Con-artists join the war on photographers
"Jeff" (the brother of the editor of Photoshop Insider) is pretty sure that the "plain-clothes security-guard" who approached him in a store in Italy to enforce the store's no-photography rule was a petty con-man who just wanted to steal the memory-card out of Jeff's camera.
As they were walking around, Jeff saw some interesting looking produce and pulled out his Canon G-9 Point-and-Shoot and took a few pictures. Within a few minutes a man came up dressed in plain clothes, flashed a badge, and told him he couldn’t take photos in the store. My brother said “no problem” (after all, it’s a private store, right?), but then the guy demanded my brother’s memory card.Link (via Schneier)My brother gave him that “Are you outta your mind” look and said, “No way!” Can you guess what happened next? The guy simply shrugged his shoulders and walked away.
My brother saw him in the store a little later, and the guy had a bag and was shopping. My brother made eye contact with him, and the guy turned away as though he didn’t want Jeff looking at him. Jeff feels like this wasn’t “official store security,” but instead some guy collecting (and then reselling) memory cards from unsuspecting tourists (many of whom might have just surrendered that card immediately).
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He could be a plainclothes security guard who's been told to do what he did, but since the legal right to demand the memory card is tenuous at best, has also been told not to make a stink if people say no.
OR
He could be an alien disguised as a person, instructed to go down to earth and steal pictures, since their technology can read the memory cards, make disguises, etc. but in a crucial, plot forming twist, lacks the ability to use, let alone make a camera.
That's an excellent start, Mr. Mason. Golf claps. Love your movies.
Maybe he was doing actual security work, i.e., trying to nab shoplifters. I would presume that looking like a shopper (including carrying a bag, a very shopperly thing to do) helps out to a significant degree.
or maybe he was a thief exploiting stupid government
I have seen [instructional] videos on how to run a con posing as airport security.
The video is one of many, and I'm sure the scam artists are way ahead of me.
Jeff's experience is not all that surprising.
Maybe he works for a memory card manufacturer.
::tourist hands over memory card::
"..What's this? A Corsair memory card? The Memorex is much higher quality. Well, I have to take this down to the station for processing."
At MIT, Harold "Doc" Edgerton used to walk up to people taking pictures of the buildings and ask if they had permission.
When they replied that they didn't, he would take out a piece of paper and write them a note granting permission.
Maybe it was really a conversational gambit.
> Maybe he was doing actual security work, i.e., trying to nab shoplifters.
If he was a real security person, he was doing anything but being productive by trying to scam someone's memory card.
He was lucky. In Boston, if the plain-clothesman had turned out to be a real cop, the photographer could have been attacked and beaten to death by the police the moment he hesitated about giving up his memory card. But it's okay, because the Boston Police would then "investigate" the incident and assure everybody that no excessive force was used. (See this story.)
Real plainclothes security do often act like shoppers. This hides them from shoplifters who are, by and large stupid (smart thieves try more lucrative forms of thieving). It i svery often the policy to ask anyone taking pictures to no do so, and may in fact be teh policy to ask for the memory card, unenforcable by any law.
All of this honestly sounds more likely than there being a black market in memory cards.
But some con artists like the con more than any monetary gain.
With a brand new 1GB memory card selling for about $8 these days, waiting for a naive tourist to take a picture and then tricking them into handing over their memory card sounds like a difficult way to make a living.
Same sorta thing happened to me and my friend when we were studying in Spain except that instead of taking pictures in a store we were rolling hash cigarettes in the barrio. Con-guys had us spooked for a minute (quick flash of a badge, plainclothes) until we realized their hustle. There pretty much aren't any plainclothes cops in Spain and many people roll hash out in the street. We just walked away while they were "taking down out information" and they didn't bother to pursue.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jFkzENiQwKU
@ #8:
>> Maybe he was doing actual security work, i.e., trying to nab shoplifters.
>If he was a real security person, he was doing anything but being productive by trying to scam someone's memory card.
I thought it was apparent that my comment referred to the bag-carrying. Hence my subsequent mention of trying to blend in by carrying a bag. The point was that the later observation of the bag-carrying is a red herring vis-a-vis any official security status.
The attempted media-thievery is still a scam, though. Possibly a scamola.
One of my friends in high school was a plain-clothed security man at Target. He always wore plain-clothes to and from work, so that he could never be identified as a security guard by a customer while he was patrolling. If this guy was actually trying to catch shoplifters he kinda blew his cover by walking around in uniform right before going incognito...
I'd like to know what kind of store both sells "interesting looking produce" and could reasonably be expected to have any plainclothes security!
Maybe it's also a shop that does a big business selling replacement memory cards? ;)
Didn't Jeff try to inform the cashier or other legitimate staff of what happened? Then we'd know the real story.
It could also be the security guy was more interested bullying and intimidating someone than seeking any material gain. He might of handed the card right back and said "now don't do it again!"