Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Curious Consoles

[wraggster]

Not sure exactly how this alleged scam works/worked. Yewchoo Ng, 27, of Boulder, is accused of ripping off a bunch of retailers for more than $180,000 by buying new 360s and PS3s, prying off their serials and slapping them on old consoles, returning them for the cash and then, I presume, selling off the good merch on eBay or something. For this he's facing 20 years in the federal slammer and a fat fine.

For this scam to work, you really need access to a cheap supply of defective consoles, right? Unless, what, he was slapping serials on ColecoVisions, Atari 7800s, boxes of rocks with "PLAYSTASHUN 4" written on them? That's a hell of a lot of overhead for a ripoff, so my guess is the $180,000 is the value of all the machines he bought/returned, not his tainted profit.

Sorry, I just can't understand how he had that many defective/inoperable consoles to carry out this scam as described. Any alternative ideas?

http://kotaku.com/5056019/encyclopedia-brown-and-the-case-of-the-curious-consoles

[Mc_Logical]

lol damn, glad he got caught, your allways get caught in the end... like a drug dealer, becomes too easy until it`s too late, unless your smart enough, he obviously isn`t

[Veskgar]

This guy could have bought them "as is" on eBay and had other sources as well. But unless he had a LOT of people working with him this would have required him to travel good distances to go to different stores so he wasn't recognized. Also, they take your ID and copy some info in their computers.

Too much hassle. Not worth the end punishment.

[osgeld]

well your major retailers around here only card, and record you if your selling them something

not if you come stomping in, receipt in hand, acting frustrated about a brand new busted console

also just in our area, theres like 9 gamestops, 6 eb's and a hanful of mom and pop shops within an hour of eachother

just taking the gamestop branded ones, theres 15 stores, 3 shifts .. its not that far of a jump to 13 grand

glad this little bastard was cought, he probably just prolonged higher prices of all these units for all of us

but if there is a real threat, everyone that sells these things needs a little bit more than a 7$ an hour cashier scanning a bar code, working on a rotating mc donalds shift schedule

(btw i didnt get into the targets, kmarts, toys r us's, wallmarts, bestbuys, circuit city's, electronic expresses, and anywhere else that sells consumer electronics)

[pimpmaul69]

i live like 10 minutes away from him and a well known video game repairman in the state and i have never seen that many xboxes. guess it was easier to return them rather than learning to fix them. walmarts dont require an id is the problem. they just phone in to verify that the serial numbers match.its people like this who make purchasers have to get hassled just to make a legitamite return. i had a friend that had been busted in boulder and got 4 years probation. the probation officers there make your life so miserable that he wished he had just gotten jail time instead. so his probation/parole afterwards is really gonna suck. i would never want to get busted in as we call it "The Peoples Republic of Boulder". a city that makes its own laws. not to make this sound racist but i am assuming since he was asian that he went to school in boulder at c.u. because all the residents are a bunch of rich yuppies and hippies