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Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

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Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#291

Post by alwa »

compton93 wrote: post #49
Aboutplants wrote: post #29

I was in college when self checkout became a thing and it took us all of about 45 seconds to realize that you could just check everything out as bananas. Steak was weighed and priced at 4011 (banana code) as the stoned teenager cashier paid no attention. Everything on the receipt was literally Bananas

That's crazy. But coming from someone who wrote a book on retail fraud and worked as a retail fraud analyst for several years... you could have just walked straight out with those items. Transacting was your way of leaving a calling card for the investigators/analysts to find you... You stole regardless of how you did it.

I’d be interested in your book!

I was of the impression that, in our golden age of individualized surveillance, merely interacting with the kiosk was enough to leave a facial-geometry calling card these days.

I feel like I may have heard this from one of those Illinois BIPA class action suits [0], which reliably have a whiff of crackpot to them from a technical perspective. But it surely seems an obvious enough sort of application…

[0] https://www.law360.com/articles/2372764/home-depot-s-self-ch...

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#292

Post by baby_souffle »

VorpalWay wrote: post #253
ssl-3 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't really change anything. Previously, a criminal could just print their own shelf tags. They'd probably do this somewhere other than in the store to get the details right, but it was doable. (We've all probably seen rolls of blank shelf tags sitting around at the store, and thermal printers are inexpensive. So what if it's two crimes instead of one?) And then, in the store, they could just switch out the she…

> Fixed, basic auth would just get leaked (probably first by Home Assistant tinkerers who find some discarded electronic shelf tags somewhere and want a new display for their house). You know what, that is a great idea for a project of mine, where I want to display outside temp and weather forecast in the hallway next to the wardrobe. I have been musing about it for a while now: how to make it small and not stand out…

You’re looking for this: https://openepaperlink.de/

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#293

Post by prawn »

jojobas wrote: post #286
ssl-3 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't really change anything. Previously, a criminal could just print their own shelf tags. They'd probably do this somewhere other than in the store to get the details right, but it was doable. (We've all probably seen rolls of blank shelf tags sitting around at the store, and thermal printers are inexpensive. So what if it's two crimes instead of one?) And then, in the store, they could just switch out the she…

>It doesn't really change anything. Yes it does, unlike before, a shits-and-giggles attacker could change all the tags in an aisle into "you're gay" without showing anything on surveillance cameras. He wouldn't gain anything but the store would lose.

Someone representing one brand could go around and upwardly adjust all competing brands so that no one wanted to buy them.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#294

Post by ssl-3 »

jojobas wrote: post #286
ssl-3 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't really change anything. Previously, a criminal could just print their own shelf tags. They'd probably do this somewhere other than in the store to get the details right, but it was doable. (We've all probably seen rolls of blank shelf tags sitting around at the store, and thermal printers are inexpensive. So what if it's two crimes instead of one?) And then, in the store, they could just switch out the she…

>It doesn't really change anything. Yes it does, unlike before, a shits-and-giggles attacker could change all the tags in an aisle into "you're gay" without showing anything on surveillance cameras. He wouldn't gain anything but the store would lose.

That'd be hilarious. Now I want one.

But actually: It's not that broad. It's still mostly one at a time, ish. Changing a lot of them would stand out if anyone were paying attention.

Although it could certainly be broadened...but an IR emitter that's skookum enough to reliably hit all of the shelf tags in an aisle at once would probably show up as an intensely-bright purple floodlight on the cameras. That would stand out quite a lot. :)

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#295

Post by paradox460 »

voidUpdate wrote: post #2

I still don't think I've seen an actually useful application for a Flipper Zero. It's all just "use this to change store price tags" or "here's how to disconnect all bluetooth devices", but also "don't actually use this, because it would be illegal, this is just for educational purposes"

I use mine as a presentation remote, and as a USB interface for some micro controllers. Sure, I could buy a dedicated remote, or a bus pirate or other programming device, but I already have the flipper, so it suits me fine

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#296

Post by ButlerianJihad »

walrus01 wrote: post #32
ModernMech wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they do is swap bar codes, or they code organic fruit as regular, or they "forget" to scan in the self checkout, but yes.

This is a big reason why retail product barcode stickers (not barcodes printed directly on a package as it comes from the manufacturer) are now commonly printed on frangible stock with built in slices in it which breaks apart in 3, 4 or more pieces if you try to peel it off.

Price tags have been constructed like this since the 1970s. The little gummy paper ones with literal prices stamped onto them. They fragment into about six pieces if you pick at them and try to pull them off an item.

I noticed this straightaway and my mother informed me how bad people would try and swap price tags on items and this was a countermeasure.

Later on, when I owned my own vehicle, it was the common lore that, after applying a new annual registration tag to the license plate, we should go over it with a razor blade, and slice up about six sections on the little sticker, because there were criminals out there who would lift off the registration sticker because it was quite valuable to fraudulently "register" license plates that way and bypass the DMV. Although I never saw this crime actually perpetrated or met anyone who was a victim, I guess I did it myself a few times. Better safe than sorry!

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#297

Post by fc417fc802 »

ssl-3 wrote: post #290
fc417fc802 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In principle I agree with you but in practice I feel like this really misses the reality of the situation. If it was an isolated incident at an isolated store in the mid 90s I think you'd be right. But presumably the thief makes a habit of this (otherwise why worry), it's likely a major chain with centrally coordinated loss prevention, the thief has presumably made a legitimate purchase from this chain at some point…

I mean, eventually the people working there would take notice. "Oh, look. Banana Man is doing it again." :) That said: I've never, ever weighed meat at self checkout. In fact, I've never had a cashier any weigh meat, either. I've bought plenty of steaks in regular grocery stores, but each of those steaks (even the ones that they wrapped in butcher paper just for me after I selected them from the glass case at the bac…

That's why you peel off the UPC and then ring it up as however many cucumbers would approximately correspond to its weight. Fooling the overhead camera and associated ML algorithm is left as an exercise for the reader.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#298

Post by fragmede »

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #289
JCTheDenthog wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A year or two ago I had a cashier ring up my zucchini as cucumbers because he apparently couldn't tell the difference. Young guy, looked barely 18. I have no idea if he overcharged or undercharged me as a result, but I didn't care enough to point it out because he seemed like the type who would have needed 20 minutes to figure out how to change it (or would have needed to call down a manager for help) and I didn't wa…

I've had dates like that

Did it get rung up as a drupe?

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#299

Post by ssl-3 »

fc417fc802 wrote: post #297
ssl-3 wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, eventually the people working there would take notice. "Oh, look. Banana Man is doing it again." :) That said: I've never, ever weighed meat at self checkout. In fact, I've never had a cashier any weigh meat, either. I've bought plenty of steaks in regular grocery stores, but each of those steaks (even the ones that they wrapped in butcher paper just for me after I selected them from the glass case at the bac…

That's why you peel off the UPC and then ring it up as however many cucumbers would approximately correspond to its weight. Fooling the overhead camera and associated ML algorithm is left as an exercise for the reader.

Well since you put it that way:

There's already an scale that prints UPCs in the produce department for customers to use. I'll just put the package of steak on there, punch in 4011, and scan out my "bananas" at the self-checkout. ;)

(But they'll still know who I am. Walking out is cleaner, and has fewer steps.)

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#300

Post by bombcar »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #136
bombcar wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can build a socioeconomic graph of the country by how anal the unexpected item in the bagging area sensors are. Some places will detect a fly farting on the damn scale, others can take three or four kids climbing on it before it complains.

The walmart near me apparently doesn't even use the scale at all, I had a full cart once and asked the attendant what to do, and they said just put the bag back in the cart. The grocery store down the street though is exactly like this, gotta stack everything up on the scale to make it happy.

The only time I had Walmart bitch at me was when it thought I hadn't scanned an item - it was all camera and not weight.

And yes, the grocery ones all seem to be tuned really high.

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