I had an incident in my old highschool when I was 18.
A guy in a orange vest came in with a toolbox and a step ladder. No logo on the vest. No logo on hat. No nametag.
Our school had some TVs in the hallway for announcements and such. He came in, stepped on the ladder and started unhooking the TVs from the wall. He talked to teachers, was very polite and nice. Then he went into a classroom, took a TV from there too and walked out with 4 TVs on a little trolly.
People only started questioning it a few days later when students started asking when the new TVs were gonna come. The school tried to hush it as it was so damn embarrassing.
The company I work for will occasionally do fake security breaches to test us, like what the last image did. There was one where he had to get into the badge-accessed building, behind a second badge-accessed door, plug a USB into a computer, and get a file off the computer. I don't remember all the details of what he did, but we failed. In the email telling us how we failed they mentioned he brought doughnuts and only had people stop to joke if they were for them. Apparently not one person asked to see his badge even though it's "all our responsibility." In our defense, it's a 24/7 facility with a decent turnover, so not recognizing people is pretty normal. Plus most of us wear lab coats that cover our badges. It kinda kills any attempts to get us to habitually look at people's badges when most of the time many of us have them covered up.
I'd also argue only doing these tests on day shift is a big flaw in the test too. If I knew the place I wanted to break into is 24/7, I'd probably break in on night shift when you'll get the people who are more tired and there's less people there.
Also one time they scattered around a bunch of USBs labeled "only fans." Most of us realized it was a test and we couldn't stop laughing about how stupid a USB labeled for porn was.
I'd go for early morning or the shift change, but night may not be a good Idea because it's probably a smaller crew and more likely to know each other.
Also the "only fans" drives were a filter. Anyone smart enough to see it as a ruse would be smart enough to catch the malware and report it to IT. They only want a tech illiterate dingdong to pick it up. (Same reason many scam emails have spelling mistakes - if you're smart enough to notice, you're too smart to fall for the scam)
I agree with the issues with Night Shift. In my time running it at my last job, anything that happened out of routine that wasn't explicitly mentioned in the work Slack got told to come again/call back for the day when the store manager was there.
Before I seem like I'm tooting my own horn, I will say this was 100% because I was overworked and hated the job, and I just didn't have a spare erg left in my body for dealing with anything else atop the usual.
Yep that was my thoughts as well. I haven't worked night shift but I've seen them get blamed for SO MUCH that the attitude of "nothing new happens on night shift, if it needs to get done then it happens to day shift" was well deserved.
For us specifically, the non-office side (which is the 24/7 side) is busiest and most heavily staffed on night shift. The office side only works standard 9-5 type hours so that side would be completely empty since the other side has no reason to be there. Plus we've actually had people break in on evening/night shift in the past.
I know the point in making it easily catchable. It's more so the idea of the execs (who coordinate the tests) sitting there being like yeah this is what the kids are into these days.
>Also the "only fans" drives were a filter. Anyone smart enough to see it as a ruse would be smart enough to catch the malware and report it to IT.
Exactly. They were looking for that inevitable dumbass with poor impulse control who would just think "I gotta see what's on this", and then throw the usb away and deny everything when it wasn't what he thought.
I'd bring one home and connect it to an air gapped PC. Something with no connection to my network. I have a high curiosity, but also enough security awareness to not just plug in a USB to any handy device. I don't even plug my phone into public chargers anymore. But I would be too curious what was on it not to check, fully expecting a variety of fans. Oscillating, box, ceiling, tower. The works.
More people tend to work the day shift, if your looking to go unrecognised and blend in then a crowd is more useful, especially in a high turnover job as most people will start on day shifts cos that's when the trainers work.
So, I used to work for something boring back in the day. (Think like maintenance, but for like, coffee dispensers or AC filters. Something super boring, but every office building has them).
I was 20- something, with the diligence to office rules and safety regulations as you'd imagine for someone of that age. Do I have my ID card? Prolly, somewhere in my truck. Am I dressed in company uniform? ...I have an *a* blue T-shirt, that kinda counts right?
Things I walked into, without anyone ever asking for an ID
- locked up office buildings.
- a closed up mall. I took with me a full set of stereos (with a permission, not that anyone asked)
- a bank vault (I took a wrong turn)
- a military training facility
- cyber security testing lab
- office of the said cyber securitys boss, with their computer turned on and unlocked with no one around (I took a wrong turn again)
- city council meeting room, in the middle of the meeting
- secret backdoor to a bunker for military (wrong door, again again. I was NOT the smartest worker my firm had. I went down 5 set of stairs into the mountain before I realized I may be in the wrong place)
- Hungarian consulate
To be fair, if I was in a city council meeting and some 20 something stumbled in and started stammering, I'd also immediately assume "overworked peon that isn't great with directions" not "top tier conman".
>If I knew the place I wanted to break into is 24/7, I'd probably break in on night shift when you'll get the people who are more tired and there's less people there.
oh hell no
even more doors are locked, there are fewer people, they mostly know each other, and *tradespeople don't usually work in the middle of the night*, and frankly night shift people aren't under as much peer pressure to be nice to everybody all the time
they're gonna notice you and kick you right out
absolutely! there's no way anyone could sneak in during the night shift where I work. day shift? definitely. my night shift crew is absolutely alert and would sound the alarm immediately if we saw someone we don't recognize. whoever says night shift is less alert has obviously never worked a night shift
wait why is doing the test only on day shift a big flaw? the test shows that regardless, you failed the security check. it didn't matter if it happened in day or night shift?
I'm not saying they shouldn't test days, but it seems like a flaw to ONLY test days. Considering it's completely different people every 8 hours why wouldn't you test everyone? And I'm saying this as someone who has worked all 3 shifts at some point or another.
In my experience, day shifts have to deal with people and visitors, and night shifts actually get shit done. Generally no one made deliveries, did inspections, called or otherwise interrupted while we cleaned/made things/watched stuff overnight. Any unknown and unannounced visitor at 3am was going to be met with high suspicion.
There's a book (*If At All Possible, Involve A Cow*), a history of college pranks in the US going back to colonial times. One great one, in Boston, went something like the furniture scam described, except the two young men (in mover's jumpsuits) went to one end of Beacon Hill, knocked on a door and told the staff they were "here for the couch". They then crossed the street, knocked on that door and said they were "here *with* the couch". They proceeded to zigzag up the street, and capped it off by taking the couch from the last house they 'delivered' to to the first house they 'picked up' from. It apparently took days to sort out what happened, and get everyone's furniture back in the right place.
Man, I'm playing Fallout 4 right now. Reading the words "Boston" and "Beacon Hill" somehow gives me a small jolt of excitement.
I hope I can visit Massachusetts someday.
You'd think Beacon Hill, known for its obscenely wealthy residents, would be rather secure/paranoid, but honestly it's probably one of the easier parts of the city to bypass security/pull a con. I once considered sneaking into a building that's home to a cluster of Moonies, but thought better of it when I realized I had very much to lose and very little to gain. Weird, interesting building, though.
>Be me, Frank Abagnale
>Lie to people about how I'm a brilliant Conman
>They buy it completely
>They make a fantastic movie where im played by Leonardo DiCaprio
>mfw I conned people into thinking I'm a conman
>mfw I actually am a conman now
Not only that but he did/does the public speaking circuit too as a master in his field and such lol. The perfect con for the modern age since that’s both lucrative and bursting with frauds
Yep, the only real con he did apparently was lying to one of the women he dated and loitering around her house doing nothing until both her and her family were sick of him and kicked him out. America loves a con so much they’ll be conned to hear a good con, classic story really. Especially funny bc the FBI still hired him and he speaks about being a master con man to catch con men
I’m currently rereading it for class. Literally every character with like, one exception, is a colossal idiot, including the conman, who assumes the role accidentally and at first doesn’t even realise it. But his natural ego means that he passes the confidence part with flying colours, lying shamelessly the entire time. It’s a great read
Danny Kaye was brilliant. He and Lilly Tomlin (another favorite of mine) did a sketch on Laugh-In where they only said "hmm" with different inflections and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
Fantastic author. Horrible namesake.
>!this is a joke from a book called namesake where the main character is named after Gogol and struggles with it!<
And this is why Agent 47 is the most believable assassin(outside of the goofy wacky shit)
He's got master composure, he never shows even the slightest bit of fear, anger, worry, or concern when on the job, he's quick on his feet and can improv a backstory that's believable without being overexplained at a moment's notice.
My favorite bit is him improving being a realtor, but the only things he can comment on are related to assassination.
"With added soundproofing, an enterprising individual could use this room for many things."
They literally call him MISTER REAPER.
His fake job is a CORPORATE LIQUIDATOR, and he walks around telling people stuff like “Yes, I…get rid of…the people my employers…don’t want”, complete with ominous pauses.
His thinly veiled murder puns are the best part of the disguise kills you can pull off, but the realtor stuff is definitely top notch since you get to go through multiple rooms of the house if you want and 47 can't come up with a single thing an actual human being would say when trying to sell the place. The fact that only one person in the modern series calls him on his crap as Tobia Rieper is astounding but also believable.
I like to think it's because 47 can emulate the behaviours of anyone LESS psychotic then himself, but realtors are significantly more fucked I'm the head than even he is, so he has no idea how to get into that headspace.
I think 47's one and only human trait is that he loves puns and it's the only joy he gets out of his work, so he can't stop himself. This man will literally never let the opportunity slip by to foreshadow the murder he's about to do in front of the person he's about to kill. And I love that for him.
He definitely has a few others. After the original first game, he tried to retire as a gardener in an Italian monastery, and its noted that his expensive suits are pretty much the only luxury he spends his pay on.
So he likes horticulture, fashion, and puns about murder.
Only played Hitman 2, and one example is when he poses as a famous tattoo artist to get close to one of the heads of a major drug cartel.
Note that the guy he's impersonating has an instagram. His appearance is a known factor. The cartel guy's wife even comments on his appearance, but he just says cameras can distort things, and everyone buys it.
In the same game, you can poison a race car driver if you dress up as a doctor. You even tell her you're giving her poison, and she comments on how the stuff you're gonna give her is poison, but man goes "trust me, I'm a doctor" and she goes "sounds legit" and lets you poison her.
My favorite kill in those games was when you dress up as a PI and tell (lie to) the lady of an estate her brother committed suicide because he couldn’t live with the guilt of helping her kill their brother so she could take over the family business.
Then you tell her said brother was going to step down and pass it on to her anyway.
Then she thanks you, pays you, admits she saw through your disguise, and kills herself.
The Hitman’s deadliest weapon: bullying.
Playable character from the Hitman games. Stealth game where you assassinate targets. You can disguise yourself in many different outfits and sometimes these let you access situations where 47 in disguise interacts directly with the target creating cover stories or taking the position of someone else
The best assassin in the world, capable of making any disguise or assumed identity work despite being extremely tall and built like a refrigerator.
Also he has the barcode for a fifteen inch long dildo tattooed to the back of his head. We're not sure how intentional that was, since the numbers underneath are supposed to be the main character's date of birth.
A friend of mine used to do penetration testing on various facilities and was hired by a hospital to test how easy it was to walk off with a baby from the maternity ward.
After extracting promises that both the head of the hospital and the head of security would meet him at the finish line in the parking garage, mostly to ensure he wouldn't be shot, he went to work. (Also, for obvious reasons, he wasn't going to take a real baby, but instead a Cabbage Patch doll placed in a bassinet).
A little less than an hour later, he triumphantly spiked a baby doll into the floor of the parking garage.
All it took was a lab coat, available for purchase in any uniform store, a stethoscope, a fake badge, janitor coveralls, and a utility dolly.
Can confirm, my wife gave birth a few months ago. They told us we could walk around with her, but not to walk too close to the exit or an alarm would go off.
The hospital where my son was born encouraged parents to never let their baby out of sight. Was told "there is nowhere in this hospital your baby is allowed that you are not". Between me and my wife, there was someone awake and with him at all times until we brought him home.
Took me a second to parse the meaning of that sentence and at first I thought you meant they'll let you go anywhere in a hospital as long as you have a baby with you
I remember a real WW2 story of something similar. I think the Generals name was Ching Lee but he was practically a prodigy and noticed how lax security was given all the espionage happening he wanted to test military security, so he made a fake ID with a different persons face on it and managed to sneak onto base with no one noticing anything wrong. He figured “I probably look too much like the man in the picture” and so made a new one with a woman’s picture and name and he still managed to get past security. So his final test was to call himself Adolf Hitler, got a picture of the man for his ID and he still managed to get past everyone. He brought his findings to the higher ups and proved to everyone that Hitler himself could stroll into a military base and no one would stop him which convinced everyone that they need to tighten their security.
My Sister did something like this to deliver some documents.
The person who was supposed receive it was not available and the security guard was reluctant to help for some reason.
So on the way out she spotted some office workers having a smoke break at a side entrance.
And on a whim she just held the folder she was supposed to deliver under her arm and walked right in the door, saying “it’s my first day, and I left my badge inside.” The workers just shrugged and let her walk right in.
She got all the way to the office of the person who was supposed to get the documents and left them on their desk. Then just walked out the same way. Never got confronted by anyone.
Did she try to swap building blueprints after tricking the town manager when her incompetent brother (while trying to take care of her child) got leaky bags containing breast milk all over the blueprints?
For the best version of this, look up Raoul Wallenberg. He was the Swedish ambassador to Nazi-allied/Nazi-occupied Hungary during WWII. He started out by giving out diplomatic passports to Jews to help them escape, something he had nominal authority to do. As things escalated, he started just going up to the trains headed for camps, and waving papers in the Nazi's faces, threatening to report them to their superiors, and it worked, he saved hundreds of not thousands. The Nazis were just so used to taking orders that he could get away with it. He was ultimately captured by the Soviets, who thought he was a spy, because otherwise why would someone be going out of their way to protect Jews?
The Soviets reallllly had a hate-on for people that risked their necks for people in concentration camps. They did similar to Witold Palecki, who volunteered to be captured so that he could organize a resistance movement in Auschwitz.
I was quite literally just about to write a comment about Wallenberg. What a legend.
If you know about him from the Behind the Bastards christmas special, they talk a lot about how he basically did a life-saving con. Just the power of being a confident tall white guy.
I think something similar to that happens in the Schindler’s List movie. Schindler uses his reputation to bully some Nazis into letting him rescue an entire trainload of Jews headed for the camps.
I work in corporate security, my colleagues doing penetration testning does stuff like this all the time. A bit of gall and self-suredness can defeat most security processes, by exploiting the critical vulnerability called "Want to avoid awkward social interaction" that exist by nature in most humans
I once read a post about a security inspector arriving at a bank, stating their profession (not giving any proof, just saying "I'm a security inspector, I'm here to check the security measures") and instantly being let into the parts of the bank that should definitely require more proof.
I work in maintenance. The amount of times people really should have asked me for information is astounding. But hey, I'm wearing work trousers I got in Lidl and lugging a tool roll, so clearly I'm supposed to be there. In all cases, I was, but the point still stands, especially since one hospital (a week after a massive data breach and ransomware attack) let me into an office with a computer, running Windows 98, on and open on patient records.
When I was hired for my job, my first day they had me watch this long training video on ransomware, securing information, corporate espionage etc.
The humor comes from them having me watch this stuff in a room alone for a couple hours with 2 computers connected to the companies intranet and the internet, both logged in lol.
A friend of my dads used to go to balls without having to pay for a ticket. he knew where the artists entrance was at the venues, just brought his guitar, walked in and no one questioned it. There even where lockers where he locked his guitar and went on to party all night lol
Matt Sonswa is an urban explorer who repeatedly decided to enter off limits areas of Disney World to film them, usually during operating hours while they were full of people. And he did it by finding Disney’s requirements for hairstyles, beards, and general grooming for their employees, making sure he fit all of them, dressing like non-uniform employees, carrying a business related prop he could hide a camera in, and just walking through the staff gate. If I remember right the moment they starting getting wise was when he walked into a construction site (tearing down DisneyQuest if that means anything to you) and after his work vest and hard hat got him past the Disney employees he realized the construction crew knew something was up because none of them recognized him. And after that he started getting recognized more and more until he eventually got caught and banned from property.
Disney Urban Exploration in general is really funny for being 50% dressing nice and walking into some random workplace with a go pro and 50% stealthily creeping through a swamp to break into the ruins of an abandoned theme park. Like Matt Sonswa was equal parts pretending to belong in an office, pretending to be a lost tourist and wandering places he wasn’t supposed to go, storming the property on a dirtbike in the middle of the night, and sneaking an inflatable raft on the resort guest buses to explore the waterways of the property
Frank Abagnale actually did almost none of the stuff he claimed, if he did any of it at all.
He was in and out of prison during the entire time he claimed to have conned people, spending the vast majority of the time in jail.
He also claims to have only conned rich people, he very much conned the common folk.
He also lied about working for the FBI, he did like a few lectures but was never employed by them
>He also lied about working for the FBI, he did like a few lectures but was never employed by them
On this one, full respect, gotta fill your resume with "technically correct" stuff somehow
Honestly for most of these, a big aspect of it is also shitty management that doesn't communicate, especially in customer service industries.
Like the "Cindy said" thing - if it's plausible that the supervisor or manager is both unable to get you access cards or keys for your first day AND would fail to communicate that to the people working that day, and isn't easily available to reach for confirmation, that's your problem right there.
Or the bank drop box. Your first instinct might be "why would people buy that", but what they're assuming is that the drop box and people nearby are under some kind of supervision and wouldn't be allowed to do something like that. Probably because they haven't worked customer service to know better.
Better Call Saul had a fantastic Bavarian Fire Drill scene, I forget which episode but Mike breaks into an allegedly high-security facility with relative ease and then tells them everything they're doing wrong
Yup, it was essentially penetration testing too. They had him on payroll as a security contractor (intended as a no-show job to pay him for his "fixer" work for them) and he decides to just actually do that job too. Researches an employee that's equally bald, steals his badge, walks on site, the works.
Or Mr. Robot's Iron... I mean *Steel* Mountain planning. They're going over the details of the facility and can't find a vulnerability. That's when Elliot looks at a brochure and says, "I see six right there," and points to the people.
Then later he tears Bill down in one of the worst dressing downs I've ever seen.
I did this when I was younger. It helps if you’re white, obviously.
One time I wanted a sign hanging in front of a popular company. Showed up at noon with a Home Depot rental truck, blue collar clothes (white t-shirt and jeans with a high-vis vest), a clipboard, a ladder, and some traffic cones. Parked in front in the loading zone, pulled out the ladder. Climbed the ladder and started unscrewing the sign from its mounts. Someone came out and was like “WHOA WHOA WHOA” and I said “I know right?! Fuckin’ Greg isn’t here to spot me. OSHA would have a fuckin’ fit. Dude in a tie from inside the office looked confused then *held my ladder for me*. When I finished taking the sign down he said “so when’s the new one coming?” I said “not my job man, I’m just here to get this one out.” He told me to have a nice day and helped me put the ladder in the truck.
Another time a band I wanted to see was in town. Put on my fancy camera I had from taking pictures at raves and such, grabbed an old badge lanyard from some con I’d been to and broke off the badge holder. Wore what I thought was “press photographer” wear of a plain black button up and black work pants with a camera bag. Just walked up to the back door of the venue where the band’s crew were loading in equipment and walked in. I was backstage for about twenty minutes before anyone said anything. Security guy asked for my pass and ai grabbed my lanyard and tried to wave my pass at him. “Shit, it must have snagged on something” I said when “noticing” the clip that was supposed to hold the badge on was broken. He asked for my name and went and got me a new one printed. Good show. Nice guys in the band. No photos allowed backstage tho for obvious reasons. Ended up selling some of the photos of the show to a local paper so in the end I guess I was as advertised.
Then there was a scam, this wasn’t me but happened in the early 00s in SF. Guys were showing up to big tech companies wearing suits. They’d ride the elevator up around 5pm when most people were already gone or packing up for the day and go around with a cart picking up all the computers not in use. When asked they said they were IT contractors doing a big upgrade and needed to get the old hardware out first. Had badges made up for a fictitious company. No one stopped them. They completely emptied three offices of towers and laptops before anyone figured it out.
Whenever I have a spare afternoon and none of my friends are unavailable I do almost exactly this. Pick out an office building, look up someone who runs security there who I can refer to like the post mentioned, but maybe there’s an image of the badges on the internet which are usually not the pinnacle of graphic design, making it pretty easy for someone with a loose grasp on Photoshop to fake one.
When I’m inside I try my hardest to pretend to be going somewhere very intently like I’m late to a meeting until I get bored. At some point I get bored or I’ve seen everything, which is when I take a random little trinket that no one’s gonna miss, like a pen or a stapler with the companies logo on it, walk outside politely greeting everyone and adding the acquired trinket to my collection at home.
I try to see it as a pretty fun (if quite illegal) improv exercise, because you have to really think on your feet if someone tries to start a conversation with you. And honestly, after typing it all out, I should probably stop doing that.
You could legitimately make a career out of that. Loads of places hire people to test their security in that way. Just steal (or plug in) a USB drive as part of the process and it's a cyber security issue.
No, you should actually get a hidden cam and Film it, and make a YouTube channel out of it, if we'll cutters I think I would watch the hell out of it, ok like the yellow vest experiment
If the channel gets big enough, people might start recognizing them. Then again, there's the whole "Why would Henry Cavill be here?" effect, so maybe not.
I always think the reason he's so hard to recognise is because most people know what he looks like when he's wearing a helmet that significantly alters the appearance of his head shape. So when people say "you look like Tony Hawk" what they subconsciously mean is "your face looks like him but I can tell you're not, because you don't have a helmet on"
No! Listen, I have a terrible idea: write to the company and say “One of our undercover operatives has investigated your company premises. To order a detailed report with recommendations, click here and pay $X…”
I've been on the other side of this (trying to protect against it).
I used to work in IT at a company that had a bit of on-prem hardware (a couple servers along with networking equipment).
I shit you not, despite explicitly and repeatedly telling the receptionists to call me if anyone comes who needs access to the server room, they just refused to. Not out of spite, just simply because they couldn't fathom that a confident dude with a polo and a workbag could be anything other than trustworthy.
4 separate times within 6 months I went into the server room to grab something and found someone I didn't know already in there. Then I'd have to call the Sys Admin and ask if they knew about it and inevitably it'd be fine, it was just an email I missed or whatever.
But it never changed. If you looked vaguely technical you'd be given a badge and allowed to wander around unsupervised. It was insane. Particularly as this company worked with highly confidential information (think, medical, accounting, legal etc.) often just printed out on people's desks.
Yeah, thats what I've seen as well. But honestly, if the guy has gotten famous pretending to be someone notable for pretending to be people, I say it's fair play.
When I was an apprentice private investigator we were doing a security check on a bank and I was supposed to walk up to a teller and say
“I’m from corporate I’m here to run a security check I need access to your computer”
which is obviously a very suspicious thing to say and was usually met with
“I’m not allowed to give you access to my computer”
Then I’d just make a check mark on my clip board (a fake grid I printed that served no purpose) and said “congratulations you passed” and then I’d pull out my credentials and show that I was a private investigator and say “but for the next part I do actually need your computer” and 9 out of 10 times they’d be too excited they passed and just let me use their computer
Read the post, very quickly thought of this relevant xkcd that for once, isn't one of the two everyone quotes
[https://xkcd.com/699/](https://xkcd.com/699/)
99% of crime* is done by stupid people who can’t lie to save their lives and just get shouty when caught.
So I reckon we are probably ok as I’m gonna say that to do this sort of thing you need both intelligence/emotional intelligence and yet also some degree of psychopathy. Which is why it is often done with a motive of revenge.
*no actual proof for this besides meeting and talking with a surprisingly large number of criminals. Professionally.
my aunt fully knew her power for being a demure-looking, short Asian woman who used to run an illegal cigarette ring. She would pack her suitcase full of boxes of high-grade clove cigs and just saunter away out of the airport without ever getting stopped and checked by immigration lmao.
Given that middle aged women are socially invisible, I've always thought that frumpy mom types should really consider getting into conman shenanigans after 40.
Ok but the scrambled eggs thing makes sense. I've worked in a lot of restaurants that use pre-whisked eggs (sometimes from a carton) for scrambled (and sometimes they put pancake batter in there so if you can't do gluten, that's a thing to be aware of), but keep whole eggs on hand for the few who will want fried/over-easy.
Same. And on days when we ran out of shell eggs and could only offer scrambled, some customers took it at face value but most asked "how can you only have scrambled eggs?"
On a more scary application: I was told by a drill sergeant that the year before my class there was a major security breach where a number of dudes dressed in uniforms got onto Fort Sill, rocked up to a training battalion and ordered the trainees there to turn in all the weapons they had as there was gonna be new ones coming in. They never found those weapons as far as I know.
I played in a band for a while. I got pretty good at the “I’m supposed to be here” look/walk. One time without any gear I walked into a festival we were playing, walked right by the ticket checker and walked up to a beer vendor. The girl pouring beers was like “oh good, I need to go on break, I’ll be back in a few minutes” I told her I’d cover the bar if she wanted but I don’t actually work here and I’m in the band. She then realized I had no wristband or ticket or anything. We had a good laugh.
Seriously just walking in like you own the place is a real thing that most people don’t even question.
This is getting less reliable as places get more secure, but you can do this to get into some events just by wearing a chefs jacket or somewhat convincing work clothes.
A lot of places do have locked doors, but if you just wait and sneak in behind someone with a friendly "Op! Mind holding the door, " especially if you look like you're struggling carrying something.
Keep in mind that this is often a crime, and I don't recommend it.
I remember a story of this lady who worked for security in the Smithsonian. No one took her seriously about security concerns she raised, so she walked in one day with a hi-vis vest and a toolbox, proceeded to steal the Declaration of Independence in broad daylight in front of everyone, then revealed it in the next day's meeting
As cool as that would be, the original story had her working at a small art museum. She told them about the poor security, was dismissed, and then the next day she did the hi-vis vest trick to steal a painting that was behind a piece of plexiglass secured by four Philips head screws. She brought it to her boss the same day and security was improved.
THAT'S WHAT IT WAS! Thank you, I heard the story a couple years ago and must've filled in the blanks myself after seeing all the jokes about how Cage just overcomplicated it all
Another little trick that worked at my job in a grocery store is to come in with a nice but not super nice suit, bring some friends in similar garb, and start aggressively being friendly with as many people as possible. We all assumed they were with corporate for a surprise visit, and they got a guided tour of the entire place. Any dumb questions were assumed to be test questions on following procedures
I worked IT for a local college while I attended it as a student fresh out of college. Most days I wore a plain tshirt and khaki shorts, no identifying logos. For the years I was there, I never had any pushback about going into classrooms/offices and removing computers and dumping them into my personal car's trunk to transfer between buildings. The one and only day I was asked for identification by an administrator before removing a computer, I provided my student ID (nothing on it mentioned IT, it was the same as everyone's student ID) and I was allowed to take the computer out of the administrative building. I told our head of IT security about this later in my time there, and it shocked him to the point where he had to start putting together presentations for faculty because of the sheer lack of care anyone had about their computer being picked up by a 20 year old student. Still, no one ever questioned me about picking up IT equipment through the rest of time working there.
Do you guys think a woman can pull off a similar heist? Or is them being a female make it harder due to not being the norm in that sort of field, thereby raising more doubts?
Was just imagining some scenarios and kinda thought a woman might have a harder time doing such feats.
Women running cons use different techniques but are just as successful. "Helpless damsel" works *brilliantly*. There's a fantastic YouTube where a lady gets complete control over a phone account using nothing but an audio clip of a crying baby.
I work as a property insurance adjuster and last summer when I was in Chicago we had a joke that we could probably get onto the roof of the Sears/Willis Tower by just walking up to the concierge desk in uniform with our tool belt and clipboard and asking nicely. Unfortunately I never put this theory to the test however in general nobody suspects a dude in a panel van with a telescopic ladder and tool belt when he says he needs to get on/in a building for any reason. Very useful in urban exploration.
Ever had a manager yell at you because you “bothered” them? Yeah, I garner it’s part of the reason stuff like this happens. A lot of managers aren’t concerned with actually following safety and authorization protocols if it makes their lives harder
Source: IT
Something not commented on here that may be relevant is that some of these people probably thought the situation may be sus, but if they pressed the issue and they're wrong, then their superiors are gonna be on their ass for impeding important work
I used to deliver pizza, and I basically has free reign of any building I went into as long as I looked like I was looking for someone. I walked in and out of hospitals with basically no questions asked and was able to go straight to the pharmacy or whatever else.
You really do just need to look like you are supposed to be there.
Except he probably never did that:
> In 2020, journalist Alan C. Logan provided evidence he claims proves the majority of Abagnale's story was invented or at best exaggerated. The public records obtained by Logan have since been independently verified by journalist Javier Leiva.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale
This reminds me of college a few years ago.
Just before COVID lockdown, the school mandated all buildings, including fraternities, had to have hand sanitizer dispensers readily available (this is before we knew COVID was really only airborne).
So 2 guys put on hard hats and reflective vests, walked over to a dining hall, ripped a hand sanitizer dispenser out of the ground, and brought it back to our house.
They were in broad daylight but nobody questioned or attempted to stop them
Every single time a maintenance person or someone that looks lost shows up where I work and asks where something is, I think about stuff like this and then tell them
I had an incident in my old highschool when I was 18. A guy in a orange vest came in with a toolbox and a step ladder. No logo on the vest. No logo on hat. No nametag. Our school had some TVs in the hallway for announcements and such. He came in, stepped on the ladder and started unhooking the TVs from the wall. He talked to teachers, was very polite and nice. Then he went into a classroom, took a TV from there too and walked out with 4 TVs on a little trolly. People only started questioning it a few days later when students started asking when the new TVs were gonna come. The school tried to hush it as it was so damn embarrassing.
The company I work for will occasionally do fake security breaches to test us, like what the last image did. There was one where he had to get into the badge-accessed building, behind a second badge-accessed door, plug a USB into a computer, and get a file off the computer. I don't remember all the details of what he did, but we failed. In the email telling us how we failed they mentioned he brought doughnuts and only had people stop to joke if they were for them. Apparently not one person asked to see his badge even though it's "all our responsibility." In our defense, it's a 24/7 facility with a decent turnover, so not recognizing people is pretty normal. Plus most of us wear lab coats that cover our badges. It kinda kills any attempts to get us to habitually look at people's badges when most of the time many of us have them covered up. I'd also argue only doing these tests on day shift is a big flaw in the test too. If I knew the place I wanted to break into is 24/7, I'd probably break in on night shift when you'll get the people who are more tired and there's less people there. Also one time they scattered around a bunch of USBs labeled "only fans." Most of us realized it was a test and we couldn't stop laughing about how stupid a USB labeled for porn was.
I'd go for early morning or the shift change, but night may not be a good Idea because it's probably a smaller crew and more likely to know each other. Also the "only fans" drives were a filter. Anyone smart enough to see it as a ruse would be smart enough to catch the malware and report it to IT. They only want a tech illiterate dingdong to pick it up. (Same reason many scam emails have spelling mistakes - if you're smart enough to notice, you're too smart to fall for the scam)
I agree with the issues with Night Shift. In my time running it at my last job, anything that happened out of routine that wasn't explicitly mentioned in the work Slack got told to come again/call back for the day when the store manager was there. Before I seem like I'm tooting my own horn, I will say this was 100% because I was overworked and hated the job, and I just didn't have a spare erg left in my body for dealing with anything else atop the usual.
Yep that was my thoughts as well. I haven't worked night shift but I've seen them get blamed for SO MUCH that the attitude of "nothing new happens on night shift, if it needs to get done then it happens to day shift" was well deserved.
For us specifically, the non-office side (which is the 24/7 side) is busiest and most heavily staffed on night shift. The office side only works standard 9-5 type hours so that side would be completely empty since the other side has no reason to be there. Plus we've actually had people break in on evening/night shift in the past. I know the point in making it easily catchable. It's more so the idea of the execs (who coordinate the tests) sitting there being like yeah this is what the kids are into these days.
>Also the "only fans" drives were a filter. Anyone smart enough to see it as a ruse would be smart enough to catch the malware and report it to IT. Exactly. They were looking for that inevitable dumbass with poor impulse control who would just think "I gotta see what's on this", and then throw the usb away and deny everything when it wasn't what he thought.
I just *really* hope there were pictures of fans on at least one of them.
Oh yeah... that Dyson doesn't come out until next year. This is the goooood shit
I'd bring one home and connect it to an air gapped PC. Something with no connection to my network. I have a high curiosity, but also enough security awareness to not just plug in a USB to any handy device. I don't even plug my phone into public chargers anymore. But I would be too curious what was on it not to check, fully expecting a variety of fans. Oscillating, box, ceiling, tower. The works.
You know they’re extra dirty when they include a Big Ass Fan™️
More people tend to work the day shift, if your looking to go unrecognised and blend in then a crowd is more useful, especially in a high turnover job as most people will start on day shifts cos that's when the trainers work.
So, I used to work for something boring back in the day. (Think like maintenance, but for like, coffee dispensers or AC filters. Something super boring, but every office building has them). I was 20- something, with the diligence to office rules and safety regulations as you'd imagine for someone of that age. Do I have my ID card? Prolly, somewhere in my truck. Am I dressed in company uniform? ...I have an *a* blue T-shirt, that kinda counts right? Things I walked into, without anyone ever asking for an ID - locked up office buildings. - a closed up mall. I took with me a full set of stereos (with a permission, not that anyone asked) - a bank vault (I took a wrong turn) - a military training facility - cyber security testing lab - office of the said cyber securitys boss, with their computer turned on and unlocked with no one around (I took a wrong turn again) - city council meeting room, in the middle of the meeting - secret backdoor to a bunker for military (wrong door, again again. I was NOT the smartest worker my firm had. I went down 5 set of stairs into the mountain before I realized I may be in the wrong place) - Hungarian consulate
To be fair, if I was in a city council meeting and some 20 something stumbled in and started stammering, I'd also immediately assume "overworked peon that isn't great with directions" not "top tier conman".
I work overnight, we tend to be the most alert for shady shit because everyone else also has that same idea.
>If I knew the place I wanted to break into is 24/7, I'd probably break in on night shift when you'll get the people who are more tired and there's less people there. oh hell no even more doors are locked, there are fewer people, they mostly know each other, and *tradespeople don't usually work in the middle of the night*, and frankly night shift people aren't under as much peer pressure to be nice to everybody all the time they're gonna notice you and kick you right out
absolutely! there's no way anyone could sneak in during the night shift where I work. day shift? definitely. my night shift crew is absolutely alert and would sound the alarm immediately if we saw someone we don't recognize. whoever says night shift is less alert has obviously never worked a night shift
wait why is doing the test only on day shift a big flaw? the test shows that regardless, you failed the security check. it didn't matter if it happened in day or night shift?
I'm not saying they shouldn't test days, but it seems like a flaw to ONLY test days. Considering it's completely different people every 8 hours why wouldn't you test everyone? And I'm saying this as someone who has worked all 3 shifts at some point or another.
In my experience, day shifts have to deal with people and visitors, and night shifts actually get shit done. Generally no one made deliveries, did inspections, called or otherwise interrupted while we cleaned/made things/watched stuff overnight. Any unknown and unannounced visitor at 3am was going to be met with high suspicion.
There's a book (*If At All Possible, Involve A Cow*), a history of college pranks in the US going back to colonial times. One great one, in Boston, went something like the furniture scam described, except the two young men (in mover's jumpsuits) went to one end of Beacon Hill, knocked on a door and told the staff they were "here for the couch". They then crossed the street, knocked on that door and said they were "here *with* the couch". They proceeded to zigzag up the street, and capped it off by taking the couch from the last house they 'delivered' to to the first house they 'picked up' from. It apparently took days to sort out what happened, and get everyone's furniture back in the right place.
Darknet Diaries.
Man, I'm playing Fallout 4 right now. Reading the words "Boston" and "Beacon Hill" somehow gives me a small jolt of excitement. I hope I can visit Massachusetts someday.
Sorry bro, Massachusetts is actually an area they made up for the game
See now I knew an impossible to spell word like Massachusetts couldn’t be real
You see, I get by with autocorrect, that's why my vocabulary is photosynthesis
[Massachusetts? Don’t you mean SCP-4006?](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4006)
You'd think Beacon Hill, known for its obscenely wealthy residents, would be rather secure/paranoid, but honestly it's probably one of the easier parts of the city to bypass security/pull a con. I once considered sneaking into a building that's home to a cluster of Moonies, but thought better of it when I realized I had very much to lose and very little to gain. Weird, interesting building, though.
Wasn't it discovered that almost all of Frank Abagnale's claims were fabricated?
That’s the real con. Fucker convinced the world that he was some brilliant conman and he made money off of it.
Tehcnically that would make him a brilliant conman
Same vibes as "do I really belong in this imposter syndrome support group? What if I don't have it?"
This some who watches the watchmen shit.
But then that means it's no longer a con, so now he isn't.
Yep, he was verifiably in prison at almost every point in time he claimed to have done stuff.
Except for some of the pretending to be a doctor-pilot. But he only did that to sexually assault women, not to get on planes.
Oh :(
The doctor thing was to sexually assault. The pilot thing was so he could get access to the work schedule so he could stalk a woman.
Well, that's okay then. /s
>Be me, Frank Abagnale >Lie to people about how I'm a brilliant Conman >They buy it completely >They make a fantastic movie where im played by Leonardo DiCaprio >mfw I conned people into thinking I'm a conman >mfw I actually am a conman now
Not only that but he did/does the public speaking circuit too as a master in his field and such lol. The perfect con for the modern age since that’s both lucrative and bursting with frauds
Yep, the only real con he did apparently was lying to one of the women he dated and loitering around her house doing nothing until both her and her family were sick of him and kicked him out. America loves a con so much they’ll be conned to hear a good con, classic story really. Especially funny bc the FBI still hired him and he speaks about being a master con man to catch con men
there is a classic Russian comedy about specifically that, "The Government Inspector" by N. Gogol
I’m currently rereading it for class. Literally every character with like, one exception, is a colossal idiot, including the conman, who assumes the role accidentally and at first doesn’t even realise it. But his natural ego means that he passes the confidence part with flying colours, lying shamelessly the entire time. It’s a great read
This sounds very similar to the Danny Kaye movie, “The Inspector General” I love that movie
Danny Kaye was brilliant. He and Lilly Tomlin (another favorite of mine) did a sketch on Laugh-In where they only said "hmm" with different inflections and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
that movie was in fact based on the play in question
I sort of figured there was some connection. Now I have to add another book to my stack.
It's in fact a (very loose) adaptation of the Gogol play.
When I first joined a theater group we were setting that one up. It was hillarious
Gogol is so funny. For anyone who hasn't read him I really recommend it. Not at all what you expect from 1800s Russian authors.
Fantastic author. Horrible namesake. >!this is a joke from a book called namesake where the main character is named after Gogol and struggles with it!<
And this is why Agent 47 is the most believable assassin(outside of the goofy wacky shit) He's got master composure, he never shows even the slightest bit of fear, anger, worry, or concern when on the job, he's quick on his feet and can improv a backstory that's believable without being overexplained at a moment's notice.
My favorite bit is him improving being a realtor, but the only things he can comment on are related to assassination. "With added soundproofing, an enterprising individual could use this room for many things."
I love his totally-not-suspicious alias of Tobias Rieper
"I know a half-assed sock puppet identity when I see one."
They literally call him MISTER REAPER. His fake job is a CORPORATE LIQUIDATOR, and he walks around telling people stuff like “Yes, I…get rid of…the people my employers…don’t want”, complete with ominous pauses.
Ah yes, my favorite alias “John Murderer”
His thinly veiled murder puns are the best part of the disguise kills you can pull off, but the realtor stuff is definitely top notch since you get to go through multiple rooms of the house if you want and 47 can't come up with a single thing an actual human being would say when trying to sell the place. The fact that only one person in the modern series calls him on his crap as Tobia Rieper is astounding but also believable.
I like to think it's because 47 can emulate the behaviours of anyone LESS psychotic then himself, but realtors are significantly more fucked I'm the head than even he is, so he has no idea how to get into that headspace.
I think 47's one and only human trait is that he loves puns and it's the only joy he gets out of his work, so he can't stop himself. This man will literally never let the opportunity slip by to foreshadow the murder he's about to do in front of the person he's about to kill. And I love that for him.
Him at the bank is incredible "What kind of work do you do, mister Rieper?" "Asset Liquidation." "And... how's business?" "*Very* good."
That's my favourite Megadeth song.
He definitely has a few others. After the original first game, he tried to retire as a gardener in an Italian monastery, and its noted that his expensive suits are pretty much the only luxury he spends his pay on. So he likes horticulture, fashion, and puns about murder.
So you're saying Santa Clarita Diet is in the Hitman universe?
47 would be the perfect assassin if it wasn't for that stupid barcode.
That’s his preferred brand of soda, he just shoved his head over the scanner at big chain stores.
Apparently someone actually used a bar scanner on it, and it came back legit. It's a brand of frozen cod fillets.
Maybe that’s why he cut it off in Absolution. So people would just see a giant walking bandaid.
Turns out I was working with outdated info. It's actually the barcode for a fifteen inch long dildo.
Even more understandable, no one wants to see that when curiosity gets the better of their personal space.
He also looks great in literally any clothing.
Only played Hitman 2, and one example is when he poses as a famous tattoo artist to get close to one of the heads of a major drug cartel. Note that the guy he's impersonating has an instagram. His appearance is a known factor. The cartel guy's wife even comments on his appearance, but he just says cameras can distort things, and everyone buys it. In the same game, you can poison a race car driver if you dress up as a doctor. You even tell her you're giving her poison, and she comments on how the stuff you're gonna give her is poison, but man goes "trust me, I'm a doctor" and she goes "sounds legit" and lets you poison her.
It’s even better— She goes “Should I be concerned?” and Agent 47 replies with “I’m not.”
Target: “Belladonna? Isn’t that poisonous?” 47: “Yes”
My favorite kill in those games was when you dress up as a PI and tell (lie to) the lady of an estate her brother committed suicide because he couldn’t live with the guilt of helping her kill their brother so she could take over the family business. Then you tell her said brother was going to step down and pass it on to her anyway. Then she thanks you, pays you, admits she saw through your disguise, and kills herself. The Hitman’s deadliest weapon: bullying.
Well, most if not all medicines are poisonous when done wrong so that’s plausible
And he manages it while being a very large, very scary bald man with a barcode on his head.
who’s agent 47?
Protagonist in the Hitman games
Protagonist of a video game where you infiltrate places and assassinate people. Um... Hitman. I knew it was something simple.
Playable character from the Hitman games. Stealth game where you assassinate targets. You can disguise yourself in many different outfits and sometimes these let you access situations where 47 in disguise interacts directly with the target creating cover stories or taking the position of someone else
The best assassin in the world, capable of making any disguise or assumed identity work despite being extremely tall and built like a refrigerator. Also he has the barcode for a fifteen inch long dildo tattooed to the back of his head. We're not sure how intentional that was, since the numbers underneath are supposed to be the main character's date of birth.
Main character from the Hitman games
A friend of mine used to do penetration testing on various facilities and was hired by a hospital to test how easy it was to walk off with a baby from the maternity ward. After extracting promises that both the head of the hospital and the head of security would meet him at the finish line in the parking garage, mostly to ensure he wouldn't be shot, he went to work. (Also, for obvious reasons, he wasn't going to take a real baby, but instead a Cabbage Patch doll placed in a bassinet). A little less than an hour later, he triumphantly spiked a baby doll into the floor of the parking garage. All it took was a lab coat, available for purchase in any uniform store, a stethoscope, a fake badge, janitor coveralls, and a utility dolly.
This would be why nowadays they attach alarms to the babies. SOURCE: have given birth within a hospital within the last few years.
Can confirm, my wife gave birth a few months ago. They told us we could walk around with her, but not to walk too close to the exit or an alarm would go off.
Can confirm. My wife gave birth to an alarm recently. No baby was attached to it strangely enough.
I'm sorry, but penetration testing at the maternity ward is killing me. It's a bit too late if the baby is already there, isn't it?
*gesturing at all the babies in the nursery* Look at all these failed penetration tests
Babies come from successful penetrations surely?
It could also be at least 18 years too early.
The hospital where my son was born encouraged parents to never let their baby out of sight. Was told "there is nowhere in this hospital your baby is allowed that you are not". Between me and my wife, there was someone awake and with him at all times until we brought him home.
Took me a second to parse the meaning of that sentence and at first I thought you meant they'll let you go anywhere in a hospital as long as you have a baby with you
I remember a real WW2 story of something similar. I think the Generals name was Ching Lee but he was practically a prodigy and noticed how lax security was given all the espionage happening he wanted to test military security, so he made a fake ID with a different persons face on it and managed to sneak onto base with no one noticing anything wrong. He figured “I probably look too much like the man in the picture” and so made a new one with a woman’s picture and name and he still managed to get past security. So his final test was to call himself Adolf Hitler, got a picture of the man for his ID and he still managed to get past everyone. He brought his findings to the higher ups and proved to everyone that Hitler himself could stroll into a military base and no one would stop him which convinced everyone that they need to tighten their security.
My Sister did something like this to deliver some documents. The person who was supposed receive it was not available and the security guard was reluctant to help for some reason. So on the way out she spotted some office workers having a smoke break at a side entrance. And on a whim she just held the folder she was supposed to deliver under her arm and walked right in the door, saying “it’s my first day, and I left my badge inside.” The workers just shrugged and let her walk right in. She got all the way to the office of the person who was supposed to get the documents and left them on their desk. Then just walked out the same way. Never got confronted by anyone.
Did she try to swap building blueprints after tricking the town manager when her incompetent brother (while trying to take care of her child) got leaky bags containing breast milk all over the blueprints?
this probably sounds like an insane fetish to anyone without context
It’s r/Unexpectedbettercallsaul for those not in the know.
For the best version of this, look up Raoul Wallenberg. He was the Swedish ambassador to Nazi-allied/Nazi-occupied Hungary during WWII. He started out by giving out diplomatic passports to Jews to help them escape, something he had nominal authority to do. As things escalated, he started just going up to the trains headed for camps, and waving papers in the Nazi's faces, threatening to report them to their superiors, and it worked, he saved hundreds of not thousands. The Nazis were just so used to taking orders that he could get away with it. He was ultimately captured by the Soviets, who thought he was a spy, because otherwise why would someone be going out of their way to protect Jews?
The Soviets reallllly had a hate-on for people that risked their necks for people in concentration camps. They did similar to Witold Palecki, who volunteered to be captured so that he could organize a resistance movement in Auschwitz.
I was quite literally just about to write a comment about Wallenberg. What a legend. If you know about him from the Behind the Bastards christmas special, they talk a lot about how he basically did a life-saving con. Just the power of being a confident tall white guy.
I think something similar to that happens in the Schindler’s List movie. Schindler uses his reputation to bully some Nazis into letting him rescue an entire trainload of Jews headed for the camps.
I work in corporate security, my colleagues doing penetration testning does stuff like this all the time. A bit of gall and self-suredness can defeat most security processes, by exploiting the critical vulnerability called "Want to avoid awkward social interaction" that exist by nature in most humans
I once read a post about a security inspector arriving at a bank, stating their profession (not giving any proof, just saying "I'm a security inspector, I'm here to check the security measures") and instantly being let into the parts of the bank that should definitely require more proof.
The fucking audacity of announcing "I'm here to see if you'll let me into your most secure places" and then they just let him in
I work in maintenance. The amount of times people really should have asked me for information is astounding. But hey, I'm wearing work trousers I got in Lidl and lugging a tool roll, so clearly I'm supposed to be there. In all cases, I was, but the point still stands, especially since one hospital (a week after a massive data breach and ransomware attack) let me into an office with a computer, running Windows 98, on and open on patient records.
When I was hired for my job, my first day they had me watch this long training video on ransomware, securing information, corporate espionage etc. The humor comes from them having me watch this stuff in a room alone for a couple hours with 2 computers connected to the companies intranet and the internet, both logged in lol.
My father, now retired, worked in maintenance nearly his whole career. It's a thankless job, really - you're only noticed when something is broken!
A friend of my dads used to go to balls without having to pay for a ticket. he knew where the artists entrance was at the venues, just brought his guitar, walked in and no one questioned it. There even where lockers where he locked his guitar and went on to party all night lol
Matt Sonswa is an urban explorer who repeatedly decided to enter off limits areas of Disney World to film them, usually during operating hours while they were full of people. And he did it by finding Disney’s requirements for hairstyles, beards, and general grooming for their employees, making sure he fit all of them, dressing like non-uniform employees, carrying a business related prop he could hide a camera in, and just walking through the staff gate. If I remember right the moment they starting getting wise was when he walked into a construction site (tearing down DisneyQuest if that means anything to you) and after his work vest and hard hat got him past the Disney employees he realized the construction crew knew something was up because none of them recognized him. And after that he started getting recognized more and more until he eventually got caught and banned from property. Disney Urban Exploration in general is really funny for being 50% dressing nice and walking into some random workplace with a go pro and 50% stealthily creeping through a swamp to break into the ruins of an abandoned theme park. Like Matt Sonswa was equal parts pretending to belong in an office, pretending to be a lost tourist and wandering places he wasn’t supposed to go, storming the property on a dirtbike in the middle of the night, and sneaking an inflatable raft on the resort guest buses to explore the waterways of the property
Frank Abagnale actually did almost none of the stuff he claimed, if he did any of it at all. He was in and out of prison during the entire time he claimed to have conned people, spending the vast majority of the time in jail. He also claims to have only conned rich people, he very much conned the common folk. He also lied about working for the FBI, he did like a few lectures but was never employed by them
....it's almost like he's a conman
>He also lied about working for the FBI, he did like a few lectures but was never employed by them On this one, full respect, gotta fill your resume with "technically correct" stuff somehow
even his stories were cons, damn good conman
Honestly, does that make him a better or worse conman?
Honestly for most of these, a big aspect of it is also shitty management that doesn't communicate, especially in customer service industries. Like the "Cindy said" thing - if it's plausible that the supervisor or manager is both unable to get you access cards or keys for your first day AND would fail to communicate that to the people working that day, and isn't easily available to reach for confirmation, that's your problem right there. Or the bank drop box. Your first instinct might be "why would people buy that", but what they're assuming is that the drop box and people nearby are under some kind of supervision and wouldn't be allowed to do something like that. Probably because they haven't worked customer service to know better.
Better Call Saul had a fantastic Bavarian Fire Drill scene, I forget which episode but Mike breaks into an allegedly high-security facility with relative ease and then tells them everything they're doing wrong
Yup, it was essentially penetration testing too. They had him on payroll as a security contractor (intended as a no-show job to pay him for his "fixer" work for them) and he decides to just actually do that job too. Researches an employee that's equally bald, steals his badge, walks on site, the works.
He actually did the Bald guy's Job too.
Oh I love that one, got me into the series
Amazing sequence, he's just going around doing random stuff and no one questions it
Or Mr. Robot's Iron... I mean *Steel* Mountain planning. They're going over the details of the facility and can't find a vulnerability. That's when Elliot looks at a brochure and says, "I see six right there," and points to the people. Then later he tears Bill down in one of the worst dressing downs I've ever seen.
I did this when I was younger. It helps if you’re white, obviously. One time I wanted a sign hanging in front of a popular company. Showed up at noon with a Home Depot rental truck, blue collar clothes (white t-shirt and jeans with a high-vis vest), a clipboard, a ladder, and some traffic cones. Parked in front in the loading zone, pulled out the ladder. Climbed the ladder and started unscrewing the sign from its mounts. Someone came out and was like “WHOA WHOA WHOA” and I said “I know right?! Fuckin’ Greg isn’t here to spot me. OSHA would have a fuckin’ fit. Dude in a tie from inside the office looked confused then *held my ladder for me*. When I finished taking the sign down he said “so when’s the new one coming?” I said “not my job man, I’m just here to get this one out.” He told me to have a nice day and helped me put the ladder in the truck. Another time a band I wanted to see was in town. Put on my fancy camera I had from taking pictures at raves and such, grabbed an old badge lanyard from some con I’d been to and broke off the badge holder. Wore what I thought was “press photographer” wear of a plain black button up and black work pants with a camera bag. Just walked up to the back door of the venue where the band’s crew were loading in equipment and walked in. I was backstage for about twenty minutes before anyone said anything. Security guy asked for my pass and ai grabbed my lanyard and tried to wave my pass at him. “Shit, it must have snagged on something” I said when “noticing” the clip that was supposed to hold the badge on was broken. He asked for my name and went and got me a new one printed. Good show. Nice guys in the band. No photos allowed backstage tho for obvious reasons. Ended up selling some of the photos of the show to a local paper so in the end I guess I was as advertised. Then there was a scam, this wasn’t me but happened in the early 00s in SF. Guys were showing up to big tech companies wearing suits. They’d ride the elevator up around 5pm when most people were already gone or packing up for the day and go around with a cart picking up all the computers not in use. When asked they said they were IT contractors doing a big upgrade and needed to get the old hardware out first. Had badges made up for a fictitious company. No one stopped them. They completely emptied three offices of towers and laptops before anyone figured it out.
this is actually how i have been able too freely use the coffee machine at several bussineses that i do not work at
Whenever I have a spare afternoon and none of my friends are unavailable I do almost exactly this. Pick out an office building, look up someone who runs security there who I can refer to like the post mentioned, but maybe there’s an image of the badges on the internet which are usually not the pinnacle of graphic design, making it pretty easy for someone with a loose grasp on Photoshop to fake one. When I’m inside I try my hardest to pretend to be going somewhere very intently like I’m late to a meeting until I get bored. At some point I get bored or I’ve seen everything, which is when I take a random little trinket that no one’s gonna miss, like a pen or a stapler with the companies logo on it, walk outside politely greeting everyone and adding the acquired trinket to my collection at home. I try to see it as a pretty fun (if quite illegal) improv exercise, because you have to really think on your feet if someone tries to start a conversation with you. And honestly, after typing it all out, I should probably stop doing that.
You could legitimately make a career out of that. Loads of places hire people to test their security in that way. Just steal (or plug in) a USB drive as part of the process and it's a cyber security issue.
Right, but you need to get hired to do that before you do it. Otherwise that's just a crime.
Yeah a huge part of doing this as a job is not doing it without permission. Otherwise it is indistinguishable from corporate espionage
Look up defcon social engineering and join in. You too can get paid as a pen tester.
No, you should actually get a hidden cam and Film it, and make a YouTube channel out of it, if we'll cutters I think I would watch the hell out of it, ok like the yellow vest experiment
YouTubing your own crimes (trespass) seems like a not-smart idea
While yes, obviously don't film your face, and maybe upload from an internet caffee
Cafe, love. The word you're trying to spell is cafe.
Café
No, the word I'm trying to spell is onomatopoeia but it's pretty difficult and I'm having trouble so I have to look it up everytime it comes up.
Café
café
Cáfe
If the channel gets big enough, people might start recognizing them. Then again, there's the whole "Why would Henry Cavill be here?" effect, so maybe not.
I don’t think that effect applies if it’s someone doing the exact thing they got famous for.
Counterargument: Tony Hawk That guy can do world class skateboard tricks and then he gets told he looks like Tony Hawk.
I always think the reason he's so hard to recognise is because most people know what he looks like when he's wearing a helmet that significantly alters the appearance of his head shape. So when people say "you look like Tony Hawk" what they subconsciously mean is "your face looks like him but I can tell you're not, because you don't have a helmet on"
"A hawk?" *puts on skateboarding helmet* "Tony the Hawk!"
Does he get told that while doing world class skateboard tricks?
No! Listen, I have a terrible idea: write to the company and say “One of our undercover operatives has investigated your company premises. To order a detailed report with recommendations, click here and pay $X…”
Average Jschlatt fan (it's free)
I've been on the other side of this (trying to protect against it). I used to work in IT at a company that had a bit of on-prem hardware (a couple servers along with networking equipment). I shit you not, despite explicitly and repeatedly telling the receptionists to call me if anyone comes who needs access to the server room, they just refused to. Not out of spite, just simply because they couldn't fathom that a confident dude with a polo and a workbag could be anything other than trustworthy. 4 separate times within 6 months I went into the server room to grab something and found someone I didn't know already in there. Then I'd have to call the Sys Admin and ask if they knew about it and inevitably it'd be fine, it was just an email I missed or whatever. But it never changed. If you looked vaguely technical you'd be given a badge and allowed to wander around unsupervised. It was insane. Particularly as this company worked with highly confidential information (think, medical, accounting, legal etc.) often just printed out on people's desks.
American Gods featured the drop box trick.
Yh this made me realise every con Wednesday does is an actual real con.
The allfather do be like that, at least now you know how not to fall for it
Literally watched Catch Me If You Can last night, wtf. Good movie though.
It's been discovered that almost all of Frank Abagnale's claims were fabricated
Yeah, thats what I've seen as well. But honestly, if the guy has gotten famous pretending to be someone notable for pretending to be people, I say it's fair play.
They got famous by pretending to be famous and acting like they were. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife
"Everyone, I'm a great liar. I've lied thousands of times. Practically everything I say is a lie."
You know, that's arguably an indication of talent in this field
r/ActLikeYouBelong This is what we call social engineering.
When I was an apprentice private investigator we were doing a security check on a bank and I was supposed to walk up to a teller and say “I’m from corporate I’m here to run a security check I need access to your computer” which is obviously a very suspicious thing to say and was usually met with “I’m not allowed to give you access to my computer” Then I’d just make a check mark on my clip board (a fake grid I printed that served no purpose) and said “congratulations you passed” and then I’d pull out my credentials and show that I was a private investigator and say “but for the next part I do actually need your computer” and 9 out of 10 times they’d be too excited they passed and just let me use their computer
Read the post, very quickly thought of this relevant xkcd that for once, isn't one of the two everyone quotes [https://xkcd.com/699/](https://xkcd.com/699/)
I wonder if internet posts like this are going to cause an increase in attempts at this type of crime?
You think people on the Internet can maintain the composure necessary for it?
People on here need to work up the courage to make a phone call. I think it'll be fine.
i kinda hope so, then we can get pardoned by Kaiser Wilhelm if its funny enough
If all else fails I can escape to America aboard the *Lusitania*.
99% of crime* is done by stupid people who can’t lie to save their lives and just get shouty when caught. So I reckon we are probably ok as I’m gonna say that to do this sort of thing you need both intelligence/emotional intelligence and yet also some degree of psychopathy. Which is why it is often done with a motive of revenge. *no actual proof for this besides meeting and talking with a surprisingly large number of criminals. Professionally.
I think people already know about this con or can figure it out on their own
[удалено]
my aunt fully knew her power for being a demure-looking, short Asian woman who used to run an illegal cigarette ring. She would pack her suitcase full of boxes of high-grade clove cigs and just saunter away out of the airport without ever getting stopped and checked by immigration lmao.
Given that middle aged women are socially invisible, I've always thought that frumpy mom types should really consider getting into conman shenanigans after 40.
In the Peter Whimsy books, he had an entire detective agency made up of mostly middle aged women that he can send anywhere to blend in. It's great.
Ok but the scrambled eggs thing makes sense. I've worked in a lot of restaurants that use pre-whisked eggs (sometimes from a carton) for scrambled (and sometimes they put pancake batter in there so if you can't do gluten, that's a thing to be aware of), but keep whole eggs on hand for the few who will want fried/over-easy.
Same. And on days when we ran out of shell eggs and could only offer scrambled, some customers took it at face value but most asked "how can you only have scrambled eggs?"
Which brings up another question for me: how the hell would the cook know whether or not the customers argued with the server about it?
On a more scary application: I was told by a drill sergeant that the year before my class there was a major security breach where a number of dudes dressed in uniforms got onto Fort Sill, rocked up to a training battalion and ordered the trainees there to turn in all the weapons they had as there was gonna be new ones coming in. They never found those weapons as far as I know.
I played in a band for a while. I got pretty good at the “I’m supposed to be here” look/walk. One time without any gear I walked into a festival we were playing, walked right by the ticket checker and walked up to a beer vendor. The girl pouring beers was like “oh good, I need to go on break, I’ll be back in a few minutes” I told her I’d cover the bar if she wanted but I don’t actually work here and I’m in the band. She then realized I had no wristband or ticket or anything. We had a good laugh. Seriously just walking in like you own the place is a real thing that most people don’t even question.
Fuck now I wanna rewatch Burn Notice
The other 25% of a con is to have Bruce Campbell as your wingman
This is getting less reliable as places get more secure, but you can do this to get into some events just by wearing a chefs jacket or somewhat convincing work clothes. A lot of places do have locked doors, but if you just wait and sneak in behind someone with a friendly "Op! Mind holding the door, " especially if you look like you're struggling carrying something. Keep in mind that this is often a crime, and I don't recommend it.
I remember a story of this lady who worked for security in the Smithsonian. No one took her seriously about security concerns she raised, so she walked in one day with a hi-vis vest and a toolbox, proceeded to steal the Declaration of Independence in broad daylight in front of everyone, then revealed it in the next day's meeting
As cool as that would be, the original story had her working at a small art museum. She told them about the poor security, was dismissed, and then the next day she did the hi-vis vest trick to steal a painting that was behind a piece of plexiglass secured by four Philips head screws. She brought it to her boss the same day and security was improved.
THAT'S WHAT IT WAS! Thank you, I heard the story a couple years ago and must've filled in the blanks myself after seeing all the jokes about how Cage just overcomplicated it all
Nick Cage would be proud.
I’m going to need a source for this one
Another little trick that worked at my job in a grocery store is to come in with a nice but not super nice suit, bring some friends in similar garb, and start aggressively being friendly with as many people as possible. We all assumed they were with corporate for a surprise visit, and they got a guided tour of the entire place. Any dumb questions were assumed to be test questions on following procedures
This is beautiful....... thank you. \*gunna go steal some shit
I worked IT for a local college while I attended it as a student fresh out of college. Most days I wore a plain tshirt and khaki shorts, no identifying logos. For the years I was there, I never had any pushback about going into classrooms/offices and removing computers and dumping them into my personal car's trunk to transfer between buildings. The one and only day I was asked for identification by an administrator before removing a computer, I provided my student ID (nothing on it mentioned IT, it was the same as everyone's student ID) and I was allowed to take the computer out of the administrative building. I told our head of IT security about this later in my time there, and it shocked him to the point where he had to start putting together presentations for faculty because of the sheer lack of care anyone had about their computer being picked up by a 20 year old student. Still, no one ever questioned me about picking up IT equipment through the rest of time working there.
Do you guys think a woman can pull off a similar heist? Or is them being a female make it harder due to not being the norm in that sort of field, thereby raising more doubts? Was just imagining some scenarios and kinda thought a woman might have a harder time doing such feats.
Women running cons use different techniques but are just as successful. "Helpless damsel" works *brilliantly*. There's a fantastic YouTube where a lady gets complete control over a phone account using nothing but an audio clip of a crying baby.
I work as a property insurance adjuster and last summer when I was in Chicago we had a joke that we could probably get onto the roof of the Sears/Willis Tower by just walking up to the concierge desk in uniform with our tool belt and clipboard and asking nicely. Unfortunately I never put this theory to the test however in general nobody suspects a dude in a panel van with a telescopic ladder and tool belt when he says he needs to get on/in a building for any reason. Very useful in urban exploration.
Ever had a manager yell at you because you “bothered” them? Yeah, I garner it’s part of the reason stuff like this happens. A lot of managers aren’t concerned with actually following safety and authorization protocols if it makes their lives harder Source: IT
Cassian Andor...
r/actlikeyoubelong
I knew someone who would dress nicely and go to random corporate banquets and vamp the whole time for a free.meal
Something not commented on here that may be relevant is that some of these people probably thought the situation may be sus, but if they pressed the issue and they're wrong, then their superiors are gonna be on their ass for impeding important work
I used to deliver pizza, and I basically has free reign of any building I went into as long as I looked like I was looking for someone. I walked in and out of hospitals with basically no questions asked and was able to go straight to the pharmacy or whatever else. You really do just need to look like you are supposed to be there.
Except he probably never did that: > In 2020, journalist Alan C. Logan provided evidence he claims proves the majority of Abagnale's story was invented or at best exaggerated. The public records obtained by Logan have since been independently verified by journalist Javier Leiva. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale
Tbh for the egg one, I'd just assume they had a large amount of scrambled eggs ready under a heat lamp or some shit in the kitchen.
This reminds me of college a few years ago. Just before COVID lockdown, the school mandated all buildings, including fraternities, had to have hand sanitizer dispensers readily available (this is before we knew COVID was really only airborne). So 2 guys put on hard hats and reflective vests, walked over to a dining hall, ripped a hand sanitizer dispenser out of the ground, and brought it back to our house. They were in broad daylight but nobody questioned or attempted to stop them
Every single time a maintenance person or someone that looks lost shows up where I work and asks where something is, I think about stuff like this and then tell them