Bug In Lowe's Site Sold Goods For Free. Couple Arrested For Exploiting It (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A couple from the Brick Township in New Jersey stands accused of using a flaw in the Lowes online portal to receive goods for free at their home. According to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, the couple tried to steal goods worth $258,068.01, but only managed to receive approximately $12,971.23 worth of merchandise. Officers executing a search warrant said the residence resembled "more of a warehouse than a home." Investigators said they recovered enough merchandise to fill an 18-foot trailer. Most items were in their original packaging and still had their price tags. Police say one of the suspects posted ads for some of the stolen goods on a Facebook group used to buy and sell used objects. The suspect was selling most of the items at half the price offered on the Lowes website. Authorities did not provide in-depth technical details but revealed the flaw resided in the site's gift card module.
One of the suspects' lawyer argued that his client didn't have the skills to penetrate the security on the web site of a Fortune 500 company -- and insisted instead that his client just had a really special knack for finding good deals.

Comments

Re:Where are the security trolls?

[chuckugly]

More like if Lowes self checkout station set the price on some goods at $0 if they were scanned upside-down, and people just checked out and left. And then got arrested.

class warfare

[PopeRatzo]

When a consumer exploits a bug in the system, they get arrested. When a corporation or rich person exploits a bug in the system, it's called, "smart tax planning".

Re:Where are the security trolls?

[ClickOnThis]

Even if it is clear that the system was at fault and that no exploit was used, that person would not get to keep the goods over here.

But would they be charged with a crime?

If they exploited the flaw over and over and over again, then I would think yes. Just like the couple allegedly did in TFS.