4 ms·

The interesting question is how often they notice, and whether the pump keeps logs. Because not everybody is stupid enough to invite their entire neighborhood t

The interesting question is how often they notice, and whether the pump keeps logs. Because not everybody is stupid enough to invite their entire neighborhood to a free-for-all. Just drive up, unlock pump, fill up, lock pump, leave. I would not be surprised if the pump doesn't have a time-stamped log of Bluetooth service function calls. And even if it does, how long can you run this scam before they notice missing inventory from their underground tanks? How long do they keep CCTV footage?

ethbr1 3y ago
They could correlate by absence of a matching receipt. Strip out every timestamp correlated with a sale. Strip out no object at a pump. Scan through the remainder.
- pbmonster 3y ago
  You're talking about running image detection on the video footage and correlate with payment system receipts? You could probably hack that together in python in 15 minutes, but I doubt there's commercial software offering that functionality. Which means nobody (outside a digital forensics firm) is doing that, and certainly not for $60 worth of gas. And still, that requires the station even noticing missing inventory. I really wonder how long people have been using that hack, you'd probably check for leaks in the underground tank before checking whether your pumps have been compromised...
  - dylan604 3y ago
    >You're talking about running image detection on the video footage and correlate with payment system receipts? Or, do what has been done since the beginning of video recordings used in investigations...have a human sit in front of the screen scanning the footage.
    - ClumsyPilot 3y ago
      You are potentially paying a human to watch mutple days of video footage to detect $60 of gas. Even at minimum wage, that could be a loss. And then you find out the car was a white Toyota corolla and it's missing a number plate, now what?
      - dylan604 3y ago
        You're advocating paying a dev at a significantly much higher hourly rate to develop something that will find Ryan Gosling stole the gas from Santa's sleigh with a pattern of snakes painted on it. Now what?
  - bluGill 3y ago
    If you can make such a program in 1 week there are plenty of franchises willing to pay for it. It doesn't have to be very good, even if 50% of what you show is a false positive and you only catch 20% of all crimes you say that is still more than enough for a human to look through everything you flag and get the police involved. While it probably directly costs more than eating the loss from these crimes, you only need to catch a few cases to be worth it.
micromacrofoot 3y ago
Like most crimes, that seems like a lot of assumptions to risk a felony charge
- brookst 3y ago
  It’s possible that, like a lot of criminals, the decision to proceed was not based on a complete and well-formed risk analysis.
  - micromacrofoot 3y ago
    of course, but I'm responding to a risk analysis

ethbr1 3y ago

They could correlate by absence of a matching receipt. Strip out every timestamp correlated with a sale. Strip out no object at a pump. Scan through the remainder.

pbmonster 3y ago
You're talking about running image detection on the video footage and correlate with payment system receipts? You could probably hack that together in python in 15 minutes, but I doubt there's commercial software offering that functionality. Which means nobody (outside a digital forensics firm) is doing that, and certainly not for $60 worth of gas. And still, that requires the station even noticing missing inventory. I really wonder how long people have been using that hack, you'd probably check for leaks in the underground tank before checking whether your pumps have been compromised...
- dylan604 3y ago
  >You're talking about running image detection on the video footage and correlate with payment system receipts? Or, do what has been done since the beginning of video recordings used in investigations...have a human sit in front of the screen scanning the footage.
  - ClumsyPilot 3y ago
    You are potentially paying a human to watch mutple days of video footage to detect $60 of gas. Even at minimum wage, that could be a loss. And then you find out the car was a white Toyota corolla and it's missing a number plate, now what?
    - dylan604 3y ago
      You're advocating paying a dev at a significantly much higher hourly rate to develop something that will find Ryan Gosling stole the gas from Santa's sleigh with a pattern of snakes painted on it. Now what?
- bluGill 3y ago
  If you can make such a program in 1 week there are plenty of franchises willing to pay for it. It doesn't have to be very good, even if 50% of what you show is a false positive and you only catch 20% of all crimes you say that is still more than enough for a human to look through everything you flag and get the police involved. While it probably directly costs more than eating the loss from these crimes, you only need to catch a few cases to be worth it.

micromacrofoot 3y ago

Like most crimes, that seems like a lot of assumptions to risk a felony charge

brookst 3y ago
It’s possible that, like a lot of criminals, the decision to proceed was not based on a complete and well-formed risk analysis.
- micromacrofoot 3y ago
  of course, but I'm responding to a risk analysis