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Hacking a parking ticket system

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Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#51

Post by unics »

clort wrote: post #39
tbyehl wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many automated garages ban motorcycles because they're unable to trigger the sensor.

Interestingly, I find that on my bicycle I can trigger the sensors in roads (which in the UK seem to be marked by a line of tar, where the sensor has been cut in and sealed up) by angling my front wheel directly along the line - my belief is that it gives a pretty strong signal because the rim of the wheel is a lot closer than a car would be even though they are a heavier chunk of metal (inverse square relationship).…

The trigger for lights in the states is electromagnetic. A lot of bikes don't produce enough to trigger so placing a magnet on the frame below the bike helps get you through the lights quicker.

Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#52

Post by Retric »

legohead wrote: post #45
mabbo wrote: post #19

A friend of mine in college did this, but it was even simpler- there was no barcode, just a number that increased by one for each ticket sold. He went the entire year just making his own to avoid paying $3 per day. Just take the last three days tickets, increment by the average difference, print and display. When they caught him (he parked in the wrong lot or something) he admitted everything, paid $80, and offered t…

I refused to buy a college parking sticker. I pay tuition to go to the school, why do I have to pay to park there? Luckily, I was a night student, so I would park in the visitors parking and set up my classes so I would get out at about the same time the night crew got off (something like 9pm). I even spent a couple semesters waiting in the parking lot an hour after class. I would read a book, program, or study for t…

Why should students without cars subsidize those with cars?

Also, some schools try to discourage car ownership due to the number of student deaths associated with drunk driving to and from parties.

Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#53

Post by soylentcola »

DanBC wrote: post #33
kej wrote: post #32

This reminds me of the guy who was caught a few years ago for putting homemade UPC stickers over the printed UPC symbol for expensive LEGO sets so that they'd ring up as inexpensive LEGO sets. After the felony fraud charges, he would have been better off just shoplifting the sets instead.

I can find some stories on the Internet about a wealthy person doing this: http://lego.gizmodo.com/high-profile-silicon-valley-exec-gui... http://gizmodo.com/5912141/multimillionaire-software-exec-ar... http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/incredibly-wealt... http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_20675946/silicon-valley-tech-e... But there's this earlier story too: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2…

Wasn't there a site years ago that hosted images of bar codes for just about any common item sold at chain stores? I seem to remember the idea being that you could just print out something with a lower price that's still believable and stick it on the item before checking out. The idea was that if anyone caught on, you would claim ignorance and apologize.

From what I remember this didn't work out well for anyone and was handled as you might expect. I'm definitely not someone who would try to give himself a $500 discount on an HDTV but it got me musing about the scam when it crossed my radar. It always seemed to me that in order to be worth the risk and hassle you'd have to do it on a scale that dramatically increased your chances of getting busted. Like you couldn't give yourself a big discount (obvious at checkout) or give yourself lots of little discounts (more chances to get noticed) so aside from the "heehee I found a dirty trick" aspect, it seemed like kind of a terrible scheme (not even counting the fact that you're engaging in fraud).

Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#54

Post by soylentcola »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #49
jschulenklopper wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So just get a new ticket from the entrance Getting a new ticket from the printer before the barrier will be hard if your car is inside the car park. Often the ticket printer will only work if it notices a large metal object (such as a car) in front of the barrier.

I've wondered about how hard it would be to fool those. Presumably it's a simple induction loop, so a suitably calibrated electromagnet should do it.

When I parked my motorcycle in the garage at my old job, occasionally, the mechanism did in fact fail to "see" my bike so the low tech solution was that the attendant had a hunk of metal with a handle that he/she would set on the pad when the gate failed to open for my bike.

Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#55

Post by mattdotc »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #46
mattdotc wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might eventually send your information to a debt collection service. Hope saving a few hundred dollars is worth the potential hit to your credit score.

I'm skeptical that would happen since I never entered into any sort of contract to pay them money related to parking

Good luck with that. My alma mater did exactly this to those who refused to pay up.

Perhaps laws are different there.

Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#56

Post by legohead »

Retric wrote: post #52
legohead wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I refused to buy a college parking sticker. I pay tuition to go to the school, why do I have to pay to park there? Luckily, I was a night student, so I would park in the visitors parking and set up my classes so I would get out at about the same time the night crew got off (something like 9pm). I even spent a couple semesters waiting in the parking lot an hour after class. I would read a book, program, or study for t…

Why should students without cars subsidize those with cars? Also, some schools try to discourage car ownership due to the number of student deaths associated with drunk driving to and from parties.

Think you got that backwards, considering those with cars are the ones paying extra fees (+tickets), thus subsidizing the rest of the students for whatever the college spends the funds on.

Second statement needs a source, and regardless it isn't a valid reason. Colleges don't decide how adults live their lives.

Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#57

Post by Retric »

legohead wrote: post #56
Retric wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should students without cars subsidize those with cars? Also, some schools try to discourage car ownership due to the number of student deaths associated with drunk driving to and from parties.

Think you got that backwards, considering those with cars are the ones paying extra fees (+tickets), thus subsidizing the rest of the students for whatever the college spends the funds on. Second statement needs a source, and regardless it isn't a valid reason. Colleges don't decide how adults live their lives.

Parking spaces are not free. In city's they generally cost 3+ $ a day in upkeep and opportunity costs.

Also, collages accept students younger than 18 which are not adults and legally can't be treated as adults.

Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#58

Post by dragonwriter »

legohead wrote: post #45
mabbo wrote: post #19

A friend of mine in college did this, but it was even simpler- there was no barcode, just a number that increased by one for each ticket sold. He went the entire year just making his own to avoid paying $3 per day. Just take the last three days tickets, increment by the average difference, print and display. When they caught him (he parked in the wrong lot or something) he admitted everything, paid $80, and offered t…

I refused to buy a college parking sticker. I pay tuition to go to the school, why do I have to pay to park there? Luckily, I was a night student, so I would park in the visitors parking and set up my classes so I would get out at about the same time the night crew got off (something like 9pm). I even spent a couple semesters waiting in the parking lot an hour after class. I would read a book, program, or study for t…

> I pay tuition to go to the school, why do I have to pay to park there?

Because "parking a car on campus" and "receiving an education" are different and only tangentially related things; maintaining parking spaces for people who want to do the former is an expense that is not born in accommodating the people who do the latter without the former, so those who wish to do both should pay more than those who wish to only do the latter.

Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#59

Post by wbsgrepit »

I think he is forgetting that the barcode is generated and exits not in a silo but with knowledge of a controller. I would be amazed if the system did not both track the barcode creation and exit events and trigger protocols on any outside system event.

Print out your card at home, park at lot, scan to checkout, your barcode is in one of three states: 1: Not valid because it has not been issued by the controller, 2: Valid and first use (you left before the other car on the lot with the duplicated barcode has exited), 3: Invalid because it has already been used on exit (the duplicate barcode has already left the lot).

In what scenario given an active controller that is not braindead would this give you any kind of advantage? You are more likely than not going to be in a situation where you trigger an alarm on exit.

Re: Hacking a parking ticket system

#60

Post by wbsgrepit »

soylentcola wrote: post #53
DanBC wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can find some stories on the Internet about a wealthy person doing this: http://lego.gizmodo.com/high-profile-silicon-valley-exec-gui... http://gizmodo.com/5912141/multimillionaire-software-exec-ar... http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/incredibly-wealt... http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_20675946/silicon-valley-tech-e... But there's this earlier story too: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2…

Wasn't there a site years ago that hosted images of bar codes for just about any common item sold at chain stores? I seem to remember the idea being that you could just print out something with a lower price that's still believable and stick it on the item before checking out. The idea was that if anyone caught on, you would claim ignorance and apologize. From what I remember this didn't work out well for anyone and…

Related, this is why manufacturer's coupons have changed in the last few years. It was previously possible to create a manufacturers coupon barcode for any UPC that would represent one of the standard discounts before GS1-128 including Buy 1 get 1. The new GS1 barcodes encode much more data that allows better fraud protection.
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