SC posing as team member, robs store!

[TequilaSunrise]

Dudes...

Heard something very interesting today. Apparently, this happened at the Boca store yesterday...a guy walks in wearing red and khaki and a new team member badge, goes up the the electronics dude and asks for the keys so he can open up the iPod case. Dude hands him the keys, and he takes out all the iPods, and just saunters out! I have no idea how he didn't get caught! So now we all got the heads up, because he may try to hit other stores.
Takes balls, man!

[Tolly]

...Dear gods I hope that's just a new urban legend. I'm not sure that ballsy quite covers it.

[Bagga]

I have a few similar stories.

Decades ago, at a small local white-goods chain, one branch received a delivery of fridges, cookers and washing machines. A couple of hours later, a large white delivery van pulled up, the driver's mate walked in, asked them if they had checked the stuff in yet. When they said no, he said "good, because you have been given the delivery for another branch." They reloaded all the stuff into the unmarked van, and drove off, never to be seen again. They were total strangers, and had just stolen and entire week's delivery of stock.

Another tale I read about was in the most famous Black Friday type sale in the UK. The Harrods sale, where you can get really luxury items at a decent mark-down, saving maybe 100s of dollars/pounds. In the rush, a gang smuggled in an entire cashpoint/till, and spend the day issuing receipts, bagging stock and helping the customers. Then they walked out at the end of the day having fraudulently sold about fifty thousand dollars worth of stock.

And on TV I saw the time when an American pair of crooks walked into a convenience store and told them that the ATM machine needed to be taken for repair or replacement, loaded it onto a truck and stole the entire machine. That one may not have had a happy ending, I bet those things are damned hard to break into.

[ImadeYouACookie]

Wow..

TequilaSunrise: You think it's an "inside job"? I mean, where would the perpetrator have gotten the badge from?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

TequilaSunrise: You think it's an "inside job"? I mean, where would the perpetrator have gotten the badge from?

One time at college, I found somebody's Target name badge sitting by a computer in the computer lab.

It could've been lost and then conveniently found by the thief.

[Kirachan]

similar thing happened at a water park i used to work at. a guy dressed in our uniform walked up to one of our dip-n-dots stands and told the foreign cashier that there was a family emergency and he was needed in dispatch. on the way up he meet a lead who told him there was nothing going on and he needed to go back to his station, when they got back the register was empty and the guy was no where to be seen.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Wow. That's brazen. Despite my utter contempt for scammers and shoplifters, I must admit, this guy has earned at least a little grudging admiration. Seriously. I wonder how he keeps his titanium nads from clinking when he walks.

If you act like you're supposed to be there, and that you know exactly what you're doing, it's frightening what you can get away with. Try driving on to a construction site in a white pickup truck with a clipboard and whit hard hat on the dash. Chances are, nobody will bother you.

[IHateStupidCustomers]

My boyfriend worked at an HH Gregg store a couple years ago (they sell electronics, appliances and audio stuff) and one day, someone walked in the door, went straight to the back of the store where the TV displays are, picked up a flat screen plasma and walked out the door.

And NO ONE stopped him!

I guess he looked like he knew what he was doing or something.

[zzapp the witch]

Cameras? Anyone?

[IHateStupidCustomers]

Wow. That's brazen. Despite my utter contempt for scammers and shoplifters, I must admit, this guy has earned at least a little grudging admiration. Seriously. I wonder how he keeps his titanium nads from clinking when he walks.

If you act like you're supposed to be there, and that you know exactly what you're doing, it's frightening what you can get away with. Try driving on to a construction site in a white pickup truck with a clipboard and whit hard hat on the dash. Chances are, nobody will bother you.

On that TV show "it takes a thief" or something like that (no idea if its still on), a group of "thieves" dressed in Acme glass company shirts, had a van with that written on it and went to this lady's house in the middle of the day. They set up a ladder to get to her second story (which didn't have an alarm) and made it look like they were replacing a window, when they were really breaking in. Bet no one would have called the cops if that'd been a real robbery.

[MadRocketScientist]

It's called Social Engineering, it's a black hats best friend, and it's scary how well it works.

[Sylvia727]

It also works well to get into movie theaters or order an age-restricted product. Not that I advocate illegal activities.

I heard of one psychological study--can't remember/find it--where a guy moved into a new neighborhood and started acting like a serial killer. Chainsaws in the middle of the night and always in and out at strange hours were too subtle, so he moved up to leaving blood-soaked sheets on top of his dumpster and changing his address to 666. And on, and on, and no one ever called the cops.

[princess4life]

It's called Social Engineering, it's a black hats best friend, and it's scary how well it works.

Social engineering is used more on the technical side of things in order to do identity theft.

When i worked for an ISP we would get calls from people claiming to be from technical support and that there was a complaint put in for my work station that the (insert name of tool) isn't working correctly and they needed me to try and pull up (insert user name) then they would proceed to tell you to reset the password or to tell you what the screen said for the address and so on.

The thing is that they would call in from the 800 number to a queue so there is no way that they could know even what station I was at or where I was located.

I used to play like I was really having problems with my system and that it would take longer then expected the entire time I wouldn’t even be doing anything at all on the information.


As for people dressing up like an employee and stealing that is getting more and more common with more companies moving from uniforms to a dress code.

[Pixagi]

A year or so ago, at one of the Best Buys, a group of 10 big, football player types walked into a store with a big duffle bag, loaded it up with just about anything that would fit, and just walked out, muscling past the security.

And this, folks, is why our guards are armed. ^__^

[princess4life]

honestly people don't question you if you act like you know what you are doing. To this point to a friend one time we where at a concert instead of asking if I could go back stage to meet the band I walked right back stage without even giving the security a second glance. I am to honest to really go back and meet the band I turned around and asked the guy how come he didn't stop me. his reply was " You look like you could work here so I didn't think anything about it." Me being a suprvisor for security at a concert venue then proceeded to give the guy a lecture about checking for passes on everyone. If I had gone and talked to the band that guy could have been fired.