Filed under: Computers

Not too long ago, 22-year-old Sealtiel Chacon Zepeda, from Beaverton, Oregon, began cooking up a scheme to copy gift cards from local stores. He knew he couldn’t just swipe the cards and run, since they would need to be activated by a cashier before he could use them. So, he decided to clone them instead — at the direct expense of consumers.

After performing 20 hours of online research, Zepeda purchased an electronic card reader, stole a handful of cards from his local Fred Meyer store, and scanned them with his reader. He then discretely returned the cards, and waited until a special computer program detected that another customer had bought one of his cards. With the help of a magnetic card writer, the scam artist would then rewrite the magnetic strip information on another leftover stolen card, supplying it with the data from the card that someone else had purchased. With his newly cloned card, Zepeda would purchase items for personal use, for re-sale, or, in the event that he needed some cash, for immediate store returns.

Continue reading Oregon Man Clones Gift Cards, Steals $6,000 Worth of Merchandise

Oregon Man Clones Gift Cards, Steals $6,000 Worth of Merchandise originally appeared on Switched on Sat, 14 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Computers

Dell is apparently eager to compete with Best Buy and Walmart for the title of most despised retailer in the country. A few months back, a tech support rep got in trouble for turning on a woman’s webcam without her permission. Then, last month, the company got nabbed knowingly shipping faulty PCs. And, just this week, the Texas-based manufacturer was caught shipping motherboards infected with malware. Now, a woman from California is alleging that a support technician for Dell stole nude photos of her from her PC and posted them online, and then charged $800 worth of computer gear to her credit card for another woman in Tennessee.

This is not a cut-and-dry case of a misbehaving tech rep, though. This drama has actually been going on for almost a year, and only now is Tara Fitzgerald coming forward with her accusations. Try and follow the sequence of events, and make sense of Fitzgerald’s often questionable judgment.

Continue reading Dell Tech Swipes Nude Photos of Gullible Customer

Dell Tech Swipes Nude Photos of Gullible Customer originally appeared on Switched on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Computers

Kolkata may be the land of elaborate Durga Pujas, cinematic legend Satyajit Ray and coronary-inducing kati rolls, but the Eastern Indian metropolis is also the land of a virulent phone scam that’s been quietly making its way around the world for the past two years.

As the Guardian reports, a group of scam artists based out of the former Indian capital have been calling random households, and posing as Microsoft technicians. The callers typically claim that they’ve detected a major problem with their victims’ PC and say that if the issue isn’t remedied, the computer will be rendered unusable. With a heavy Indian accent, the scammers then direct their targets to their computers, where they ask them to open ‘Windows Event Viewer,’ which displays a long list of technical jargon that, to the layperson, might look worrisome. The “technicians” instruct users how to fix the non-existent problem by directing them to a website and asking them to install “preventative” software (which, of course, costs £185, or about $283). If the user falls for it and installs the malware then, he or she instantly gives the scammers complete access to data on the computer.

Continue reading Indian Phone Scammers Pose as Microsoft Technicians, Plant Malware Across U.K.

Indian Phone Scammers Pose as Microsoft Technicians, Plant Malware Across U.K. originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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