Next Grand Theft Auto To Feature Sex Without... >>
<< Latest Supposed WiMax Provider: Disney
 tdicon 


News You Could Do Without

by Carlo Longino

Wed, Sep 21st 2005 8:29am





No More Free Subway Subs, And You Can Blame Technology

from the the-jared-diet-just-got-a-lot-more-expensive dept

Cheap, high-quality scanners and color printers have been blamed for increasing the counterfeiting of fake currency, though there's not much evidence to support the allegation. But counterfeiting made possible by these products has claimed one scalp: low-tech rewards programs, like Subway's Sub Club stamps or the punch cards used by businesses all over to reward frequent customers. Apparently people were selling fake Sub Club stamps on eBay and making copies of the punch or stamp cards used by other companies. Subway and others are moving to electronic systems -- which are expensive to implement, but companies say the cost is lower than what they lose to fraud in the old programs. Who knew people would go to so much trouble for a 6-inch club sandwich?

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..


If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Sep 21st, 2005 @ 9:41am

    I knew it -- when they stopped taking my stamps :-(

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Yum!

    identicon
    Alex, Sep 21st, 2005 @ 9:48am

    > Who knew people would go to so much trouble for a 6-inch club sandwich?< br>Aaah! But what about 2000 free 6-inch club sandwiches?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    They've already implemented electronic cards here.

    identicon
    Jason, Sep 21st, 2005 @ 12:52pm

    Where I live, they now use plastic cards with magnetic stripes to keep track. If this is implemented correctly (put only a random id number on the card strip and track everything with a locked down central server), it may put a stop to the fraud. If implemented incorrectly (put the number of subs already purchased on the strip), it will only temporarily delay it until these people start buying/stealing/building magnetic stripe encoders/readers.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Nick Burns, Sep 21st, 2005 @ 1:50pm

    What gets me is that the Sub Club has been shut down for more than a year at least (because of the fraud), I don't see how this is suddenly new.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>


Next Grand Theft Auto To Feature Sex Without... >>
<< Latest Supposed WiMax Provider: Disney
 tdicon 

A word from our Sponsors...
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss

Powered by Postrank

From the Techdirt Archive...
A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This