3 ms·

This reminds me of a very similar case a decade ago I never figured out. Anyone remember Coupon Guy from 4chan in the 2009/2010 timeframe? You could make your

by cjslep 7y ago

This reminds me of a very similar case a decade ago I never figured out. Anyone remember Coupon Guy from 4chan in the 2009/2010 timeframe? You could make your own "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" or variant (for both N, "buy 1 get 10", or for kind of coupon, like "buy 1 get half off") Tv, Xbox 360, near anything etc. For Walmart, Best Buy, other chains etc. The tools were passed around stegonographically in the instruction images. Since coupons weren't properly accounted for until they hit a place in Texas, whole threads full of Anons over the course of weeks fabricating working coupons. Until they stopped working, and of course rumors of "the FBI" apparently grabbing the guy. I never did figure out what happened tech wise under the hood there.

icelancer 7y ago
>> The tools were passed around stegonographically in the instruction images Whoa, really? I remember the coupons flying around 4chan of course. Had no idea the tools were in the images.
- yuubi 7y ago
  It's easy to make a file that both a valid image and a valid zip file, because zip readers start from the end-of-central-directory at EOF and most other things start from a header at the start of the file. Many such images included a winrar icon. There might have also been some steganographic images, but I know for sure I saw several of the image+archive kind around then.
goatsi 7y ago
>and of course rumors of "the FBI" apparently grabbing the guy. They did get him: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/internet/fbi-busts-4chan-man-extreme-couponing-098561 http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/internet/fbi-busts-4c... This story about a similar arrest has a good explanation about how to fake coupons: https://www.wired.com/2015/05/inside-a-million-dollar-dark-web-coupon-counterfeiting-scheme/ https://www.wired.com/2015/05/inside-a-million-dollar-dark-w...
chrisacky 7y ago
If I had to guess it would be something such as concatenating a bar code. In UK, we have items which when reduced all they do is add the new price to the end of the bar code. ie. If some product is barcode of 3035555074225 and it's then reduced in price, the reduction including some checksum is added. So, if the new price of 3035555074225 is 50p, the code becomes 303555507422500502 (Where we add 0050 for the price, and 2 is the checksum). Next time you are in the supermarket just look at the barcode and you'll spot the pattern. So for your example, maybe there was some EPOS system that the guy had inside understanding of how barcodes worked on coupons and could easily pair them.

by cjslep 7y ago

icelancer 7y ago

>> The tools were passed around stegonographically in the instruction images Whoa, really? I remember the coupons flying around 4chan of course. Had no idea the tools were in the images.

yuubi 7y ago
It's easy to make a file that both a valid image and a valid zip file, because zip readers start from the end-of-central-directory at EOF and most other things start from a header at the start of the file. Many such images included a winrar icon. There might have also been some steganographic images, but I know for sure I saw several of the image+archive kind around then.

goatsi 7y ago

>and of course rumors of "the FBI" apparently grabbing the guy. They did get him: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/internet/fbi-busts-4chan-man-extreme-couponing-098561 http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/internet/fbi-busts-4c... This story about a similar arrest has a good explanation about how to fake coupons: https://www.wired.com/2015/05/inside-a-million-dollar-dark-web-coupon-counterfeiting-scheme/ https://www.wired.com/2015/05/inside-a-million-dollar-dark-w...

chrisacky 7y ago

If I had to guess it would be something such as concatenating a bar code. In UK, we have items which when reduced all they do is add the new price to the end of the bar code. ie. If some product is barcode of 3035555074225 and it's then reduced in price, the reduction including some checksum is added. So, if the new price of 3035555074225 is 50p, the code becomes 303555507422500502 (Where we add 0050 for the price, and 2 is the checksum). Next time you are in the supermarket just look at the barcode and you'll spot the pattern. So for your example, maybe there was some EPOS system that the guy had inside understanding of how barcodes worked on coupons and could easily pair them.