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Feds Bust a Dark-Web Counterfeit Coupon Kingpin
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: The dark web has become the go-to corner of the Internet to buy drugs, stolen financial data, guns...and counterfeit coupons for Clif bars and condoms? The FBI indicted Beauregard Wattigney yesterday for wire fraud and trademark counterfeiting on digital black market sites Silk Road and Silk Road 2. Wattigney allegedly spoofed coupons for dozens of products and sold collections of them online in exchange for Bitcoin. The FBI accused him of doing $1 million worth of collective damage to the companies he made coupons for, but a fraud consultancy believes the total financial cost of his actions was much higher. Wattigney also offered expensive lessons that taught people how to make their own coupons. "In his tutorials, [he] explained the simple breakdown of barcode creation using the increasingly universal GS1 standard: GS1 codes begin with a 'company prefix' that can be copied from any of the company's products. The next six digits are the 'offer code,' which can be any random number for a counterfeit coupon, followed by the savings amount listed in cents and the required number of item purchases necessary to receive the discount."
Who takes the loss the retailer or the manufacturer?
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
I remember seeing coupons like this and guides how to produce them circulating on 4chan, atleast half a decade ago. Alot of people were using them to get steep discounts on PS3s as I recall.
With entirely fabricated coupons, the manufacturer knows which offer codes are legit, and what amounts they should map to. They'll simply reject all counterfeits, and the retailer takes it in the proverbial shorts for the discount. Manufacturers could fix this by sharing all legit coupon codes with retailers (similar to the UPC system), but this would be cumbersome and since there's little benefit to the manufacturers, they don't.
For the second type of counterfeit where it's a fake copy of a legit coupon (you see this a lot with "free item" and deep-discount coupons that are sold by consumer product companies to say, appliance manufacturers or retailers. (i.e. "Buy this overpriced washer and get a six-month supply of Tide Detergent") it all depends on if the manufacturer spots the fake or not... If they do, the retailer eats it; if they don't the manufacturer does. Most of this type of coupons increasingly have security measures like holograms, thermo-sensitive colored ink, etc. to make the job easier on the manufacturer; doesn't help the retailer much though... they'll be able to know that, for instance all P&G coupons have certain security measures, but this won't work for smaller brands.
All defeated if the customer pays in cash, and intends to offload the mechanise for cash ASAP.
Rgds
Damon
http://m.earth.org.uk/
Tried and failed. Because you can't tell whether the consumer actually knew the company was fraudulent. During the 1990's someone loaded newspapers with fake coupons. This way if he got caught he could say, "See, it's not me. They have them to." Where he got the idea from: A Late 30's-40's film. I can't remember which one, but it was one of the Dead End/East End/Bowery Boys movies. In the film, crooks were putting a counterfeit bill in each paper.
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
I actually had a job for a couple of years designing 'advanced' POS system software based on the industry standards. The items that the retailers considered 'advanced' just amazed me. They seemed like basic items to me. That said, it is almost impossible to protect against this until they changed the coupon codes to something like QR codes that they could digitally sign. The current standard was made long time ago and is very limited in the amount of information it can carry.
/ This is a simple standard anyone can google that shows exactly how these bar codes are laid out. I used that myself when implementing that section of code. Why anyone would pay for it is beyond me. At the end of the day, the retailers know there is going to be some fraud on this. They have switched to all of these automated checkout systems to save money on cashiers, who would likely catch this sort of thing, so I don't really feel sorry for them at all. They have made that trade.
That said, there are some safeguards in there. If your coupon total is unusually high, your checkout will lock up and require approval from the person watching up front. So anything outrageous will likely be caught. Also, you better pay with cash, as the transaction is all tied together to your card. Also, don't use a loyalty program. So at the end of the day is all that hassle worth it to maybe save a couple of dollars? Conversely, though, I guess the checkers care less and less every day as they get replaced by machines and probably just hit the 'ok' button most of the time, and the retailers eat it as just cost of doing business.
Myself, I would not suggest it as it is punishable by law. It is worth going to jail to save a relative few dollars off your bill?
I hope this scam works, and that it will mean the death of coupons as an inducement. When I think of the time expended cutting them out, fiddling with them on every shopping trip, and snipe hunts for products we don't usually buy but-there's-a-great coupon-this-week, I will rejoice at the extra time that awaits us in our future. Then consider the time and money expended by retailers and by manufacturers. Wouldn't we save just as much if coupons didn't exist at all? Whenever I'm out shopping by myself, ignoring the whole coupon world when I do price/value analysis, I find I'm saving just as much.
But coupons will persist so long as they keep appealing to the wives of this world.
How about just stopping this manipulative fiction of "coupons".
1. Charge a fair price for your product.
2. Stop using "loyalty memberships" and coupons to track your customers.
3. Make your customer the customer and not some company that wants to buy data about your customers' buying habits.
4. Be competitive instead of predatory.
5. Charge a fair price for your product.
6. If you can offer me "cash back" on my purchase, then you can goddamn well lower the price.
7. Charge a fair price for your product.
End the ridiculous All-American practice of "coupons" and "customer loyalty" and the problem with fake coupons just disappears.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Agree, 100%. Each and every special offer is an admission that they have been overcharging you all along.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Basically, you're saying humans should be more rational than we are. But we're not. We could barely form civilization, and it's not yet clear that we can maintain it.
I hate those people and their giant binders of coupons. Why? Because if you get stuck behind one in line, they double or triple the wait time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
J.C. Penney tried this. It's become a textbook case study in retail management as to how not to run a retail store. Unfortunately, the "feeling of getting a bargain" is a powerful psychological motivator to purchase; treating customers like rational people is not.
You should have downloaded MyCleanPC. Before I found MyCleanPC my life was bleak and hopeless, people threw stones at me and pelted me with garbage. I was constantly tortured on the wheel and whenever I went to sleep, flying piranhas would bite my penis. But then I found and installed MyCleanPC and everything was happy and gay! People now cheer me when they cross me on the street instead of unleashing their dogs, and I can make love to beautiful pony unicorn females every night. Oh, MyCleanPC, where have you been all this time?
JC Penny tried that and it failed