From my hero Schneier's blog:

Someone goes door-to-door, soliciting contributions to a charity. He prefers a check -- it's safer for you, after all. But he offers his pen for you to sign your check, and the pen is filled with erasable ink. Later, he changes both the payee and the amount, and cashes the check.

Since I've been reading his blog it's fascinating all the security-related things that people can scam other people on for things like this. If you pay attention to your surroundings you really see stuff like that happening everywhere - the opportunity to exploit people is incredible if you think like a scammer so it's no wonder you see so many people on Today Tonight crying about getting ripped off.

WTB: erasable ink pen

Later he cashes the cheque leaving a paper trail leading directly to him?

Later he cashes the cheque leaving a paper trail leading directly to him?

Identify fraud, maybe you have heard of it?

yeah anyone that goes to that much effort probably has another identity that they are doing it all under

But that means the signature gets erased as well.

How does that work?

served them right they should check the check before he signed the check anyway.

well obviously he doesn't erase their signature...

But that means the signature gets erased as well.

How does that work?

umm... by not erasing the signature?

But that means the signature gets erased as well.

Woah!

But if you fill the cheque out with erasable ink, then that means anything you write will dissapear.

Am I having a blonde moment or do I have a point?

How bout thinking about the difference between erasable and dissapearing?

hahaha

Woohoo, blonde moment found and corrected.

*giggles like the ditsy f***wit she is*

ditsy f***wit she is

QFT

Dont call yourself that.

That's our job.

Ditsy f***wit.

served them right they should check the check before he signed the check anyway.

your not from tassie are you?

I've thought about this and if someone wanted me to write a cheque as a donation to charity with their pen then I'd tell them to stick it. For example;

There's a knock on the door, you answer it and a guy gives you the spiel about some retarded kid dying because of whatever. You say that it's no problem and you'll donate $5. He then insists you write him a cheque oh and then insists "here's my pen".

If you got caught out by this scam, then clearly your a f***ing tard and the world will be better off without you having money.

you'd be surprised

my gf's mum was going on about some bulls*** thing she clicked that came up when she went to some website saying she had won a heap of money, she fully filled it in and s***

god i just wanted to say "you're a dips***"

seeing this sort of s*** first hand makes you realise how these bank account scams and s*** happen

Bad choices and decisions must run in that family

hahahaha

A dude I know got a letter the other day saying he's won the Spanish Lottery worth 900k Euros... nothing I can say will convince him it's a scam.

paveway pwnt.

yeah good one astroboy, the same can be said about your dad not making her swallow that one

*giggles like the ditsy f***wit she is*

i thought it said dirty f***wit which i found much more appropriate.

i have idiot mates that keep sending me some thing about bill gates sharing his fortune and if you send the email to so many people you will get a $25000 cheeque in the mail. GOd they s*** me - it's so obvious it's bogus.

Ow and i don't own use cheques so to bad for anyone who comes scamming me.

wtf do you say "ow" like you hurt yourself or something. its f***ing "oh"

Identify fraud, maybe you have heard of it?

They'll also be on camera.

I've thought about this and if someone wanted me to write a cheque as a donation to charity with their pen then I'd tell them to stick it. For example;

The point is more the social engineering-type tactics people use to swing things their way. A smart scammer could avoid making you suspicious by buying some nice pens and filling them with his special ink and saying "you get this FREE awesome pen if you donate more than $x by cheque" or something.

These guys are just playing the odds though, like spammers. Eventually they get one person that does it and makes it worth the effort.

They'll also be on camera.

Fake mustaches?!!@!##

Accomplish scammers aren't going to get caught with stupid security measures like cameras in a bank. Most security camera footage is so low res as to be practically useless anyway. Simple makeup would render them almost totally ineffective (put a fake mole on your cheek and everyone will be looking for the criminal with the mole)

Yeh true.

Scammers win.

The suspect is hatless repeat hatless.

The suspect is driving a blue..... car.

wtf do you say "ow" like you hurt yourself or something. its f***ing "oh"

OW kay

trog seems to know a fair bit about the inner workings of the scammer

*eyes shift from side to side*

/shiftyeyes

You'd think that trog .... but


Facial recognition is already implemented in Sydney Train Stations apparently ... Went live a week or 2 ago supposedly ?

schneier on cameras

It helped them catch the crims, but not stop them ... Sounds like the deal for the charity scammer getting caught then :p

Fake mustaches?!!@!##

what if it's a real mo?

a lot of the comments in that post are a lot more interesting than the article trog

sounds like trog knows what he's doing and may be a scammer himself!

His mother gives it up like its charity.. BAM!

WTB: erasable ink pen

I actually had one of them once. You could erase it with a normal pencil eraser. I have no idea how the hell it worked.

sounds like trog knows what he's doing and may be a scammer himself!

How do you think he got his hands on all that QGL phat lewts!!!???

Erasable Pens
Erasable pens were tremendously popular when they were introduced in the early 1980s. They combine the readability of brightly colored or black ink with the eraser functionality of a pencil. While the pens are still manufactured under names like Gillette Eraser Mate, they aren't as commonly used as they were before. Patents US2966418 and US4097290, among others, describe these pens in detail.

What makes erasable ballpoint pens so different from traditional ballpoint pens is the "ink" -- instead of being made from oils and dyes, it is made of a liquid rubber cement. As you write, the ballpoint rolls on the paper and dispenses the rubber cement ink (the resulting mark is known as a trace). Modern erasable pens work by allowing a ballpoint pen to leave a definite and intense black or colored trace which looks like an ink trace, but is capable of being easily erased shortly after writing (usually up to 10 hours). After that time, the trace will harden and become non-erasable.

Erasable ink generally consists of 15 percent to 45 percent (by weight) natural rubber that is dissolved in a series of volatile organic solvents with varying boiling points.