News and notes from around the interweb:
- I didn’t have earning Marriott points through online gambling on my bingo card. This isn’t Bill Marriott’s company anymore!
- Arrested for benefiting from a rewards program too much there’s a fine line between scaling a deal and committing a crime. Pump & Pantry Pumped Up Rewards convinced prosecutors one program member crossed it.
A Nebraska woman allegedly found a lucrative quirk at a gas station pump — double-swipe the rewards card and get free gas!
Unfortunately for her, you can’t do that, prosecutors said. The 45-year-old woman was arrested March 6 and faces felony theft charges accusing her of a crime that cost the gas station nearly $28,000.
- A gun disappeared at the Atlanta airport ‘and nobody is taking it seriously’ “the passenger now believes his customized gun was stolen by Atlanta airport officials.”
- Airbnb will no longer allow cameras inside short-term rentals listed on the platform isn’t it amazing that they did allow them until now?
- Porsha getting dropped off in a Porsche. The Real Housewives of Atlanta star is a Delta 360.
- U.S. airport nasal swabbing expanding to Chicago and Miami It seems odd for foreign travelers to choose to submit to voluntary nasal swabs, if they actually understand it’s voluntary – seems like only downside risk to the passenger in doing so.
- Qantas expected to allow award redemption at 1 Australian cent per point when classic saver awards are unavailable. The value might be greater for premium cabin redemptions.
She sold use of her card to others…7,000 gallons of gas over 8 months.
Does anyone ever THINK about these articles? Does the gas-stealer in Nebraska drive a Kenworth? $28K ‘over several months’ … Ludicrous.
I hope that TSA or Delta starts fessing up on stealing the gun.
How does double swiping even work
This was not an Awards Card Hack.
this was exploiting a software glitch
from the article:
“the company was unaware of a glitch that allowed anyone swiping a rewards card twice to put a gas pump into demonstration mode. In demo mode, the user could pump gas at no cost.”
In addition: she sold the use of her card to at least one other woman to do this.
Not sure I believe she should be arrested. She very obviously abused the situation and there’s no mention of her reporting it, but also, isn’t it kind of on the business to maintain systems and make sure this doesn’t happen? Who’s to say that double-swiping to get into demo mode was a bug and not a feature? Pump & Pantry certainly designed the rewards program and commissioned the software update that introduced the “bug” so is it really appropriate to put that on the user? She certainly didn’t take any action that I would deem unreasonable to trigger it.
Not defending her actions, to be clear. I’m just not sure it rises to the level of criminal behavior to exploit a system that a company very, very poorly designed. Seems to me like this ought to be an expensive lesson in security for the gas station owner/operator rather than a criminal charge.
@jamesb2147, in my opinion, if she was just filling up her car every week with 50 bucks worth of gas, I could see your point. When she is taking $4000 in gas every month, it becomes a criminal matter
She would have a better chance of beating the charges if she hadn’t sold her card to another person. It also doesn’t help that she was getting way more gasoline than the average person uses in that time period.
jamesb2147 How is what she did different from putting a stack of tools onto a cart at Home Depot and pushing it out through the exit without paying? The latter is using a hack of knowing that no one is supposed to stop shoplifters as people have been killed doing that. She had to take intentional efforts to put the pump into demo mode. If she had only double-swiped the card, and only did it once, I’d be more understanding. But, she got the card as a payment of a debt to her, and was possibly told how it worked. We will never be sure, as the person who gave her the card died.
At any wawa in NJ the pump can be put into attendant cash pay mode quite easily. IFYKYK
Qantas to allow payment at 1 cent AUD per point. Well yes but ONLY Y FARES. Sorry, you’re still stuck with your worthless hoard of Qantas Pesos
The gas situation is incredibly unethical but it’s ridiculous that it’s a felony charge. I’m surprised they aren’t charging her under RICO for unauthorized use of a computer system.
Suppose a grocery store made a lane that said “no payment necessary.” And then somebody resells the merchandise at a profit. Later the retailer says “oops we didn’t mean to do that” and refers for prosecution. It’s ridiculous. If a company did this it would be civil and they probably wouldn’t win.
Creating a legal obligation to proactively identify erroneous POS behavior or risk criminal liability is a very slippery slope. Is it a felony to book a mistake fare? How about stocking up on an item that’s clearly priced incorrectly. Do we now have an obligation to act in the retailers best interest? So if I know that it will be unprofitable to ship a 50 gallon drum for $10 I can’t order it even though the option is there?