Barcode Scam Redux - Target's $4.99 iPod 1014
abscondment writes "Nearly a year ago, two couples were charged with scamming WalMart for nearly $1.5 Million by creating custom barcodes with reduced prices. You'd think that in the intervening months, other companies would guard against such shenanigans - but today we see that Target just caught a scammer buying iPods for $4.99! The 19 year old used BarCode Magic to create fake barcodes, buying expensive electronics suspiciously low prices. Personally, I would have gone for a less blatant discount, or refrained from visiting the same store so soon afterwards."
The crime is in getting caught... (Score:5, Interesting)
-JMP
similar story (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Haha hilarious (Score:3, Interesting)
Playing the ignorance card (Score:2, Interesting)
The real thieves... (Score:5, Interesting)
I knew a kid who worked at a Best Buy with a bunch of his friends. They all were caught months later running a register scam. They'd ring up a friend who bought maybe 6 CDs, a VCR and a TV. They'd "forget" to scan the TV, and the friend would roll right out with the helper employee (another scammer) and put the TV in a car. They did this for months and finally got caught.
Another scammer I met (who didn't do jail time) used to be in charge of returns. He would check returns for completeness, put it back together, reshrink wrap the item and stick it back on the floor. Oh, he also threw other expensive items in the box. His friend would come, buy the $19.99 big box radio, and walk out with hundreds of items. Since the item was shrink wrapped, no one caught on for months.
I thought of the barcode scan YEARS ago when I found a barcode scanner at a garage sale. This is pre-USB days. I messed with barcodes for weeks, and figured one could print barcodes onto a label and stick it on a box. I never did it (even though I am an anarchocapitalist and anti-government/anti-mercantilism, I would never steal), but I can't believe it took this long for stores to see the problem.
The solution is one-time use barcodes. It isn't as bad as you'd think for the big box stores. When a skid is received, it has two barcodes on the packing list: first code, last code. The employee scans both (say 1111183.17 and 1111183.234) and the system registers all the item codes and the unique codes. If the register scans a duplicate, there's a problem.
The other solution is already in place in Home Depot and grocery stores -- the self checkout. You can't buy an item without weighing it. I believe Best Buy and Circuit City are already starting to work on incorporating scale barcode scanners that weigh the item when they scan it.
I've considered starting a security company for ma-and-pa stores to battle these forms of theft. There are many ways a store can protect itself, but the best way is to have intelligent staff who aren't helping the thieves. Good luck there.
Re:Some people are just plain stupid (Score:3, Interesting)
That being said, if this guy had any brains, he would have gone to a different store. At the end of the day, inventory gets taken and if items sold don't match up to cash in registers, there's a problem. His scheme could have (not definately, but there is a chance) been discovered, and then it would have been a simple matter of looking at the security tapes and seeing who the offender is. We had a similar incidence like this at our store when a woman rode a $500 bike out of the store while the security guard was one lunch brake (yeah, great security practices there huh?). We pulled the tapes and saw who it was, and sure enough, the same woman comes in a week later trying to shoplift stuff by putting it in her backpack. She was arrested in short order and we got the bike back soon enough too.
Just goes to show people don't become criminals because they're smart.
now im tempted (Score:2, Interesting)
Open Source to the Rescue! (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's an implementation [barcodesinc.com] and here's the homepage [mribti.com] for the program.
An interesting aside is that if you have an LCD monitor, you can actually scan the barcode off the screen (at least with an older Symbol RS232 scanner I had).
Re:Class 5 felony (Score:5, Interesting)
He faces a felony count of forgery and two misdemeanor counts of theft.
I find it interesting that forgery was the charge that carries the greatest clout. Looks like he would have been better off if he just stuck the iPod under his jacket. It almost seems like he's being punished more for subverting the store's security system than for the actual theft of the property. Is it normal to charge a bar-code switcher with forgery? In the lego case [slashdot.org] it seems as if he was charged with theft rather than forgery.
Either way, you're right...he's going to have a tough time finding a job after college with this on his record...
My experiences at Fry's (Score:5, Interesting)
The only reason I caught him was because I noticed he kept peeling something off of the box, which was suspicious. Apparently, he had f'ed up the first sticker's application, and it was crooked, a dead giveaway.
Re:From the article: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The real thieves... (Score:3, Interesting)
On average, the systems were twice to four times as slow as using a cashier and still required one or two people watching four machines, nullifying the cost, time and labor savings. Or I could choose the *one* open cash register that has a long line, though that one line seemed to be moving about as many customers and items as four of the self-checout units. No thanks. I tend to avoid Home Depot because of those pieces of trash. Thankfully, my local Lowe's haven't installed them.
You're right about not caring! (Score:5, Interesting)
You're right about the clerk just not caring. And I'm sure you'll agree that it's Target's fault.
About eight years ago I was with a friend when she bought a $2,800 Macintosh from CompUSA for $1,400. Somehow, the computer running pricing had gotten misprogrammed, and as a result, all Macintosh models -- from the lowly entry-level desktop, to the top-of-the-line tower model -- were given the same sale price.
I was with my friend helping her pick out a computer. She was going to get the entry-level model, but on a whim asked how much the tower was selling for. When the clerk told us, I asked him to double check, because I knew that towers (at the time) started at $1,900. As we both bent down to check the SKU, I saw that this was the top-of-the-line model. He confirmed that it was selling for $1,300. I recommended to my friend that she purchase it.
If this were a mom and pop shop, I would have put a stop to the problem right then and there. But, you know what? I figured this is the cost of doing business the way these big shops do it. They hire kids, pay them peanuts, give them little or no training, and basically tell them, "Don't think! Just do what the computer tells you to do." If that's how you put together your sales force, then you'll have to eat these losses when they come along.
The sick thing is, the accountants at CompUSA probably had it all figured out -- staff compensation versus shrinkage -- and decided they'd make more money this way.
I'm not advocating stealing, but I shed no tears for these stores when their employees pay so little attention.
Re:From the article: (Score:2, Interesting)
Not at Target! (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally I wouldn't try this at Target at all, mostly because I've seen how the Loss Prevention staff at Target work. My father worked for Target in Loss Prevention and as a company they take it very seriously. I got a chance to go into the security booth and see how it works at Target and... Wow. I went in and looked at all the monitors and said "That's a lot of cameras..." and the guy who was in there laughed and said, "no... This is a lot of cameras" -- and put the entire left-bank of monitors (the control room is rigged for two operators) on sequential scan.
Excepting the interiors of the dressing rooms and restrooms the whole store is pretty much perfectly covered. This was back in '94 when I was in there and my dad was showing me just how cool their shiz was. They had a system which would track a person through the store, switching the monitor from camera to camera to keep them covered. It wasn't perfect, you needed to get them so they were the only moving object in the frame and if they encountered a other people it would pop up the camera numbers for the areas they could go to from there around the borders of the screen. It was confusing to watch because as it shifted from camera to camera 'left' would become 'right' or 'up' but...
The cashiers are watched like -- every cashier has a camera on them, and every scan they make pops up the item number and price. When a card is swiped the card number pops up too. If the same card is used within a given period of time it automatically pops up onto the "suspicious activity" monitor.
The detail view on cashiers was really quite interesting - a series of bar graphs showed how high above/below the averages they were for credit vs cash , store credit vs external credit, dollar amount of sale, and several other indicators. My dad was telling me that because real shoplifting was relatively low cost compared to a clerk participating in a scam they put a lot more effort into finding the crooked clerks.
Re:I notice it happening more and more. (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know about record stores, but at most places I shop it seems that the cashiers know nothing about the products that they sell, so how would you expect them to know anything about the right price?
While we're talking about lack of product knowledge, let me say that I get kind of tired of asking for help at a store only to be told that I should read the box. I shop online more now because I can actually get the information I need about the product. I've also been known to stand in a store and call the 800 number on the box to ask the manufacturer questions. It's really quite sad.
Re:The real thieves... (Score:3, Interesting)
My *deli* has unique UPC codes on each sandwich it sells. It's not that hard to implement if you've got the drive to do it. The system easily pays for itself in the increased efficency of the store, and probably helps reduce theft -- you can't pick up your sandiwch until you've paid.
You place your order on a touchscreen kiosk, get a receipt with the UPC printed on it, shop around for your other items, check out and pay, get the receipt stamped PAID, and then pick up your sandwich.
Re:Some people are just plain stupid (Score:3, Interesting)
Working at a small retail shop, I'd have to disagree with that. Even being a small store with a small showroom, we do not do inventory more than once every 2 weeks - usually once a month. I can't imagine a large department store doing inventory any more than once a week, probably pulling inventory on like a few isles per evening. Inventory descrepencies of single missing items can go undiscovered for days or weeks. Week-old security tapes are not very helpful if the thief has an IQ above room temperature and doesn't make a daily habit of filching at the same store.
There's no good excuse for the cashiers. They deal with those products day in and day out. Particularly for stores like Target and K-Mart, many customers come in for only a handful of items, or a single item. Checkers with any experience should know that ringing up a basket of items that includes an iPod, totaling under $100 means something is wrong. I could see if the thief shaved say 10 or 20% off the price it could slip by most of the time, but cutting 95% off the price should ring a bell somewhere. If an employee cares that little for the benefit of the business that cuts their paycheck each week, they do not deserve to keep their job after letting something like that slip by. Letting something like a $4.99 iPod slip by indicates either indifference or gross neglegence, neither of which you want on your staff.
Re:similar story (Score:3, Interesting)
Ah, here's the story on a very unlikely site. There was a follow up a few days later outlining Police action but I can't find that archived anywhere.
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click
November 03 2005 at 04:22AM
Wellington - A New Zealand oil company appealed on Thursday to 50 motorists who bought petrol at a give-away price after a worker put a decimal point in the wrong place on a self-service pump to come forward and pay the full amount.
The Challenge service station at Riwaka, near the South Island city of Nelson, sold petrol at 14,9 New Zealand cents (about 70 cents) a litre for two days in October when an employee set the wrong price on an automatic dispenser which took electronic payment cards.
Challenge placed an advertisement in the Nelson Evening Mail on Thursday asking drivers who benefited to come forward and pay the additional NZ$1,34 a litre they should have paid.
"We're upset, really," the station's owner Jeff Roger told the paper.
'We're upset, really'
"Some people have got the fuel and just come back several times knowing the machine is wrong."
He said drivers had until Saturday to pay up before their electronic account details were given to the police, who said they could face theft charges because they knew they could not legally fill their tanks for about NZ$7. - Sapa-dpa
Re:Class 5 felony (Score:3, Interesting)
Back in my day... (Score:5, Interesting)
I was shocked when I saw the prices. They were about 1/4 of SRP. You did not get Fenwick rods back then for less than SRP. There were also 4 Plano tackle boxes that I had been admiring in the BassPro catalogue for a couple of years. They too were 1/4 of SRP. A couple of my buddies were with me, and the three of us scrapped to gather enough case on the spot to purchase these items.
I never have found out what the deal was, whether these items were mismarked, or if there was some skullduggery afoot. In any case I've still got both rods though I don't use them so much anymore. I gave the tackle boxes to one of my nephews, and he's still using them.
Frank, one of the above mention friends has always believed that we blinded-sided some tag switcher. His dad was a lawyer and there were some group of people about that time where one person would go into stores and switch tags one day and another would come back a couple of days later and purchase the items. Almost all of the suspected switches were to items that the average store employe would not know about, so the prices that the items were switched to did not draw suspicion. No one was ever arrested, and I don't believe that there was really anyone that was strongly suspected. The only clue that this might have been going on was the some of the store managers were finding items that were 'mismarked' with unusually high frequency. The suspicion was that if the second person got even a little nervous that things were not going well they'd never make the purchase.
I'm, personally, not so sure that this was the case. About 7 months after I purchased the rods and tackle boxes, fishing gear other than hooks, weights, line, and lures disappeared from the store. I'm thinking that the rods and tackle boxes were discounted to get them out of the store. Who knows???
Re:The real thieves... (Score:2, Interesting)
They had some protocols too, they'd only take things that came in quantity. If there was a high dollar item that the store might only have 2 of then they wouldn't take it. On the other hand, they'd get deliveries of 50 sony laptops or 50 30" TVs and the BestBuy's are so screwed up with their inventory system as it is. They'd take one or 2 and then send one or 2 back like it was broken. The records would be all screwed up. This went on for like 2 years that I know of and I'm not sure they ever got caught. From what I could gather, the company was moving so much stuff, in a really fast and loose way that it might be 6 months before they'd see a couple TVs missing. This was right around the time bestbuys started opening up in Colorado and it was common for them to completely sell out of a lot of popular items, especially during the holiday season.
I remember they were offering to sell me a home entertainment center, full surround sound, stereo, TV, VCR (again, this was about 12 years ago) the works for $150 it was probably like $3000 in goods; "just show up at this time and we'll load it in to your car." I ultimately turned them down but as a penny-less student at the end of my college years I did consider it. I'm glad I didn't do it, in retrospect.
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:5, Interesting)
Fun, fun, fun.
Re:Some people are just plain stupid (Score:3, Interesting)
Then, take into account that these cashiers do the same thing, over and over again, endlessly. Can you honestly say that after a career where you have scanned millions of items, you still check the price on each and every one?
But of course, it is just so easy to criticize without putting yourselves in someone else's shoes, isn't it?
Re:Dumber than you think. (Score:3, Interesting)
Reminds me of a nonsense prank my wife did while driving across country. When she went though a town she'd go through a few parking lots and collect flyers from car windshields that were advertising local (non-chain) restaurants. She's save them and put them on cars a few states away.
I love her more and more each time I think of that story.
Re:The real thieves... (Score:2, Interesting)
He actually had it down to a science, but failed to consider that Walmart notices when people start 'shoplifting' two to three large boxes a week that obviously couldn't be snuck out of the store under a coat, especially one with such a high-turnover rate. At first, they thought that people were stealing them from stock, so checked they were actually getting out on the floor, which they were. Then they just had people stand around electronics and follow people who picked up Gamecubes to the checkout. (This example was mentioned during training which is why I know about it.)
However, picking the TV and the game conses were pretty stupid. Although the TV, at least, has plausibly denability if it stays in the cart. Running things over the scanner and failing to notice when it didn't beep is harder to explain, considering that's like 90% of a cashier's job. (I say that as a cashier.;))
If you actually want to do something like that, the trick is to pick something small that looks like a lot of other things. For example, a game in a bunch of other games. It's almost impossible to detect. (And feel free to return all the other games, unopened, the next day, to steal them later.)
However, the shrinkwrap thing is genius. I've actually heard stories about people trying to reseal (or just seal in the first place) things, but obviously that works a great better when you operate a sealing machine. And, assuming the Besy Buy return counter works like Walmart's, people behind it say 'This is good' and stick it in a cart to get put back on the floor by other employees, so no one would could ever notice when items didn't get there.
Yeah, I'm cynical about this, because I don't give a damn about big retail and how much people steal from them. Like I said, I used to work for Walmart, where I was incidentally, required to put in a full 40 hour week for Christmas despite being part-time. I don't steal from them, but you people feel free.
If you don't want to 'steal' from them, do what I do...I use Walmart as an ATM. I purchase items that cost like 60 cents, and then get cash back, which costs them like $1.50 from my bank. And I get a candy bar out of it.
Once, when I needed 40 dollars and was really bored, I went around twice. ;)
Re:The real thieves... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:2, Interesting)
While not at the end of every aisle, they do post guards at the entrances/exits. Or did you think the Walmart "greeters" were there just to welcome you and help you get a shopping cart? I've been asked to present my reciept when exiting both Walmart and K-mart on more than one occasion.
The real issue here is how the cachiers are supposed to know when an item rings up less than the actual price. In this case, it was pretty obvious to anybody that is familiar with iPods and how much they cost. But how can they be expected to know if you put a fake barcode on a big TV that was $100 less than the actual price?
Re:Back in my day... (Score:1, Interesting)
I happened to be in the neighborhood of a CompUSA (A filthy lie actually- I had to go half an hour out of my way to hit the CompUSA, but it was the only brick and mortar store in my vicinity to sell software for anything approximating a retail price) and I saw the PHB's.
Being a poor college student, I had not yet gotten a new PHB, so I went to investigate the shelf and leaf through them. And there, I saw, every single PHB had a pricetag on it reading $0.01. Note that these were not barcodes, these were the actual pricing stickers. I took one, and went up to the counter.
The cashier scanned the barcode. It came up as a penny. She called her supervisor over. Her supervisor looked at the register's display, looked at the price sticker. She popped her gum. The cashier popped her gum. They popped their gums together. "Give it to him" she said, "It's the law, we gotta give the price we give."
The man behind me left to grab a PHB.
I asked the cashier, "Could I get, y'know, more?" She shrugged.
Out of honesty, I refrained from getting more, and went home with my single PHB for a single penny. Plus tax, which rounded down anyway.
My belief is that the store needed to put the PHB's into inventory, but had no actual sale price for them, since they were intended purely as giveaways with another purchase.
I also know they didn't have to give it to me for that price; New York State law requires a merchant to abide by a stated price, unless that price is obviously a mistake.
Not that this story has anything to do with anything, but it reminded me, and I thought I'd share. No one said you had to read it.
Re:I wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The real thieves... (Score:3, Interesting)
My sis manages a large department store as she is the capitalist of the family.
Every few months, she use to come to me asking if I could burn some videotape to DVD or print out stills. The funniest one was where one of the employees rang up $30 for 3 cart loads of clothing...they kept coming and coming and coming and the assistant manager actually helped the thieves out the door. Both the cashier and the thieves are all in jail now.
At least half the cameras are pointed at the cashiers (and there are a LOT more cameras than either the staff or the customers know).
The newest thing the sis has is that she upgraded the cameras to a computerized system...all the 'tapes' are synched. Its a closed system that is encrypted and will verify the checksums for when you burn out to CDRom...the CDROM is pretty cool even though it outputs a Windows app...you choose what views you want and can switch while watching. Its hooked into the cash registers and one of the views is a virtual register screen...once she had this hooked up, within two months, her staff was asked to show up for a store meeting and a quarter of the staff was arrested, another half let go and the rest were given bonuses for being honest.
I realize now I probably have to post this anonymously (seems as though I've responded to a few of your posts this way)...the sister ended up *HAVING* to take another job in another city (same company) after even the police said they couldn't protect her if she stayed at this location. Most of the theft was gang related.
In her new location, she hangs out in the background a little more managing a few locations -- and in the last two years, her stores have a third of the shrinkage they had the previous years...pretty significant numbers (she estimates the security revamps have cost her over a million in less than a dozen stores, but have saved more than that in its first year).
All in all, stores KNOW that its almost always an inside job. But if they don't tak action against the lesser shoplifters (and do so in extremes) they will attract a clientel that will eventually want to work there...and continue to steal. Basic sociology...
Re:Some people are just plain stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
No spyware here (Score:2, Interesting)
More shenanigans (Score:2, Interesting)
So my buddy tried this with a new sound card. He paid cash and decided to forge his name when he returned it. Unfortunately the dumbass forgot do clean his old card off before putting it in the box to return it. So he took the card back and the clerk looked at if for a minute, then called their electronics 'expert' over. He looked at it and said something along the lines of, "it's dusty, I don't know if we can take it in this condition." So my friend panicked and said ok and promptly exited the premises without making the return.
I suppose this isn't quite the same as switching barcodes, but I wonder what the punishment would be if you were caught. Anybody else gotten away with this?
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:5, Interesting)
True.
unless you have the private key of the transmitter, or have some high-tech spy equipment that can capture the entire negotiation stream between the transmitter and target to crack it later... and the cost of doing either of these things would be prohibitive to anyone who wants to make money off shoplifting (you'd be better off planning a bank robbery).
False. The stores aren't going to spend more than a penny or so per tag, and the tags will not be encrypted. They will have individual id numbers, though, and these will be stored in a database - much like a serial number. So you'll have to scan an existing unsold item in the store and duplicate that tag onto your target item. This is going to be difficult and expensive, since you have to disable the existing tag (inside the packaging) and add your own tag in an unobtrusive manner.
It is harder than barcodes, which anyone can print from their own computer. But I doubt retailers are going to be employing anything more than the simplest 64 or 128 bit ID. These can still be duplicated with a simple circuit (coil, a few passives, maybe a tiny battery) and microcontroller. Should be small enough to fit under a sticker: "New! Improved!" or "2 Year Warranty!" or "Newspeak V5.2 Included!"
The real deterrent is that when they scan the item you stole the tag from, they'll notice it's been sold, and a stock check will show up the missing item you stole. Since they are tagged with serial numbers they can track down your transaction. With even the time, date, and cash register number they'll be able to pull up camera footage if you were smart enough to pay cash. If not then they'll have lots of electronic information about your CC, debit card, or check to track you down with.
The biggest advantage to using RFID is not easier and more accurate scanning, it's that every item in the store now has a serial number and exists in the database. Better stock control will improve the bottom line - this is Walmart's biggest strength. If everyone goes to RFID then Walmart will have many more significant competitors since a lot of the operation they've worked so hard on is built into the whole RFID system. Perhaps one reason why they aren't pushing it so hard.
-Adam
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:5, Interesting)
if you must steal, steal from the big box stores because they have already accounted for you.
I worked for a while for Fry brothers, in the loss prevention department. The attitude there is just the opposite of "it's been accounted for". While they, no doubt, have to adjust their pricing due to theft, you should know that they are doing everything they can to minimize the losses -- all the way to zero.
One way they do it is, of course, by increasing security. And the other way -- by having employees (mostly managers) to pay for stolen items out of their own pay checks (so they do at Fry's -- I don't know about other stores). I have been treated to a tale about one courageous manager who literally dragged a customer out of his car through the window, because the latter was about to drive away without paying for his new car audio system.
The moral is: stealing is difficult and risky, regardless of the store size. And I would say, it only gets harder as the potential loss goes up. If you want to have it easy, you have to steal something that no one else is stealing, but then you won't be stealing anything worthwhile :)
Re:Pop-Bottle Returns (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:That's what happens (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:2, Interesting)
And it would appear he's probablly lying, too... seeing as he pulled the same scam to steal the printer he used to print his barcodes. The whole "poor student" crap isn't going to get him very far either. He wasn't swaping barcodes on produce at the local mega-mart; he's stealing expensive electronics by defrauding the store. If it were simply walking out without paying for it, the store might've let it go without pressing charges -- poor college kid and all, but knowing he's defrauded the store, they aren't about to let him walk.
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:3, Interesting)
Retail theft from big box stores is a huge business, you might be amazed at the levels of both sophistication and brutality involved in the crime rings that have developed around the practice. Retailers are in the position of having to come down hard on every thief in hopes that they're breaking into one of these rings. And the systems that are in place to catch these big thieves can also catch the little guys.
Even your advice is no good: if you steal from the big box stores, expect to be expertly prosecuted like a major-league thief if you get caught. If you steal from a mom & pop store, they might not have the resources to bring you to justice. For example, a friend of mine owns a convenience store in a summer resort town, and he's thinking he'll have to go out of business due to the theft of his 4th of July receipts. He can't afford to take time to fight all the legal battles and still hold down his day job. And any restitution he may hope for will take far too long to receive to keep the store open in the meantime.
So my advice is "Stealing is stealing: if you must steal, reconsider your options."
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Class 5 felony (Score:3, Interesting)
Yup. You can't go back to that store, but if you just take it, don't look so nervous they stack the exit with security, just grab it, walk to the checkout, right past, and out the door. The beeper will go off, but I've never seen anyone go after someone that has left a store, even though I've seen the alarms go off a bunch of times. On more than one occassion I've made it out with tagged merchandise. One, the sales clerk realized she didn't get the tag off, the alarm was not very loud, and no one stopped us as we walked out with a tagged shirt. I got home, saw the tag, and went back. She remembered and was expecting us to come back to get it taken care of. But the alarm did nothing other than let them know something that shouldn't has already left the store.
Re:Some people are just plain stupid (Score:3, Interesting)
So we paid attention for a month and went back to doing our work. It's possible to steal from a big box store and not have it noticed for a long time.
Re:Consider the influences. (Score:3, Interesting)
Ah, sweet justice.
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:4, Interesting)
As far as I know, from the time I was there, we haven't had to call security to physically stop anyone. Their presence was pretty much all it took for us to know that we at least minimized the theft, even if they did end up making out with some merchandise.
EAN/UPC Barcodes (Score:2, Interesting)
And switching barcodes is rather difficult, as the barcode is part of the product packaging. A sticker would look quite suspicious (although they do exist). And since the cash register always shows the product name, a switched code would display the name of the original product.
The returned recycle bottle receipt might be one exception. I think it encodes the sum of the returned bottles, and the cash register could accept custom versions. (It also might just use unique codes generated by the recycled bottle collector machine.)
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked with someone who was a former security employee of Frys. He was under the impression that it was perfectly ok to rough up suspected thieves. Bullshit. My aunt is the V.P. of security for a _major_ clothing chain. She couldn't emphesize enough that you never, ever use force of any type to detain someone. The potential damage in lawsuits (and public relations) is way too much compared to the tiny merchandise loss if someone decided to resist. Especially if it turned out to be a mistake (which does happen).
The rules she used at her chain:
1. You must see the person take the item.
2. You must never lose sight of that person from that moment until they leave the store.
3. You had security personal confront the person AFTER they left the store. 99% of the time the person just gave up on the spot.
4. You called the police immediately.
For that 1% who didn't cooperate. Security simply followed the person until they could get a license plate number, then called the police.
Re:The crime is in getting caught... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:My experiences at Fry's (Score:2, Interesting)
Smart people tend to find some other way of supporting themselves than petty theft - I've had some frighteningly stupid people try to rip me off.
Re:Bartering? (Score:2, Interesting)