I’m not a fan of UPS, despite it starting in my hometown. They’re late, and when they show up at my apartment with a package (at least once a month) they knock so faintly my dog can’t hear it. Also, they apparently steal video game shipments. At least three UPS employees have been fired in the last 24 hours for stealing copies of GTA IV out of shipping boxes. I’ve always wondered if this kind of theft happened, and now we know it does. Today is a day of GTA IV fever, and I won’t be taking part until it dies down some. You people frighten me. → Read More
This trick never works, yet people still keep trying it. I’m sure when they come up with the cunning plan they’re very proud of themselves, but they always end up in the pokey in the end. Reginald Newman was at a Wal-Mart and found a 26-inch HDTV that he wanted. You and I, we’d check our bank account and see if we had enough to pay for it. But not crafty Reggie. No, he took the UPC bar code from a $3 bottle of water and placed it over the TV’s barcode. Then he casually tried to buy the TV for $3. Needless to say, the quick-witted cashier noted $3 was a bargain on a new LCD TV so he called a manager who discovered the ruse. Oops! → Read More
Intel’s upcoming anti-theft technology will be released later this year and will be called “Intel Anti-Theft Technology”. Clever, no? There aren’t a whole lot of details beyond the mind-blowing name except that, according to a recent presentation (PDF) by Dadi Perlmutter, VP of Intel’s mobility group, it’ll “basically lock the system, lock the disk, so people cannot be maliciously using and getting the data.” It appears that the technology allows the computer to be locked down once it’s been stolen, so it seems that it may be locked once it’s found a wireless signal or some other way to connect to the internet. Either that or maybe it needs to “check in” once in awhile or maybe it doesn’t work outside of a certain range of acceptable usage zones. Intel will release more details as we get closer to the fourth quarter. → Read More
Remember the Craigslist scam in Southern Oregon where an unknown person or persons posted asking people to come clear out a house? Well, it was actually supposed to be a way to cover the tracks of two bumbling burglars. Amber and Brandon Herbert originally broke into the property’s garage and as a way to keep from getting caught a post of the Craig’s list ad encouraging folks to come in and take everything that wasn’t nailed down. Most of the goods have already been returned and the couple is now in custody. → Read More
[photopress:iphoneburglar.jpg,full,left]A pair of fools from Salem, MA, have found themselves in jail after stealing 332 iPhones from the Apple Store they worked for and selling them on the black market. Thinking they’d never get caught, the thieves stole and sold for months before being caught. For those keeping score at home, the grand total of their heists: $132,468. → Read More
Sony has issued a warning to gamers in the UK concerning “a possibility of unauthorized access to personal information on the PLAYSTATION Store through PCs.” It didn’t say how the accounts had been accessed but the last line of the message reads, “Remember; do not disclose your log-in or password details on any email communications,” although that could be unrelated. It’s unlikely, according to Sony, that credit card information has been stolen since only partial card numbers are shown are displayed but any credit stored inside the PlayStation Wallet could be used to purchase items from the store. → Read More
Apparently life’s NOT so good at LG nowadays (see how I did that?), as word’s come out that a former manager leaked almost 1,200 secret company files to a Chinese manufacturing company. The company, Changhong-Orion PDP-Chaihong, hired the 49-year old LG manager to give the company secret information in exchange for $300,000 a year, an apartment, and a car. He handed over information mostly containing the details of the LG plant’s power system and construction blueprints that’ll help the Chinese firm increase production — it’ll begin manufacturing plasma panels in December using the stolen technology. Almost seems too easy, huh? Cutting-edge PDP Tech Leaked to Chinese Firm [dongA.com] via The Raw Feed → Read More
We’ve heard tales of people buying electronics, getting them home, and opening them just to find, well, not what they’d purchased. It’s been suggested that store employees had been swinging the ol’ switcharoo, and now a trio of thieving associates at a Best Buy in New Jersey (natch) have been caught red-handed doing just such unlawful misdeedery. Michael Lombardozzi, Jose Caraballo, and Randy Bille have all three been implicated in a fairly straight-forward scheme I like to call “put a MacBook in a Toaster Oven box and buy it as a Toaster Oven.” But they got caught and are facing a variety of charges. And now we have legal evidence this does happen, so maybe it’s time we all start video taping out unboxings, to give us ammo when we make the inevitable exchange back at the store? Best Buy Employees Busted For Switching Items Inside Boxes [The Cosumerist] → Read More
Oh come on. This is terrible. "Seniors at the Lilac Plaza Retirement Home in North Spokane sold recipe books to raise money to buy a Nintendo Wii," according to news station KXLY. How great is that? Old folks rolling up their sleeves to raise money to buy a video game console that’ll bring near-limitless joy to their otherwise mundane daily routine. → Read More
This seems like a lot of work for a little money but a man "dressed in a Comcast uniform and driving a Comcast van" showed up at a woman’s house at 2:30 in the afternoon a few days ago, took her cable box and cable modem, gave her a receipt, and left. Comcast, of course, "had no record of the worker coming to her home" which begs the following question; is it possible that Comcast actually did send this person out to the lady’s house and just doesn’t realize it? → Read More
If you’re a trainee manager at a video game store, and you really, really want a PS3, then you shouldn’t be working at a video game store in the first place should wait until you’re a regular staffer and use your employee discount to get one at a discounted rate. Do not be like this idiot in England and try to steal one. They’re the kind of thing that people notice when missing. While putting it out the back door to pick up later might seem clever, there might be security footage of you doing so, as well, so think about it, fool. GAME trainee manager steals PS3 [Max Console] → Read More
Recent news that Apple had applied for a means to disable recharging on a stolen device, we now have learned that Cingular conceived an even broader concept: shutting down a wireless device when out of a communication with a WiFi zone. Applicable to a number of devices beyond just cell phones, AT&T has patented a means to lock out stolen (or borrowed) wirelessly enabled gear… → Read More
Thieves broke into Silver Platters, a Seattle video store, and made off with their entire Blu-ray selection. That’s right. They ignored the HD-DVD stuff completely. That’s basically the entire story (“Theives prefer Blu-ray.”), but I wonder why this is? Maybe because the PS3 is a subsidized Blu-ray player? I mean if you’re ganking DVDs you’re probably also not into dropping a few hundred bucks on an HD-DVD drive for your 360. Who knows. It Takes A Thief To End Format Beef [DVDDossier] → Read More
Some 27,000 Kingston Technology customers have just found out that their personal data may have been compromised back in September of 2005. This data includes names, addresses, and credit card numbers but it is not believed to have been misused in any way yet. Kingston has apparently contacted the aforementioned customers and is offering them credit monitoring and identity theft assistance, if needed. Although how long Kingston has known about the security breach isn’t clear, it’s noted that this is the first time in the 20-year history of the company that such a breach has occured and that the attack is believed to have come from somewhere outside the company. Breach, undetected since ’05, exposes data on Kingston customers [Computerworld.com] → Read More
Seems over in Tulsa, OK, burglaries are all the rage. Local electronics retailers like Best Buy and Office Depot have been hit by precision robbers who leave no evidence or fingerprints behind whatsoever. According to the report, the thieves hit up a local Best Buy by cutting holes in the roof, entering the store on rope lines, and disabling the security system. They then ransacked the place of tons of laptops, plasma TVs, and even stole the store’s safe. These high-tech robbers have also tunneled into jewelry stores and stolen 5000 pound safes according to Police. Apparently they have all the merchandise already sold so that they can just get rid of it extremely quickly. Not a single item has been recovered to this day and if they keep up at this rate, it looks like a lot more gadgets will end up missing from store shelves. Professional Burglary Ring On The Loose [KOTV 6] → Read More
After the iPod gained popularity a few years back, thieves started taking advantage of the white earbuds to target iPod users for a robbery. It still remains a problem in most major cities and now with the iPhone almost out, we may have another problem with theft on our hands. Thankfully, Apple kept this in mind and a recent patent filing reveals more information related to the iPhone’s security features. If you leave a specific location, the iPhone may be able to prompt a user for a code. If said code is not entered, the iPhone will lock its ability to charge the battery. This timer method is said to be effective, so we’ll see just how well it works come next week. You know, when some idiot gets jacked up right outside an AT&T store with his shiny new iPhone. Apple Patent Foretells iPod And iPhone Security [Information Week] → Read More
Millions of laptops are stolen from travelers each year. (OK, I made that up, but it does happen a lot.) Or at least that’s what the notebook security companies want you to believe! (Actually, no, notebooks do get stolen quite often from people traveling.) People are going to swipe laptops no matter what, but there are a handful of steps you can take (and products you can buy!) to encourage ne’er-do-wells to lift some other sucker’s property instead of yours. → Read More
GadgetTrak has relaunched as a paid subscription service that gives users the ability to track down stolen gadgets using social-engineering software installed on the gadget’s memory. The service, which I posted about last month, involves installing a piece of software on the device’s memory that, when plugged in and accessed, secretly reports the location, IP address, computer name and user host name — among other info — to a central server. It is up to the user, however, to provide the information to law enforcement to recover the device. → Read More
Although the Web site has been Dugg to the ground, a free online service called Gadget Theft recently launched to help users recover their stolen gadgets. The site provides users with a small “spyware” application that can be loaded onto the memory of a USB thumb drive, MP3 player or digital camera. The software records and sends IP data to the user if it detects that the device is reported stolen. The app uses a clever bit of social engineering by displaying a pop-up window asking for the installation of a USB driver when connected to a computer. Gadget Theft won’t help find the device, and it’s up to the user to convince law enforcement to use the data to find the item, but at least it’s a start. Sadly, the “spyware” app only works with Windows-based computers, so Mac thieves still will get away. Gadget Theft [via Digg] → Read More
Sheesh, the last time I heard the word “Iomega” was when I was taking a class at an art school years ago. It was about a 100MB, Iomega Zip disk I think I used once and never again. No matter because Iomega is back in the game, albeit not for the best reason. The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for anyone who can find a Iomega portable hard drive that went missing from the Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center. Records of over a half-million people were on the drive and are probably compromised by now. Lovely to hear about you Iomega, but I must be on my way now. FBI announces reward for information about missing VA hard drive [via Digg] → Read More
