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A 24-Year-Old Scammed Apple 42 Times In 16 Different States
redletterdave (2493036) writes "Sharron Laverne Parrish Jr., 24, allegedly scammed Apple not once, but 42 times, cheating the company out of more than $300,000 — and his scam was breathtakingly simple. According to a Secret Service criminal complaint, Parrish allegedly visited Apple Stores and tried to buy products with four different debit cards, which were all closed by his respective financial institutions. When his debit card was inevitably declined by the Apple Store, he would protest and offer to call his bank — except, he wasn't really calling his bank. So he would allegedly offer the Apple Store employees a fake authorization code with a certain number of digits, which is normally provided by credit card issuers to create a record of the credit or debit override. But that's the problem with this system: as long as the number of digits is correct, the override code itself doesn't matter."
Who the hell came up with that idea?
That's no security in any meaningful sense of the word.
I'm betting some lobbyist made it so that the banks didn't really need to do anything concrete, just look like they were.
If that's all that's required, the banks deserve to be getting ripped off.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
It might have been 300k retail sales but it only cost Apple 500 bucks.
Brilliant tactic, but dumb enough to use it 42 times? He had to know he was pressing his luck the FIRST time, why would he keep going?
Fool them 41 times, shame on the scammer. Fool them 42 times, shame on them. But c'mon, the fact that no system exists to check this means lawsuits are coming to towns.
He'll be serving 5-10 yrs. Brilliant.
With this new information, I think I'll go shopping ... anonymously, of course.
That's over $7142.85 per "scam". How the fuck do you spend that much money at a fucking Apple store?!
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Once upon a time, the retailer would have to take the blame for this because it is the retailer who is supposed to make the call to the financial institution on the retailer's own phone line, not using the cardholder's phone or trusting the cardholder's ability to dial the number.
Unfortunately, the retailers are successfully using the police to cover for the incompetence of their staff.
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
It sounds like the real scammers are the credit card issues that have a system in place to override that has ZERO security in place.
Doesn't this guy have job? Too lazy? WTF? Be a decent American and work like everyone else! I will never understand criminal minds. Maybe Apple should have called the bank or Visa or Mastercard instead.
sorry for the rant but I hate how people steal using debit cards.
Have you never been to an Apple store? They charge $20 for a freaking USB to iPod cable. Think different (like everyone else).
From TFA:
>> merchants can be liable for charges if they override a credit or debit card denial in this fashion
>> In (another) case...after defrauding Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, and several other retailers out of $557,690 in the same manner, which is known as a “forced sale” or “forced code.”
I think the operational problem here is that store managers have the authority to override denials to boost their own sales numbers...while the risk for bad credit decisions may fall on the owners.
I walked in once ... and couldn't figure out how to buy something so I left !
So the ultimate question to life and everything is: "How many times was Apple ripped off by an single individual?"
Does the fact that the guy was 24 have any bearing on the story what-so-ever? Why not say "scam artist" or something more generic?
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
How did he think he was going to get away with it when he was using is own card?
1: The clerk is the one that should be calling for an approval code, and the call is made not to the cardholder's bank but rather to the bank that processes the cards for the retail store. It doesn't matter what the customer's bank says (or in this case the fake bank) since the approval/authorization code must come from the retailer's bankcard processor.
2: At my store a manager override is required to "force" a bankcard approval. So even if the clerk makes the call and gets a voice approval code a manager/owner must also provide a password to allow the approval to go through. Apparently Apple has no such security check in place and clerks tan type a manual code into the POS system to force the sale to go through.
Amazingly simple scam, but also amazingly simple to prevent if the stores involved had even rudimentary procedures in place.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
I can see putting it in the summary, but what relevance is his age to put it in the headline? If not 24, what age am I supposed to expect for someone who would pull off this kind of scam?
I worked retail for a long time, including an Apple Store. I cannot remember the policies at Apple when I was working there, but most places will not take a verbal approval code.
If the person on the other end of the phone (generally you get to them by calling the 800 number on the back of the card) has the ability to run the transaction, they have the ability to clear whatever prevented the card from going through the first time. They would have to - they have to clear the hurdle before they can run the transaction themselves.
So policy at most places is that the telephone operator clears the issue (usually it is a daily spending limit that card issuers never mention) and then the store runs the card again. There was no procedure for manually entering a verbal approval code.
My memory of Apple Retail (this was '04-'06), however, is that they had almost every contingency covered. The POS machines all had USB modems attached so that in case the Internet went down at the store, credit cards could still be processed. We even had the old CH-CHUNK imprint devices when everything went pear-shaped. I do seem to remember having the ability to enter a manual authorization code for a credit card transaction. It is Apple Retail - there are supposed to be no hurdles keeping a Specialist from keeping a customer happy.
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
If I'm reading this correctly, it was his own accounts that were closed? Yeah... they'll never catch you brohan.
So they weren't calling the bank, but obviously they were calling someone. Did the store employee actually speak with someone, or did he manage to fake the call entirely? Presumably he had an accomplice who was pretending to be the bank. Did they track down and arrest that person? I didn't see it in the article.
At 42 he'll only do it 24 times. Slowin' down.
Table-ized A.I.
I found out the hard way that so long as a crook has your CC/Debit #, and there's at least 1 dollar in your account any automated gas station pump across the country will automatically override your overdraft protection and allow the transaction. No pin required. Gas stations are suppose to post a warning on the pumps about this, but most don't and I had to take a local one to small claims court because they didn't have notifications on theirs in order to convince the bank it wasn't me purchasing $300 worth of gas.
How many digits is that code...?
There's a certain level of greed and selfishness common to criminals and drug addicts at play here.
Was he using cards with his own name, or should he simply have called it quits the 41st time?
That Apple even accepts this is ludicrous. Just tell the guy, "Look, we have a whole store full of this shit. It will be here tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the day after that. Come back when you clear your crap up with your bank, and THEN pay for it."
Should I assume his parents REALLY wanted a girl?
"Sharron Laverne"..."he" How does that make any sense. I can see why someone would turn to crime if their parents gave him not one, but 2 girls's names.
He should just call himself "Sue" and be done with it.
pretty terrible comment there. but if he was African american, then that explains his name. there's a whole chapter on that in Freakonomics.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Once upon a time, the retailer would have to take the blame for this because it is the retailer who is supposed to make the call to the financial institution on the retailer's own phone line, not using the cardholder's phone or trusting the cardholder's ability to dial the number.
Unfortunately, the retailers are successfully using the police to cover for the incompetence of their staff.
Cute fairy tail.
A failure in process doesn't make it not fraud; in fact that's what makes it fraud. Otherwise it's simply attempted fraud because the jerk is caught in the act.
The blame rests solely in the hands of the criminal.
I had an issue with my Mortgage company, they increased my escrow and didn't inform me until I shorted them on the monthly payment.
I attempted to make an additional payment online, but their online processing page was broken, so I had to fall back to using a telephone. (egregious, I know!)
After giving payment information over the phone, the customer care representative asked me if I would like the confirmation code. Normally I don't take note of such things, but I thought, "mortgage important, numbers important" and noted it in my notebook I carry.
A few days later I start getting phone calls and emails and letters, "you are late on your mortgage, pay now or die!"
I call and say, "WTF? I payed!"
They say, "STFU, you didn't!"
I say, "I have confirmation code, muthaeffas!"
They take the code, and tell me, "sorry, this code doesn't exist in our system". (I even gave them the name of the customer service rep that gave me the code! In addition, in their manual call log they show that a confirmation code was given to me...)
It's shocking that we go through all the motions while failing at understanding the purpose of the activity...
His skin looks dark to me.
That's based on the large picture shown at the top of article about Sharron Laverne.
Where did I find such an article? Oh, it's the one posted in the summary/story. So, jsepeta is known to not check the article before posting.
Not that your comment seemed bad or contrary to the article, but this publicly shows that you didn't seem to check.
What kind of numbnuts trusts a phone number given to them by the person being authenticated? "Here, call my accomplice-- er, I mean account rep, and he'll verify me." Yeah, pull the other one.
Unfortunately, even my credit card issuer can't get this right. They called me about some charges. "Now sir, to verify that I'm really talking to the account holder, what is your social security number?" Um, no. YOU called ME. You can reasonably assume that the phone number you have on file for me is valid. It's up to YOU to prove to ME that you're from my credit card company. "But sir, we ask this for your own security..." Eventually I got them to give me a ticket number so I could call the number printed on my card and get back to them. Turns out it actually was my issuer calling, not a scammer. Guys, you really should know better!
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
From the article:
The Tampa Bay Times said Parrish initially forced a transaction at the Apple Store in Brandon, in which he used a fake authorization code to make a purchase of $7,753.22.
So, if you start with a $7,753.22 scam, and end up with an average of $7142.85, what do you do to reach that average?
Scale down.
To be fair, the Apple Store staff tried phoning on their own iPhones first, but none of them could figure out how to hold it to get a signal, so they had to borrow the customer's phone instead...
He didn't get away with anything he's behind bars where he belongs. Blame poor police work, Poor training by Apple for him getting away with it for so long.
Jack of all trades,master of none
I love that the article says it won't say how long the code was. If it is still as it was back when I worked retail, then it is a 6 digit code. Whoop-de-freaking-doo. Not like people couldn't have figured that out by trial and error.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
is a black American.
Jack of all trades,master of none
They investigate retail fraud/theft now? Don't they have better things to do? You would think once discovered it would be pretty easy for the store to identify the person and forward the information to the police.
My question would be why the institutions in question didn't mark the cards stolen or something around purchase two or three? You think they would catch on pretty quickly that someone was using a canceled card and thus making fraudulent charges. I can understand the first few purchases going through but anything beyond that would be simple rank incompetence on the part of the card companies.
"According to a Secret Service criminal complaint..."
They take care of retail fraud???
Banks ARE evil!
#evilbanks #banksarefromhell #madhatteriscrazyitsrightinhisname #im1%sotherestofyoucandie #lookatmeimmagoddamnedsmartasscauseilearnedhashtags
I'm wondering though if presenting one's own expired/cancelled cards for transactions wouldn't set up some kind of data trail leading back to you, with scams like this one? We don't really know how the guy was finally caught -- but I'd have to think repeatedly presenting a known cancelled card for a transaction and causing it to be rejected would set up red flags someplace?
I thought in many cases, the merchant would just receive a "capture card" notification when this was tried?
I guess someone didn't know the difference between POS software and POS software.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Remember CD keys on Office 95 that were xxxx-xxxxxxx where the validation was if the 7 digits at the end, when summed, were divisible by seven the key was good? So 1111-1111111 was a valid key?!
This is the same thing 20 years later! Nobody learns!
I guess he bought some Apple wallpaper, some Apple dishes, a new Apple car, a few Apple computers, an Apple house, Apple pens, Apple iPods, Apple clothes, this guy was decked out in Apple. Although I know what he probably did with all the stuff, that would've been funnier.
How many times did he try this and it didn't work? He just kept trying until he got one lazy/incompetent teller and bingo! Scam!
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
I've nothing really to add, but why does the perpetrator in this case have a girl's name when it's quite clear he's a man? Is naming him Sharron a bit like the boy named Sue?
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
it's due to weak passwords and make me change my password to urdu
Well, it's not *quite* like that....
What Apple does on the computer side of things is generally stocks 2 to 3 configurations for each product in the lineup. So you can choose from a "base model" or an all around upgraded form of that, or in some cases you get a "low", "mid spec" and "high spec" config. to pick from.
All of the other combinations would be custom orders that aren't stocked.
Right now, they actually have 5 product lines: Macbook Air or Macbook Pro for laptops, the Mac Mini, the iMac and the Mac Pro workstation.
That's why I said I was a little surprised the maxxed out configuration was in the store, ready to sell. It's not something you can select on the website without manually picking the highest end pre-configured model and then manually choosing several options to upgrade various components further.....
Typical that this is why we can't trust this generation
They've been ripping off customers with ridiculous markup on hardware identical to pc's for years, and justifying it but throwing in a shit os. The fraud isn't cool, and 300k is absolutely insignificant to their cash reserves, but it's nice to see someone stick it to those wankers who have made the word genius a punch line