dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
5295

jbob
Reach Out and Touch Someone
Premium Member
join:2004-04-26
Little Rock, AR
·Comcast XFINITY
Asus GT-AX6000
Asus RT-AC66U B1

1 recommendation

jbob

Premium Member

Aluminum foil bandit

Found this on USENET and thought it was appropriate for here. What I don't understand is if the satellite failed to connect why would it still approve transactions? That doesn't make any sense. Maybe they need to reward this guy for finding such a flaw in programming.(after his jail term obviously...lol)

»www.kentucky.com/211/sto ··· 380.html
Store manager's diligence helps foil credit card scheme

If Lexington police are looking to hire a new detective, they might want to consider Mary Parker for the job.

Fed up with the man she calls "the aluminum foil bandit," Parker went on a mission to catch him.

Someone had been climbing onto the roof of the Shell station on South Limestone where she works and disabling the satellite dish -- which handles the store's credit card transactions -- by putting aluminum foil on it over the past several weeks. With the satellite unable to transmit credit card numbers, the bandit and his buddies, as well as unaware law-abiding citizens, were able to get gasoline and goodies from the store for free.

The bandit struck several times at the South Limestone Shell and at four other Shell stations in town. Employees or police officers would remove the foil, but the bandit continued to hit the businesses again and again, said Parker, acting manager of the South Limestone Shell.

"This guy was very, very smart. He knew what he was doing," she said. "How he had enough smarts about this to know how to do this, I have no idea."

Parker poured oil -- cooking and lubricating -- and silicone on the back of her building so the bandit couldn't climb it. But that didn't stop him.

"I poured Crisco oil all over the back of that building, and he still got up there," she said.

The manager of one of the other Shell stores put razor wire on his building, she said.

"That didn't stop him, either," Parker said.

Parker checked her store's surveillance tapes from the times the satellite dish was not working, giving her photos of the person she thought was her suspect. Shortly after the satellite dish stopped working each time, the man was filmed at the store, she said.

His picture was posted in the store for three weeks and shown on a local television station.

But he continued to disable the satellite dish and then make fraudulent purchases, she said.

"He didn't cover his face and he kept coming back time after time after time," she said. "He was so bold."

Because her surveillance cameras could not catch the man on her roof, she even decided to go on a stakeout. She and the manager of another Shell station camped out behind the South Limestone station on Friday night. The bandit usually struck the store on Fridays between the second and third shifts, she said. But he never showed up.

Several days ago she learned that the Speedway station next door "got a good picture of him on my roof." But she said police told her they could charge him with no more than trespassing if they caught him on the roof.

Police arrested Jason M. Van Steenbergh, 27, on Friday on unrelated charges of disregarding a traffic control device, receiving stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of an open container of an alcoholic beverage in a vehicle.

Fingerprints taken from the pieces of aluminum foil used at the Shell station helped link him to her case, Parker said. Parker also had saved credit card receipts from her bandit's visits.

Van Steenbergh has been charged with several counts of fraudulent use of a credit card in connection with the aluminum foil bandit case. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday and is expected in court again on May 20.

"I bet he won't mess with Mary Parker no more," she said.
Staff Writer Shawntaye Hopkins contributed to this report. Reach Jennifer Hewlett at (859) 231-3308, 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3308.

Name Game
Premium Member
join:2002-07-07
Grand Rapids, MI

Name Game

Premium Member

Tip from Peaches Kitchen...Lock that Foil and grease that Pig so the bandits will give up fast.

DID YOU KNOW THIS??

I've been using aluminum foil for more years than I care to remember. Great stuff, but sometimes it can be a pain. You know, like when you are in the middle of doing something and you try to pull some foil out and the roll comes out of the box. Then you have to put the roll back in the box and start over. The darn roll always comes out at the wrong time.

Well, I would like to share this with you. Recently I learned that on the end of a Reynolds foil box it says, 'Press here to lock end'. Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place.

I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had one, too. I checked a box of Saran wrap and it had one, too! I can't count the number of times the Saran warp roll has jumped out when I was trying to cover something up.

How long has this little locking tab been there? Why haven't the Reynolds foil Ladies told us about this in their funny commercials? Check out your boxes and pass this handy tip along. I'm sharing this with U cuz I did not know this. I hope I'm not the only person that didn't know about this.

Aframe
Premium Member
join:2008-01-30
Uvalde, TX

Aframe

Premium Member

said by Name Game:

Tip from Peaches Kitchen...Lock that Foil and grease that Pig so the bandits will give up fast.

DID YOU KNOW THIS??

I've been using aluminum foil for more years than I care to remember.
Well, I would like to share this with you. Recently I learned that on the end of a Reynolds foil box it says, 'Press here to lock end'. Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place.

Thanks!!
Just shows that you can teach an OLD dog new tricks..

/Frank/

Name Game
Premium Member
join:2002-07-07
Grand Rapids, MI

1 edit

Name Game to jbob

Premium Member

to jbob
Sound kind of fishy to me too...but maybe authorization in that area is done differently than batching...
»www.shift4.com/process.htm

Transaction steps
Authorization: The cardholder pays for the purchase and the merchant submits the transaction to the acquirer (acquiring bank). The acquirer verifies the credit card number, the transaction type and the amount with the issuer (Card-issuing bank).
Batching: Authorized transactions are stored in "batches", which are sent to the acquirer. Batches are typically submitted once per day at the end of the business day.
Clearing and Settlement: The acquirer sends the batch transactions through the credit card association, which debits the issuers for payment and credits the acquirer. Essentially, the issuer pays the acquirer for the transaction.
Funding: Once the acquirer has been paid, the acquirer pays the merchant. The merchant receives the amount totaling the funds in the batch minus the "discount rate," which is the fee the merchant pays the acquirer for processing the transactions.
Chargebacks: A chargeback is an event in which money in a merchant account is held due to a dispute relating to the transaction. Chargebacks are typically initiated by the cardholder. In the event of a chargeback, the issuer returns the transaction to the acquirer for resolution. The acquirer then forwards the chargeback to the merchant, who must either accept the chargeback or contest it.
***************************

authorization might be done via cable and a software package from one vendor/service...but then batching via some dooflautchee micro thingie to a banking service.
Name Game

Name Game to jbob

Premium Member

to jbob
Robbery is a serious problem for retail stores across our region. But the employees of Shamrock Liquors in Ashland, Kentucky, can't stop laughing about what happened last Friday at the store along 13th street.

Police say Kasey Kazee walked in to the store with duct tape wrapped around his head to conceal his face.

»www.caller.com/news/2008 ··· or-stor/

Last March, two men and a woman grabbed almost $12,000 worth of panties and bras, stuffing them into booster bags lined with aluminum foil to circumvent magnetic sensors at a Victoria's Secret store in New Jersey's Newport Center Mall.

"That store gets hit all the time," a worker at a nearby Frederick's of Hollywood told The New York Times. "All the time."

But that $12,000 haul wasn't even close to a record. Last May, federal agents and King County Sheriff's investigators recovered a $1 million load of Victoria's Secret lingerie and clothes when they foiled an attempted theft of a cargo truck in Seattle.

»www.abcnews.go.com/TheLa ··· 1&page=1

Beating the fruit machine: Systems and ploys both legal and illegalstated:. (1) According to 'bandit beaters,' one of the most common types of. coin fraud is to wrap aluminum foil around a ten pence piece.

»www.springerlink.com/con ··· 43382w2/

Rogue Wolf
An Easy Draw of a Sad Few
join:2003-08-12
Troy, NY

Rogue Wolf to jbob

Member

to jbob
As I have worked in retail for a while, I can tell you that many retail establishments use systems that, upon finding that they have no connection to the verification servers, will automatically authorize purchases up to a certain amount. This is done to smooth the customers' experience during times of intermittent connection problems or other issues.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the perpetrator here had worked at a gas station in some sort of managerial role at some point, and concocted this scheme to prey on gas-station conveinence shops (which seem to rely predominantly on satellite connections).

no_one
@PHNX.QWEST.NET

no_one to jbob

Anon

to jbob
Most places if the credit card machine or pump or whatever is down requires a phone authorization. So unless when the machine was down no authorization was required???
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to Aframe

Premium Member

to Aframe
said by Aframe:
said by Name Game:

Tip from Peaches Kitchen...Lock that Foil and grease that Pig so the bandits will give up fast.

DID YOU KNOW THIS??

I've been using aluminum foil for more years than I care to remember.
Well, I would like to share this with you. Recently I learned that on the end of a Reynolds foil box it says, 'Press here to lock end'. Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place.

Thanks!!
Just shows that you can teach an OLD dog new tricks..

/Frank/
Gee, I didn't know that either. I just checked and my aluminum foil has it as does Clean Wrap but Clean Wrap has no indication as what those circles are for on the ends of the box. Surprisingly, Saran Wrap doesn't have them! Maybe my roll is old as I far prefer the Clean Wrap.

beck
MVM
join:2002-01-29
On The Road

beck to jbob

MVM

to jbob
See, now this is what I log into BBR for. The practical and fraudulent uses of aluminum foil.

Really, I never knew about those tabs. Mine are all pushed in now.
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20

Premium Member

I can just see someone googling for "safe alternative to Saran Wrap" and the first return is dslreports security forum thread and the searcher goes "huh?" is there something insecure about plastic wrap?

Drunkula
Premium Member
join:2000-06-12
Denton, TX

Drunkula to jbob

Premium Member

to jbob
said by jbob:

Maybe they need to reward this guy for finding such a flaw in programming.(after his jail term obviously...lol)
There's a law in the U.S. that prohibits convicted criminals from benefiting from said crime. Basically it says, if you get convicted, you can't make any money from it. (can't sell your story to movie studios, can't write books and sell them, etc...)

Name Game
Premium Member
join:2002-07-07
Grand Rapids, MI

Name Game to Mele20

Premium Member

to Mele20
said by Mele20:

I can just see someone googling for "safe alternative to Saran Wrap" and the first return is dslreports security forum thread and the searcher goes "huh?" is there something insecure about plastic wrap?
That needs a little more research..Saran Wrap and a rubber band comes to mind from my youth..but never tried it to block out the "Internet noise" on my cat5 before the router.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

NetFixer

Premium Member

said by Name Game:

That needs a little more research..Saran Wrap and a rubber band comes to mind from my youth..but never tried it to block out the "Internet noise" on my cat5 before the router.
You will need to use a heat sealed polyethylene bag for your WAN cable, otherwise some of the bits will leak out.




As I recall, that was also a problem with that other application as well.

Name Game
Premium Member
join:2002-07-07
Grand Rapids, MI

1 edit

Name Game

Premium Member

I always wondered if those sealed bags would stop the electrons in the outermost shell of copper from forming a covalent bond with sulphur so I would put some intert gas in the bag before I sealed them up.

I also have taken Aluminum foil in a shallow plastic tray with boiling hot water and salt..placing all my silver coated connectors on the foil and used that method for silver cleaning..works great and makes me feel secure that my WinXp runs a little bit faster when it is all hooked up.

Its a Secret
Please speak into the microphone
Premium Member
join:2008-02-23
Da wet coast

Its a Secret to jbob

Premium Member

to jbob
Hey, I really hate to point this out to y'all, but you're supposed to wrap your rig in SaranWrap before surfing the 'net. Think condom and 'safe' surfing...

Name Game
Premium Member
join:2002-07-07
Grand Rapids, MI

Name Game

Premium Member

We were kind of getting around to that..but back then they kept all the condoms on the top shelf in small boxes for the first year developers..so the rubber bands around the sunday paper were a hot commodity and the wrap was not that expensive.

Phoneman63
join:2001-02-22
Hauppauge, NY

Phoneman63 to NetFixer

Member

to NetFixer
said by NetFixer:
said by Name Game:

That needs a little more research..Saran Wrap and a rubber band comes to mind from my youth..but never tried it to block out the "Internet noise" on my cat5 before the router.
You will need to use a heat sealed polyethylene bag for your WAN cable, otherwise some of the bits will leak out.

[att=1]

As I recall, that was also a problem with that other application as well.
This cable was made in China, so there is plenty of Lead in it to shield it.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

NetFixer

Premium Member

said by Phoneman63:

This cable was made in China...


Yep, just like the Cisco router that was packed in the same box.

EGeezer
Premium Member
join:2002-08-04
Midwest

1 edit

EGeezer to Name Game

Premium Member

to Name Game
said by Name Game:

That needs a little more research..Saran Wrap and a rubber band comes to mind from my youth..but never tried it to block out the "Internet noise" on my cat5 before the router.
That must beat hanging around the slaughterhouse for sheep gut..
MySay
join:2008-04-08
Mansfield, TX

MySay to jbob

Member

to jbob
Hmmm... the minds of the media never cease to amuse me! At times, where the odds of somebody STEALING gas at a convenient-store is at a all-time high (due to prices), they bluntly tell all America EXACTLY how to get by with it... even the stations that are guaranteed to be susceptible (Shell). Why not just create a "how-to video" and playback for the world to see... brilliant!

Anyhow, got to run... I have a Shell station satellite dish calling my name.
61999674 (banned)
Gotta Do What Ya Gotta Do
join:2000-09-02
Here

61999674 (banned) to jbob

Member

to jbob
Well I don't see how anyone could get anything for free due to the sat being down ... no authorization/approval, no goods.

Oh our Credit Card machine is down, you can fill it up and take $100 of stuff for no charge .. I don't think so.

garys_2k
Premium Member
join:2004-05-07
Farmington, MI

garys_2k to jbob

Premium Member

to jbob
I'm surprised that the transactions aren't queued in the store's system until the data link is restored. Sure, no transaction data may take place on the first day, but once the link is back up the whole previous day's transaction data would be uploaded.
Insder
There never was a second I in my name
Premium Member
join:2005-04-27
Salem, MA

1 edit

Insder to 61999674

Premium Member

to 61999674
That's the way it SHOULD work, security wise at least. Ever been to a supermarket and seen the line of pissed off shoppers when the credit card system goes down? I have been in that line. So many POS system makers now just approve all transactions under a certain amount (say $25-$50) and then store them for batch processing once the system is back up and running. It's a nice feature because it's transparent to the consumer, but as shown here can be used to get free stuff with fraudulent credit cards or even real ones.