Month: August 2014

A Rather Brilliant Scam

There’s a lot of scams out there but it’s rare that you come across an especially clever one. Sharron Laverne Parrish Jr. supposedly managed to pull off a scam that actually merits a little congratulations for creativity:

Here’s how it works: Parrish allegedly visited Apple Stores and tried to buy products with four different debit cards, which were all closed by his respective financial institutions. When his debit card was inevitably declined by the Apple Store, he would protest and offer to call his bank — except, he wasn’t really calling his bank.

So, the complaint says, he would offer the Apple Store employees a fake authorization code with a certain number of digits, which is normally provided by credit card issuers to create a record of the credit or debit override. (Business Insider, like the Tampa Bay Times, refuses to publish the number of digits “so as not to inspire anyone.”)

But that’s the problem with this system: as long as the number of digits is correct, the override code itself doesn’t matter.

I could find the number of digits from the quick Google search I performed otherwise I would let you know what it is (because security through obscurity is dumb and people who rely on it should feel bad for doing so). But using this scheme Mr. Parrish scammed various Apple stores out of $309,768 in merchandise. My guess is the high amount is what ultimately got him caught. Let this be a lesson to would-be thieves. If you’ve found a good scam don’t use it too much because that is what will most likely get you caught.

What’s especially bad about this scam is that the retailer generally has to eat the costs because they overrode the declination. Because of this many retailers will probably stop accepting override codes under any circumstance. That’s the only way to protect against this scam since the only thing that determines whether or not an authorization code is valid or not is the number of digits.

Mixed Messages

The United States, in many ways, can be viewed as Israel’s father. It gives Israel money, stands beside it even when it fucks up, and jumps to its defense. But being a father isn’t always easy, especially when you have a father like the United States. If there’s one thing the United States sucks as it’s keeping a consistent message. Recently Israel’s father decided to scold Israel:

The US has said the shelling of a UN shelter in Gaza is “totally unacceptable and totally indefensible”.

In its strongest criticism yet of Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory, the US – Israel’s closest ally – urged Israel to do more to protect civilian life.

This scolding has upset may of Israel’s friends. There are a lot of calls for Obama’s head being made over this. Yet I’m left believing that Israel is very confused at the moment. While it’s receiving a tongue lashing from its father one moment it’s being sold munitions the next:

The United States, meanwhile, agreed to Israel’s request to resupply it with several types of ammunition.

It’s not an emergency sale, a U.S. defense official told CNN.

Among the items being bought are 120mm mortar rounds and 40mm ammunition for grenade launchers, officials said. Those will come from a stockpile the United States keeps in Israel, which is worth more than $1 billion.

You can’t scold and reward a child at the same time. It creates confusion that makes it difficult for them to know whether or not what they did was right or wrong. The United States really needs to be a better father is either reward or punish Israel. Doing both is just silly and inconsistent.

They Grow Up So Fast

It was only 66 years ago that Israel was born. But is has grown up so fast! Since its inception it has basically condensed the progress of most westernized nations into less than a single century. Israel is now catching up to its family members such as the United States and Britain by moving to severely restrict the freedom of speech and association:

The bill proposed by MK Pnina Tamnu-Shata (Yesh Atid) would forbid discrimination in providing a product or service or in entering a public place against soldiers and members of other security and rescue forces such as the police, firefighters, prison guards and Magen David Adom staff.

Tamnu-Shata presented the bill to the Knesset, saying that in recent years, discrimination against people in uniform has become a growing phenomenon.

[…]

“Unfortunately, we all saw the demonstrations in which people held signs with hollow slogans against IDF soldiers or articles by people like [farleft Haaretz columnist] Gideon Levy [who wrote that all IAF pilots are war criminals],” Tamnu-Shata said. According to the lawmaker, there is “wild incitement” against soldiers that could turn into actions.

“We must set limits for words of incitement against soldiers.

Military worship? Check. Restrictions on the freedom of association? Check. Stomping on the freedom of speech? Check. And it’s all compressed into a single piece of legislation! That’s the type of government efficiency you don’t see anymore.