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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!hp-pcd!john
From: john@hp-pcd.UUCP (john)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: RE: automatic overcharging
Message-ID: <69600008@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 15-Sep-84 19:45:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.69600008
Posted: Sat Sep 15 19:45:00 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Sep-84 03:16:55 EDT
References: <230@whuxl.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard - Corvallis, OR
Lines: 29
Nf-ID: #R:whuxl:-23000:hp-pcd:69600008:000:1496
Nf-From: hp-pcd!john    Sep 20 15:45:00 1984

There tends to be three stages in bringing any new technology to the masses:

1) Initial Distrust
2) slow acceptance
3) ripping off

When Ma Bell came out with direct distance dialing people at first worried about how bad it would be to lose the operators. That was followed by a period when
most people accepted it as being easy. Then the Phone Phreaks figured out a
way to use the technology to rip off the phone company.

We are now in stage two in accepting supermarket scanners. What can we look
forward to with stage 3? I imagine that someone will start printing up some
stick on labels with the UPC of some low cost common items. You slap one over
the code on a case of beer and get charged for a can of bean soup.This is a
common way to shoplift using regular price tags. You cover the real tag with
a new one of lower price. If the cashier doesn't know the price and it is not
to much lower then you can get away with it. With scanners it may be easier
because the computer has no idea of what the real item is. It would require
that the cashier look at the price for ever item that goes by.

The funny thing is that it may not be illegal to offer such stickers for sale.
I don't think that they are copyrighted,trademarked,patented or anything else
that would make them illegal to sell. Getting caught using them would be but
the poor customer would then claim that they just picked up the item and had
no idea that someone had alterd it. We will see.

John Eaton

!hplabs!hp-pcd!john