Illegal or immoral things you used to do that technology put a stop to

Svetti Arss wrote: »

In the early 80's a school friend of mine and his family emigrated to America.

Phone calls back then where mad expensive so I came up with a cunning plan :cool: to allow us to talk on the phone at no expense. It worked like this; At a pre-arranged time he would ask the operator in the states to make a reverse charge call to a local phone box . We would answer and of course accept the charges. This went on for years until the family was deported back to Ireland.

Some time later the pips where added to public phones to alert an operator that they where calling a pay phone and that was the end of it.

Any more examples?

Yep used to do the reverse charges thing with a friend in New York using payphones. Also in the days of the old rotary payphones you could make free calls by tapping out the number sequence on the cradle hooks.
The advent of the colour laser printer and Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop/Painshop Pro whatever made it dead easy to save $200+ dollars a month on my train ticket by simply scanning in an old one, dropping down to the pixel level to re-edit the dates and then print it off on card. Barcode scanners put a stop to that. In fact bar-code scanners put a stop to a lot of skullduggery like switching pricetags from a can of beans to a filet mignon:P.

Also when Banklink machines first came in they weren't that efficient. You could have twenty quid in your bank account, go into the bank, fill out a slip to withdraw. Then go out side and withdraw it again from the wall. They didn't update your balance immediately. Similar thing worked in college. You had to buy a little card to insert into a meter that deducted 10p everytime you wanted to print a page from the laser printer...BUT if you hit the print button, sent the job to the printer and then hit the return-card button on the meter it didn't have time to deduct the money and you printed for free.
Weighing your own fruit and veg at the supermarket then printing the ticket and then throwing a few more carrots or apples into the bag was a fave. Now they're weighed at the checkout.
Did the 5p in German vending machines as well. Used to get cigarettes that had change worth MORE than the 5p in the plastic in the cigarettes so in effect you were being PAID to steal.
I heard there was a way of bypassing your electrical meter using a coat hanger but I'd say you'd want to know what you're doing before trying this and you could deffo wind up in big trouble if you made it look like it was tampered with when the man came to read it.
Kicking the plug on the Space Invaders and Defender machines in Barney's arcade on Talbot Street would give you 99 credits for free games.

Of course tags and scanners have saved millions in shoplifting losses. And changes to the law have stopped just as much scamming/skimming as technology has.

There was also a time when corrupt bus conductors would take 20p, pocket it and give you no ticket instead of you paying the 40p and getting a legit ticket. Of course the beloved conductor is a thing of the past now.

listermint wrote: »

Ewe, who the hell wants a 1/2 a van of marmalade.. barf.

Not very business inclined are you?

In the 90's older Australian payphones could be hacked by using the high tension spark from a Barbique lighter. Handy for calling home.

A&B phones in Ireland could be hacked by tapping the receiver button where you placed the handset in place of dialing. You could still dial 9, 1 and 0.