$1.5 Million Bar-code Scheme Bilks Wal-Mart Stores 618
nomrniceguy writes "Two couples have been charged in a
price-switching scheme that allegedly defrauded Wal-Mart stores in 19 states of $1.5 million over the last decade.
Authorities said the scheme involved using a home computer to produce UPC bar codes for cheaper products and slipping them over the real codes on high-priced items. The suspects then allegedly sold the merchandise, or returned it for refunds or store gift cards that also were sold."
Doesn't add up (Score:4, Interesting)
Im guilty too (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:5, Interesting)
Will RFID help them out of this ?? (Score:2, Interesting)
Or will we all be able to do the same just from outside the store ??
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:5, Interesting)
On the returns side, if they returned it for refunds sans reciept (like most stores will allow around Christmastime) then they could possibly do return them to make money.
Too bad Re-code.com isn't still around! (Score:5, Interesting)
Finally they closed down because of pressure from walmart and huge legal fees needed to fight them.
But they got their point across, so I could see someone doing this quite easily. Now I'm wondering how they got caught.
I think the best thing to do it go to a walmart and just sticker random items, so that random people are buying the altered items.
There's a 10 min video on Re-code.com about the case. It's worth a quick viewing.
Seems like a way to say "I didnt put the sticker there!"
Self-checkout fraud possible (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:5, Interesting)
They'd paste the UPC of a lower-priced item over the sticker of a higher-priced item of similar make (handhelds were good for this). Even if the checker was looking at the display, you might not catch the fact that the model numbers on the PDAs didn't match. The guys at the door didn't always catch it either.
Basically, they took advantage of two things at my location: the fact that relabelling items that had price changes did not always happen 100% (the result being that sometimes an item scanned at a different price than was ont he sticker; and believe me, I handled plenty of customers who complained that the CD/DVD/software that said $19.99 on the sticker rang up at $29.99) and the fact that many items Fry's purchased were often bought at clearance or through a special arrangement, so oftentimes the items had custom stickers over the original barcode.
So you have A) items that legitimately had UPC stickers on them, and B) items that scanned at different prices. It was a recipe for disaster; we only caught them when someone noticed them sticking a label on a product.
Jay (=
Let the buyer be aware! (Score:3, Interesting)
"Enterprising" students would run them thru keypunch machines [wikipedia.org] and make the number negative or add a decimal point.
These machines are also the origin of the "hanging chad". [wikipedia.org] Always check your input. Like the state of Florida, Walmart could have caught this by auditing returns.
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:5, Interesting)
Ask anyone who's worked there long enough, and they'll tell you all sorts of stories about people returning things which they don't even carry. Inventory time becomes hilarious in a very unhilarious way.
The policy doesn't extend to everything though. I belive things like CDs and DVDs can only be exchanged for the same item. It should also be noted that opened murchandise isn't resold, and that stores will donate a certain amount to charity. The rest is thrown in the trash compactor.
It's even simpler than that. (Score:5, Interesting)
I've wondered for years whether it would really be that easy to get away with switching UPCs just like this. I guess the answer is "pretty easy." Of course, if you get as greedy as these people did, you're obviously going to get caught before too long.
Wonder if they got the idea here? (Score:1, Interesting)
GOOD policy (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember when they tried to force me to use a TI graphing calculator in middle school. I used my HP for the most part, just as long as I had the TI with me the school didn't complain. But I've never had an item break as much as that TI, and each time it broke I just brough it back to Walmart. Seriously, a little bump on part of the screen and the thing would shatter. One broke when I slid the case on at an odd angle. Fuck you TI! I love you Walmart!
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:5, Interesting)
an average of just over a hundred bucks a day per person. shouldnt be too hard, espically once you get your shit together, to keep up that type of scam rate.
also, you have to figure in the fact that any loss prevention team is going to quote any damage estimate at as high as possible. when i was younger, me and some friends tried to rip off walmart in the same way, except we just cut the UPC from one product and put it on another. trust me when i say the cashiers could really care less. however, we were busted by some undercover shoppers in the process. we put a $20 UPC on a $30 product, but the police report quoted $50 worth of stolen property.
Shady, but probably legal (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, ethically it is wrong, but legally, it's not done yet.
Re:Let the buyer be aware! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:1, Interesting)
Actually, $50 is correct. You took the UPC from a $20 product, and used it to (try to) steal a $30 product. By removing the UPC, you damaged the $20 product, which resulted in a loss for Wal-Mart. For the sake of completeness, $20 + $30 = $50. It seems that the Loss Prevention Team claimed a very accurate amount.
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:3, Interesting)
But, when someone else went to buy the original $20 item, they probably just looked up the price and charged them $20. The real value of the steal was $10+(five minutes of some cashier's time at minimum wage)
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:1, Interesting)
Retailers use this for competitive pricing... (Score:5, Interesting)
Just print off the UPC code onto a sticker, and go into a competitor (like Walmart) a week before it goes on sale. Put the sticker onto another game, and ask the cashier for a price check. The scanner computer already has the pricing information in it, so the price that they are going to charge shows up on the register!
Old News (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:it can be done... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, they've got all their employees brainwashed into believing that accepting returns on opened DVDs is a violation of federal law! Literally, I've heard that at two different stores. A few months back I bought a DVD (for all of $5.50) that was labeled widescreen/full-screen but when opened, the actual disc was only full-screen.
They had no more copies of that disc in stock (and even if they did, I had learned that they were all defectively full-screen only). It was the most amazingly difficult experience trying to get my money back. Had to escalate it three levels, ultimately to someone who was not forced to wear a wal-mart uniform.
And then they wouldn't give me the tax back -- I didn't have the receipt and they claimed I could be working a scam of buying it in some other state that did not have sales tax.
Jesus Fucking Christ were they morons.
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:2, Interesting)
Brought it back to Walmart where I waited in line for 20 min at the returns counter to find out that "they had to process it at the DVD counter", so off to the DVD counter.
Give it to the guy at the DVD counter who says "no problem", gets the widescreen version, and proceeds to whip out a big knife to cut the package open (store policy! if you bring back an opened DVD, they have to cut-open the replacement they give you!). Bozo's knife slips into the DVD case as he's hacking away, and scratches the disc (which I don't discover 'till I get home - fortunately it still plays OK).
Then it's back to the original line I waited in to wait for another 20 min so they can "process the return". I was about ready to kill...
N.
Wondering aloud (Score:3, Interesting)
And where the hell did that 1.5 million come from? Did the crooks still have 1.5 million worth of stolen stuff in their home? Did the have a nice detailed spreadsheet of everything they'd ripped off since day one? Or did somebody at Wal-Mart just pull a number out of the air?
Re:Will RFID help them out of this ?? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:3, Interesting)
I argued for a bit and eventually gave up and just gave the box to a friend of mine who owns a
Re:Doesn't add up (Score:1, Interesting)
The Decay of Trust (Score:3, Interesting)
The return system would not be difficult to game at small scales, if you were untrustworthy. It's unfortunate, but true. The truly unfortunate fact is that a small set of people can game the system so much that companies are disuaded from offering returns, except as required by law, and making them as painful as possible. This has already happened, to a large extent, with data copies (software, music, and movies).
Re:Retailers use this for competitive pricing... (Score:3, Interesting)
You probably don't even have to get an employee involved, since a lot of larger stores (Target for instance) have barcode scanners set out specifically for the customers to do their own price checks.
Print off a list of all the products you want to check, and take care of it in one trip.
The subtle art of Curtation? Ha! (Score:3, Interesting)
Check this classic out from "The Devil's DP Dictionary", via the Linux fortune cookie program:-
curtation, n.:
The enforced compression of a string in the fixed-length field environment.
The problem of fitting extremely variable-length strings such as names, addresses, and item descriptions into fixed-length records is no trivial matter. Neglect of the subtle art of curtation has probably alienated more people than any other aspect of data processing. You order Mozart's "Don Giovanni" from your record club, and they invoice you $24.95 for MOZ DONG. The witless mapping of the sublime onto the ridiculous! Equally puzzling is the curtation that produces the same eight characters, THE BEST, whether you order "The Best of Wagner", "The Best of Schubert", or "The Best of the Turds". Similarly, wine lovers buying from computerized wineries twirl their glasses, check their delivery notes, and inform their friends, "A rather innocent, possibly overtruncated CAB SAUV 69 TAL." The squeezing of fruit into 10 columns has yielded such memorable obscenities as COX OR PIP. The examples cited are real, and the curtational methodology which produced them is still with us.
MOZ DONG n.
Curtation of Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte, as performed by the computerized billing ensemble of the Internat'l Preview Society, Great Neck (sic), N.Y.
-- Stan Kelly-Bootle, "The Devil's DP Dictionary"
Re:Burger King and Super Mario (Score:1, Interesting)
Purchase C64 game cartridges at Target, take them home and unscrew the cartridge casing and remove the "guts" of the cartridge. Screw it back together and return everything except the guts for a refund... or a different cartridge. Sometimes, if I was bored with a game, I'd put the boring game cartridge guts into a case and return that.
So, someone would purchase "Jumpman" only to come home and plug in the cartridge to get "pinball" or something.
The unfortunate (for me) downside to all this was that it led steadily to more and grander schemes, eventually leading to a felony burglary conviction. The fortunate outcome was that I did Learn My Lesson (tm) and now I wouldn't consider stealing anything.
Re:Somehow I'm not surprised at quite a few respon (Score:4, Interesting)
Do I have the resources to do UPC label creation and swaping. What I don't already have at home I can easily pick up at a local office max, or office Depot. Possibly even at the very stores mentioned in the article.
I look at the responses earlier in the listing as "Idiots, if you are going to do this, you need to do it this way..."
If I were to decide to use UPC relabling at Best Buy to get that great new 42" LCD HDTV, I would visit first, find a manufacture with both a 42" LCD HDTV, and a 35" LCD HDTV, write down the UPC for that 35" edition, go home print up an approprieate sized copy of that to overlay the UPC on the 42" edition, then during a busy time at Best Buy, go in, put the 42" set on a cart, go stand in line, and while waiting in line discreatly overlay the UPC.
Now note I began that with 'If I were to decide..' I honestly have no interest in doing this. I may like the idea of having a 42" LCD HDTV, but I happen to have worked for the stuff I own, and I have no interest in changing that.
I don't have a justification for such an action, as I have no interest in performing the action. That doesn't mean that I can't participate in the thought experiment, or write about what I know about the topic in question.
-Rusty
Re: Answer is simple (Score:1, Interesting)
When your economy is crap and getting worse and inflation is out of control and you are discriminated against because you cannot buy pieces of paper that proove you can memorize you start to get desperate. Desperation leads to all sorts of things not normally done much less considered. Look at suicide bombers/attackers, they come from predominatly poor and historically impoverished areas and don't have much to look forward to. Never underestimate what a cornered animal will do, or one that is perceived they are cornered.
Re:Somehow I'm not surprised at quite a few respon (Score:3, Interesting)
You see, there's this thing called the Social Contract. It isn't written anywhere, but we all ascribe to it, not because we want to, but because society would fall apart without it.
Of course, we are not perfect, so we bend the Contract on occasion. People do it by shoplifting, or pilfering, or swapping barcode labels. Companies do it by outsourcing, or denying valid insurance claims, or bullying employees into voting against unionization, just to name a few.
Our behavior is a natural consequence of our primal desire to get ahead by whatever means necessary. Without getting caught. That doesn't make it right, I know.
It's a war of sorts. A cold war, between producers and consumers. You can fight, or you can surrender, or you can continue the low-intensity conflict ad infinitum, which appears to be the choice of many consumers.
Re:Turnabout is fair play (Score:1, Interesting)
I think the point they were trying to say is Wal-Mart has a bad karma. You may have noticed manufacturers now make one model they sell exclusively to one chain and another for other store(s) in the competing markets, I think Walmart is a major reason why. Wal-Mart has caused many people to lose their jobs and ironically not be able to afford to buy goods at other places that treat the workers better, so they have to shop at places like Walmart. Walmart forces manufacturers to sell the products at cheaper prices to them. An example is Huffy bikes used to be made in the USA and are now made in another country with cheaper labor.
Since Walmart is the biggest store chain in the country (USA) and has a presence in outside of the country, many manufacturers will cut corners and/or go for the cheaper labor costs in another country. Sadly, I hear manufacturing plants in China are now bringing in workers from Vietnam, because of the working conditions/wages aren't appealing to enough Chinese workers.
If I thought the displaced workers in the USA were being replaced by people who had a good chance to huge increase in better living conditions, it won't be a completely bad thing. People could get items for a cheaper price and someone in another country would have a better chance to buy things from a country with a much higher exchange rate. When you can support the little guys, who don't have the purchasing power of Walmart and you will do a better job keeping your community connected. A while back their was a story about Walmart putting in a Mega store in California that included groceries http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/89674.php and http://www.valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?o id=oid:68043. All of the competing stores gave the workers health insurance (cashiers, stock people,...), but Walmart typically doesn't (the TV account). Also the news article said Walmart employees were more likely to be on public support while working at Walmart than other people in the community. A article from 2003 in Denver about Walmart not being good is at http://www.temple-news.com/news/2003/10/02/Opinion /Walmart.Rolling.Back.Prices.For.Welfare.Benefits- 511233.shtml