we want to, but because society would fall apart without it.

Of course, we are not perfect, so we bend the Contract on occasion. People do it by shoplifting, or pilfering, or swapping barcode labels. Companies do it by outsourcing, or denying valid insurance claims, or bullying employees into voting against unionization, just to name a few.

Our behavior is a natural consequence of our primal desire to get ahead by whatever means necessary. Without getting caught. That doesn't make it right, I know.

It's a war of sorts. A cold war, between producers and consumers. You can fight, or you can surrender, or you can continue the low-intensity conflict ad infinitum, which appears to be the choice of many consumers.