Don't Complain To WalMart About The Empty Laptop Box You Bought With Stolen Credit Cards

from the scammer-vs.-scammer dept

Thu, Oct 16th 2008 10:35am — Mike Masnick

Well here's one for the dumb criminals series. Apparently, some guys with a bunch of forged credit cards and stolen credit card numbers went to Wal-Mart and bought a laptop. Except, somehow someone at Wal-Mart scammed them... and sold them an empty box. The guys got pissed off and went back to Wal-Mart to complain. Not surprisingly, the Wal-Mart employees thought the guys were trying to scam the Wal-Mart -- not with the fake credit cards -- but with the empty box. So they called the police, and hilarity ensued, as one guy tried to run away and dropped a bunch of the stolen credit cards. But, of course, the real kicker is that the guys weren't lying. Wal-Mart had accidentally sold them an empty box. Still, it makes you wonder what the hell the guys were thinking when they went back to complain about the empty box that had been sold to them using stolen credit cards.

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Filed Under: credit cards, empty box, scammers
Companies: wal-mart

30 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2008 @ 10:54am

they may not have smarts, but they sure had nerve
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- ehrichweiss, 16 Oct 2008 @ 12:53pm
  
  Re:
  Bah!! My late uncle had far more nerve than these guys. He used to go to a store like Walmart, pickup a VCR and walk past the checkout lines to the customer service counter. While doing so he would open the box and move everything around a bit then he'd look the customer service rep right in the eyes and tell them that he wanted a refund on it.
  
  He never got caught despite the audacity to do something so bold AND he got the refunds every time.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2008 @ 2:10pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Ehrickweiss.
    And you sound like him respect. I bet that is why you download music. Oh but downloading music doesn't take balls.
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Bored, 16 Oct 2008 @ 11:25am

OWNED !!!! morons.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2008 @ 11:26am

who robbed who?
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Jake, 16 Oct 2008 @ 11:30am

Doesn't say much for customer relations in that Wal-Mart though; I can think of two or three different ways of resolving a situation like that way before the guy got so pissed off you needed to call the cops.
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Huh, 16 Oct 2008 @ 11:43am

So Wal-Mart robs people. What happened to the employee who robbed them. I am sure he didn't know they were thugs.
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Spork, 16 Oct 2008 @ 11:54am

Maybe...
I for sure don't want to seem like I am defending Wally World...but it might be possible the crooks grabbed a display model's box...normally these would be held in the back room, but it's possible it accidentally got put out on the sales floor by a stocker. If the box was just scanned in the cart, or not thoroughly inspected, I could see this easily slipping past a sales clerk. Conversly though...it is odd Walmart went right to the "we're being scammed" thought.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2008 @ 11:57am
  
  Re: Maybe...
  Makes you wonder if someone has tried to scam them this way before.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2008 @ 11:59am
  
  Re: Maybe...
  Well you know, there are lighter and lighter laptop's coming out everyday. This one was just so light that they didn't know it was missing.
  
  For all thier evilness at least Best Buy "setting up" the laptop insures there **is** a laptop there.
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bob, 16 Oct 2008 @ 12:03pm

Just thinking
These guys obviously weren't too bright. A laptop normally weighs around 8lbs. Could they not feel the difference when they picked up an EMPTY box?
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2008 @ 1:20pm
  
  Re: Just thinking
  Eight pounds?!? Dude, what are you smoking? The only laptops that weigh that much are probably the big desktop replacement models. 'Typical' laptops (which is just about every one of the 200+ employee laptops in my company) are more in the 5-6 pound range, with ultraportables running around 2-4 and subnotebooks typically right around the 2 pound mark. And of course there are a few monsters that weigh more like 10-12 pounds. Those are practically desktop powerhouses stuffed into a supposed portable case, sort of like a wolf in sheeps' clothing. Maybe college kiddies are more into the heavy ones or something, I dunno...
  
  Regardless, this definitely one for the Wall of Fail, not just because they were stupid enough to go back with the stolen credit cards, but because they were too stupid to realize that the box was empty based on weight alone, as you said.
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- vinod, 16 Oct 2008 @ 1:58pm
  
  Re: Just thinking
  not really. Most laptops now around 5 pounds. Packaging can be around 3 lbs, it would be very easy to not know it was there until you opened up the box.
  
  Maybe people should just stop buying laptops at Walmart. Who does this anyway? There are better deals then the pieces of crap that they sell.
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Liz, 16 Oct 2008 @ 12:10pm

Justice
- love it! Walmart rips off everybody with their cheap imports, you might as well get an empty box, it will probably last longer than the product. But really, why would you go back?
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2008 @ 12:16pm

Don't people open a box before they leave the store to make sure the item is actually in the box. Especially at Wal-Mart. They will sell you anything. One time I bought a screen tent and brought it home. Well when I opened it, the poles were mising and it smelt like a camp fire, indicating that it had been used already. They did not check the product before putting it back on the shelf.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2008 @ 12:27pm

Stupid Criminals
I had a cop once tell me if criminals werent so stupid the police could never catch them.
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Howard_NYC, 16 Oct 2008 @ 12:39pm

if only this had happened five years ago, it could have saved my relationship my girfriend gave me grief for opening up a stereo system after we went through the purchase, before leaving the store... sure all the pieces were there, but if a cable or mounting bracket or other widget had been missing it would have been necessary to return to the store... and like as not we would ahve had to buy it... she called me paranoid, I suggested she take care of the installation without me... not the worst moment of our time together and I soon recognized that to be the case...
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use_a_computer_much, 16 Oct 2008 @ 12:48pm

Gee this box seems light maybe i should check the contents DUH
Gee this box seems light maybe i should check the contents DUH
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Barney Fife, 16 Oct 2008 @ 12:57pm

Hey wiat, that's mine
I have a patent on using this method to apprehend criminals. I'm going to frickin' sue Wal-Mart!
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CastorTroy-Libertarian, Lover, General Annoyance f, 16 Oct 2008 @ 1:58pm

EPIC FAILURE on both sides.

Of course this time i was actually kinda hoping the Criminals would win (of course you get the choice of who's the criminal, WallyWorld or the scammers)...
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Cole, 16 Oct 2008 @ 3:09pm

Ha!
Too funny. I must admit that it is reasonable that any ocmpany could accidentally sell an empty box but I think the commenter who suggested it might have been display was probably right.

Unfortunately, people DO try to scam Wal-mart like that on a daily basis. In fact, if there were a scam it would be much better than some attempts.
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TWAT, 16 Oct 2008 @ 3:33pm

OMG PWNED!!! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!!!!
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2008 @ 4:15pm
  
  Re:
  OMG CRUISE CONTROL TO COOL!!!!11!!11oneoneone!1!!
  
  That's better... I had almost forgot what it was like to have the brain of a 10 year old.
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Amy, 16 Oct 2008 @ 7:43pm

Moral of the Story
As you sow so shall you reap :p
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JReilly, 16 Oct 2008 @ 10:17pm

I doubt they went straight to "these guys are trying to scam us". The guys probably got irate and customer service thought calling the cops would be easier. Plus, it's not like they can be like, "My bad. Let me go get you another 900$+ laptop." They have to be completely sure that it was their mistake.
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NPGMBR, 17 Oct 2008 @ 7:04am

This is Not That Uncommon
It happened to my best friend a few years ago when he bought a wireless phone from Best Buy. When he got home he opened the box and there was no phone in it. When he took it back Best Buy refused to refund him his money. Needless to say he never walks away from a store without checking the contents of his purchase anymore.
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Chris, 17 Oct 2008 @ 1:00pm

walmart
It's not 'Wal-Mart' anymore.. no no no, they're 'upscale' now.. new logo, new name.

...

WALMART...

ooooh... drop the hyphen, raise the prices..
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2008 @ 3:26pm

friggin' priceless..!!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2009 @ 10:58am

World's most dumbist crimnal
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Stephanie, 10 Jul 2009 @ 5:19am

Bought laptop with stolen card(s) - plural? That is Wal-Mart's fault to start out
I don't understand why a cashier wouldn't at some point check for ID first off. But secondly, wouldn't someone trying to give you multiple cards in various names be a CLUE. Do cashiers really operate with no brain?
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