Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by mrpg on Tuesday August 22 2017, @12:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the get-/good_prices.htm dept.

USA Today has a story about a New Jersey couple who allegedly used a glitch in Lowes website to steal merchandise.

A New Jersey couple used a website glitch to try and get more than $258,000 worth of goods — everything from a gazebo to an air conditioner to a stainless steel grill — for free from a home improvement store, authorities said.

Ultimately, the couple was only able to secure nearly $13,000 worth of merchandise from Lowe's after exploiting "weaknesses" in the company's website to have the items shipped to their home in Brick for free, according to a release from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

Romela Velazquez, 24, was arrested and charged with theft by deception and computer criminal activity for accessing a computer system with the purpose to defraud. She attempted to get about $258,068 worth of unpaid merchandise from Lowe's, according to the release.

She actually received about $12,971 in stolen products, according to the release.

Her husband, Kimy Velazquez, 40, was charged with third-degree receipt of stolen property and fencing for his role in the alleged scheme.

The couple tried to sell some of the products on a local Facebook "buy and sell" group for half of the original sale price, listing the products as "new in box," authorities said.

According to an article on NJ.com, an attorney for the couple has stated that Velazquez is just an expert shopper, not a criminal hacker.

Jef Henninger, an attorney for Romela Velazquez, said his client is "the farthest thing from a computer hacker."

"Like many young mothers, she needs to stretch every dollar she can," Henninger said in a statement. "As a result, she has learned to spot good deals. These are the same deals that any of us can take advantage of, but most of us are too busy to learn how to spot them.

"Buying things at a big discount and selling them is not illegal. As a result, she maintains her innocence (and) looks forward to her day in court."

As far as I have been able to find, no technical details about the hack have been released.

One of the more interesting details that I did see was

Lowe's, makers of Ugg shoes and Victoria's Secret have been identified as victims so far – but many more retailers were also ripped off and will eventually be identified, officials said.

Who knew?

Additional coverage at the New York Post and BleepingComputer.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday August 22 2017, @06:15PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday August 22 2017, @06:15PM (#557607)

    I was commenting primarily on your implied smearing of self-driving car capabilities - which are not untested vaporware. Tests have been ongoing for years, and even compensating for manufacturer overstatement they're at least getting into the same league as the average (incompetent) human driver.

    In a broader context yes, incompetence is *absolutely* to be expected - only gods are infallible... and actually most religious texts make a pretty good argument against even that if you read them carefully - even the Abrahamic ones.

    As for responsibility - it's the responsibility of anyone relying on the results of such known-flawed individuals or infrastructure to ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to reduce the risk to acceptable levels. If you're operating a large-scale store I expect there are safeguards to protect against incompetent (or corrupt) human employees - no less should be expected of your expected-flawed software.

    The big problem with software is not that it's flawed - that's implied by its very existence. The problem is that it fails *predictably* - which humans (mostly*) don't. Wouldn't be a problem in an "honest" world, but it means that any flaw discovered can potentially be exploited on a large scale by dishonest individuals if sufficient oversight isn't present. Quite similar to the law really, where the wealthy and powerful will predictably exploit any loophole they find (or have intentionally installed) until such time as sufficient public outrage builds around it to get the flaw repaired. In both cases, the key to continued exploitation is to maintain a low enough profile to avoid triggering repairs.

    (*Though we do have our weaknesses - most of which are exploited mercilessly by marketing and political campaigns).

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2