Jul 01 2008
Fun with Red Box
About a month ago, when McDonald’s debuted their new chicken breakfast sandwich, I caved and bought one. I didn’t really want one, and it wasn’t any good, but I’m a sucker for their marketing. I mean, the iconic scenes of young twenty-somethings playing basketball, gorging on fast food on a park bench really move me. See, I had to buy one. I had to. OK, I lied: I had two.
The chicken sandwhiches came with these free movie rental coupons, redeemable at “Red Box”. I’m sure you’ve seen these, they’re these movie-store-in-a-vending-machine things. I assume they’re a fairly recent invention, I started seeing them a year ago or so. I guess it’s true what they say: “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Anyway, I went to redeem them the other day (I watched “The Bucket List”, thanks for asking) and I found out about a fun little trick. Here’s what you do:
Step 1: Select your movie, and press the checkout button.
Step 2: Swipe your credit card.
Step 3: It will ask you for your e-mail address.
Step 4: Swipe your credit card again.
Step 5: Enjoy.
The text box where you’re supposed to enter your e-mail address will reveal all of the information contained in your credit card’s magnetic strip.
I used to work for a company that printed senior discount membership cards. It was a pretty bunk operation, but regardless I had this card swiping device on my desk that could read all the same info via usb. It was somewhat interesting, but didnt reveal much more then what was printed on the front of the card anyway. I think it would give the balance left on giftcards too, but I cant really recall.
Interesting none the less.