What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

L0p on 12/02/2016 - 22:12
Last edited 14/02/2016 - 15:53

Until recently I was using a coupon code for a pizza store which allowed me to get any pizza for $5.
I may be selfish but decided not to post it here for fear of it being canceled.
Until recently where one of the friends I shared this code with shared it with some friend of his who got a job at this pizza place causing the deal to "expire".

So coming to my question: What was a loophole that you found and exploited/are exploiting the hell out of?
It doesn't have to have expired if you wish to keep it a secret like me you may wish to censor the affiliated company.

If you need some inspiration/a good read

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/44tard/what_was_…

General Discussion

Comments

    • massafiri on 13/02/2016 - 19:59
      +3

      Taking "lying about your age" to the next level.

    • mavis30551 on 15/02/2016 - 16:05

      I actually cant? The employees got suspicious?

      • Sertacv2 on 15/02/2016 - 16:22

        Not all employees worked everyday. Plus you can go to any store.

  • truongster on 13/02/2016 - 11:47
    +6

    I got a $700 tablet of Telstra for $50 buy cancelling a month to month prepaid plan. Manager of the store informed all sales that it could happen and closed it within 6 days.

    • easternculture on 01/03/2016 - 20:02

      when was this?

      • truongster on 19/03/2016 - 22:14

        It was the Telstra Samsung Tab 10.5 deal on ozbargain. I read their terms and conditions and got it cheaper by further exploiting their loophole…

  • Need a dollar on 13/02/2016 - 11:53
    +6

    There was a promotion for TapKing, I didn't exploit it too much but I received about 20 codes for 2 pizzas, garlic bread delivered for free.
    I just kept creating new emails.

    Gave a few to mates, mostly just got pizza for family.

    • theguyrules on 15/02/2016 - 12:04
      +1

      Yeah, my mates and I got about 20 codes each. We just used the gmail trick where if you put a + in your email address, gmail ignores it but TapKing considered them new emails.
      It was actually for 1 pizza 2 Garlic Bread, which was a bit annoying. So much garlic bread.

      • Need a dollar on 15/02/2016 - 12:25
        +5

        Haha, so worth it. I wish I got more codes lmao.

        Catered my sisters b'day with those codes.

    • bargainbounty on 18/02/2016 - 14:56
      +1

      I remember this one, you could find a traditional pizza with lots of toppings take off all the cheap toppings and replace them with chicken and prawn, basically make super premium pizzas and get no surcharge as long as you were using the voucher. Good times

      • illumination on 18/02/2016 - 15:36

        That's not the promotion he's talking about.. but yes this is a good loophole too that no longer works anywhere near as well as it used to!

  • spackbace on 13/02/2016 - 11:56
    +9

    Actually my favourite - Subscribed to the weekend newspaper and got 2 tickets to Wicked (about $300 worth). Thing was, there was no restriction on how long the subscription had to be! Didn't get my first paper, rang and complained, then still didn't see any. Tickets came in the mail like a month later, rang to cancel the subscription, turned out there had been a stop notice put on it since the first week, oh and we need to refund you the payment we took 2 weeks in!

    TL;DR - 2 free tickets to Wicked worth $300 for 'not' subscribing to the weekend newspaper

    It's now a clause in all these subscriber deals that you have a minimum length subscription lol :)

    Here's the deal post :) (Did't even make the front page lol)

    • pointless martyr on 13/02/2016 - 12:04
      +11

      This reminds me of the herald sun subscription where you got $50 rebelsport vouchers.

      That was a corker - my Family all got the vouchers for christmas that year. I spent nothing on anyone

      • spackbace on 13/02/2016 - 12:06

        Lol I think I remember that, digital subscription was fine :) But it took ages for the vouchers to come, so everyone got anxious

        • pointless martyr on 13/02/2016 - 12:53
          +1

          Yes, i remember…it was terrible i had to wait a bit longer thanexpected for something that wasnt meant for me in the first place ;)

        • FutureTech on 15/02/2016 - 00:17

          OMG the good food one, I waited for like a month and the gift card didn't came, complained and waited for another 2 weeks, still didn't come, complained again and waited for 2 weeks, this time I did a chargeback on PayPal and they approved and refunded me the subscription fee. Two weeks later, you know what? Two gift cards were sent to my email. Treated myself to a high end restaurant.

      • johnno1987 on 14/02/2016 - 19:39
        +2

        Still the best deal ive ever posted! Hope one day I can beat it

  • tonka on 13/02/2016 - 12:06
    +6

    Supermarket $20 off $100 spend worked unlimited and on Visa gift cards a couple of years back. Also stacked with a couple other $5 off and staff discount.
    Purchase giftcard Visa for $105.95 less around $30, use giftcard Visa to purchase new giftcard Visa repeat.

    I gave up after a while ran out of room for the free groceries.

    • illumination on 17/02/2016 - 19:30

      Are your referring to statement credit offers from AMEX?
      And you're talking about those like prepaid EFTPOS cards? Either visa or MasterCard?

      • tonka on 17/02/2016 - 21:06

        Nope just what I said. Using supermarket discount coupons to purchase Visa gift cards.

        I still regularly get sent coupons for $20-25 off my grocery shop. The extra $5 coupons are harder to come by.

  • CodeXD on 13/02/2016 - 12:08
    +18

    Cadbury had a promotion where 1 in 7 chocolate bars can win you a chance of another free chocolate. There was a really easy way of looking for the barcode through the wrapping (non-winning wrappers didnt have a barcode). I bought 1 chocolate and was on a 30 free bar streak

    • nickj on 15/02/2016 - 22:00
      +1

      Yeah did this free chocolate loop until the lady at the counter said, "oh my goodness, you're so lucky! How do you do it?!" I just smiled and left before they got too suspicious…

  • krezii on 13/02/2016 - 12:13
    +3

    Was using the Hungry Jacks Always win app (fake version of HJ shake and win) to always get free double bacon deluxe. There are 4 HJ restaurants in the CBD so I would go do a run to all 4 in the morning then again at night with different workers so they don't catch on.
    I didnt eat much of it, I gave most of them away to either friends, family or the homeless.
    HJ stopped the shake and win app about a week ago though so it can't be used anymore.

    • pointless martyr on 13/02/2016 - 12:22
      +12

      Was wondering why there was so many fat homeless around town

    • cheesecactus on 13/02/2016 - 15:45
      +1

      HJ stopped the shake and win app about a week ago

      Oh no! It's finally over is it?

      Man it had been going for ages. Remembered using it on my iphone 4 many years ago. Then i had windows phones for 4 years. Now im planning to go to android soon and the app goes away lol

    • DarwinBoy on 13/02/2016 - 23:58

      Ha. I thought I used it Friday.

    • realfancyman on 14/02/2016 - 15:46
      +1

      I just tested the shake and win then. Are you saying they don't accept it anymore or the app has stopped working? I would have used the fake shake and win app but it never worked for me. I found another glitch with the actual app though. You clear the app data then use an app to change your device id (need a rooted device for this) then login to facebook again and you can shake again. just keep shaking till you get what you want.

      • krezii on 14/02/2016 - 17:28
        +2

        The manager didnt accept it and said you need to update your app because they dont do free prizes anymore.

        I think the new version doesnt let you shake and win anymore, instead it just says sign up your email for deals which pretty much just sends you a link to this https://hungryjacks.com.au/vouchers/

        • realfancyman on 14/02/2016 - 19:44

          Latest android version still lets me shake.

        • realfancyman on 14/02/2016 - 19:46

          Just called local HJ's store. they say they still accept it.

        • krezii on 15/02/2016 - 18:13
          +1

          @realfancyman:
          really? hmm must've been just the one store that didnt accept it, which store you did you rang?

        • realfancyman on 15/02/2016 - 18:54
          +1

          @krezii: Hungry Jack's Glen Osmond.

        • Agret on 16/02/2016 - 20:28

          What state are you in?

        • realfancyman on 16/02/2016 - 20:56

          @Agret: Didn't you look at the link I posted? SA.

        • Agret on 16/02/2016 - 22:19
          +1

          @realfancyman: Sorry that was a reply to krezii since he was saying his wasn't accepted, for some reason it didn't auto insert the @username thing when I hit reply to him though. I understand yours was accepted.

        • realfancyman on 17/02/2016 - 08:27

          @Agret: Ah OK. Apologies.

    • jacknthebeanstalk on 16/02/2016 - 06:23

      I did this too. Was on a pretty good run until one day at the drive thru. My encounter with the manager who served me was pretty awkward.

    • devnull73 on 16/02/2016 - 18:16
      +1

      Guy I know wrote his own app to mimic the hungry jacks app.

      He'd just select what he wanted, show it to the girl, she'd press "redeem" and give him his food.

      • realfancyman on 16/02/2016 - 20:57
        +1

        would you mind posting a link? i've got a system where you can get unlimited shakes but it's a bit hard this sounds way better.

        • devnull73 on 19/02/2016 - 14:16

          I dont think it ever escaped to the wild, and I think the shake app thing is all done now anyway?

        • realfancyman on 19/02/2016 - 16:42

          @devnull73: Nope.

        • jdogg on 24/02/2016 - 00:41

          Do you mind telling me the process and the app you use? I have a rooted android phone and I change device id and clear app data but it still said's ive used the shake for that day?

        • illumination on 24/02/2016 - 09:36

          @jdogg: I'm curious too!

        • realfancyman on 24/02/2016 - 18:36

          @jdogg: Hmmm, wonder whats happening. try force closing the hj's app then clearing data then changing android id. the android id changer app i use seems to have been taken off the google play store. heres the apk https://dl2.pushbulletusercontent.com/uR38tCe70NWfaT79Jxik0K…

        • jdogg on 24/02/2016 - 23:11

          @realfancyman:
          Thanks man but it still didn't work. Even tried it on another fb account too.

      • Agret on 24/02/2016 - 18:53
        +1

        Friends and me did the software dev way and tore apart their APK in a program called Virtuous Ten Studio and remapped part of the app to open the internal debug menu which let you just pick whatever prize you wanted.

        • realfancyman on 25/02/2016 - 08:48

          @Agret could you post the modified apk?

        • Agret on 25/02/2016 - 11:39

          @realfancyman:

          The hack we did a few years ago so the app is quite outdated and doesn't support lollipop or marshmallow. Only works properly on gingerbread I believe. Sorry I can't really help, maybe we can take another attempt at it.

  • pebee47 on 13/02/2016 - 12:20
    +1

    Using Woolworths rewards card to get Qantas points + pay with Q cash card for more points. Simple, easy. Not hugely rewarding but was worth 8000 points over 2 years - and I'm a single male without a huge appetite.

  • spackbace on 13/02/2016 - 12:21
    +2

    This competition plus temporary email addresses… Made Christmas a bit easier that year :)

    • figarow on 13/02/2016 - 15:52
      +37

      I think that is called fraud.

    • chipstss on 13/02/2016 - 19:38
      +10

      lmao, you just admitted to fraud.

    • Rodgort on 16/02/2016 - 14:32

      That's very easily tracked by them. You could be in for a world of hurt if you keep doing that.

  • Forskin on 13/02/2016 - 12:39
    +2

    CloudAtCost had a couple exploits which allowed me to gain an unlimited amount of VPS resources (could create multiple vps's with 64GB Ram each. Was fun while it lasted.

  • theoofside on 13/02/2016 - 13:04
    +9

    The Qantas website/booking system has a glitch right now that detects credit cards (not sure if all or just mine) as debit cards so only charging a $10 fee instead of $30. So I've been using CC over POLi for all my purchases (for all the rewards points, insurance etc).

  • peznoodle on 13/02/2016 - 13:10
    +6

    The automatic ticket buying machines on trains used to give tickets out after you had pressed the refund button - so put $3 in to buy a $2.80 ticket, get refund, press for ticket and the ticket would come as well as your money back.

    • ronnknee on 15/02/2016 - 13:37

      Which state was this?

      • peznoodle on 19/02/2016 - 13:21

        this was in South Australia before they changed to the new cards they use.. you could also put sticky tape over a multitrip and it would print the trips on there, once you used your 10 trips run a magnet over the back and take it back to the ticket office to say it's not working. They gave the choice of replacement ticket or refund

  • T-man on 13/02/2016 - 13:14
    +3

    In Queesnland, I used Gold Card for public transport. If you just tap on and don't tap off, you will be charged a maximum of $2. Some trips cost more than $2, so I just tap on and don't tap off. Now they increase the maximum charge to $5, the loophole fixed.

    • mataeka on 18/02/2016 - 13:49
      +1

      It's actually $10 for a not tap off (probably adult fare vs concession) still costs more than $10 to travel from Brisbane to the sunshine coast… Thats probably my only loophole.

      • T-man on 18/02/2016 - 14:09

        Really I have not been using public transport for a while since Translink has been privatised and they increase the fares every year, it's a rip off.

        • ronnknee on 19/02/2016 - 13:23

          Well Sydney Trains is still government-owned and they still have ridiculous price increases annually.

  • Randxyz123 on 13/02/2016 - 13:23
    +34

    Not sure how much of a loophole this is but you can read The Age in private browsing mode for free and it doesn't count how many articles you read per month

    • first in line on 15/02/2016 - 22:54
      +3

      thought everyone knew that

  • JIMB0 on 13/02/2016 - 13:24
    +12

    Back in 2000 I got a hold of an Optus internet signup CD. Put it in the computer and it used the modem to dial into the Optus network so you can enter your details to signup for dialup internet. It only let you go on the Optus website, however if you added the the Optus proxy server settings to your browser you had free unlimited internet access. Lasted for quite some time before they caught on.

    • jelko on 14/02/2016 - 17:09

      Back in the late 90's, you could create a Bigpond dial-up internet account with any valid credit card number (you could download credit card generators). It would work for a couple of months and then stop. Then I created another account and so on…

      • CVonC on 14/02/2016 - 22:02
        +2

        i remember using Freenet dialup and using some program to minimise the ad banner as well as another program to keep the mouse moving so that it doesn't get disconnected ^_^

  • upsydaisy on 13/02/2016 - 13:57
    +22

    The undercover parking at our local hospital was $40 per day. We were parked for 28 hours and got a charge of $80.
    The fee for a lost ticket was $50. No surprise that we accidently lost our ticket.

    • Peanut money on 13/02/2016 - 14:03
      +12

      Not as good as tailgating car in front out of the boom gates

      • mavis30551 on 15/02/2016 - 16:13
        +6

        Broke a Boom gate once when the car in front was doing the exact same thing and I was too balls deep to stop.

        Not even joking, freaked me out for months wondering if I was ever going to get a bill to fix it.
        But it turns out they don't have cameras and the boom gate comes off easily and they just slid the plastic thing back on.

    • Food on 13/02/2016 - 14:26
      +1

      Same but the daily fee was dearer than the lost ticket, that lasted a while (sadly albeit in sad circumstances)

  • Food on 13/02/2016 - 14:27
    +1

    An online fan store had a $20 off coupon with no min spend, a few orders were placed and received then (until they plugged it) :(

  • rldowling03 on 13/02/2016 - 14:36
    +19

    Back in like 2004ish Vodafone had a 'loophole' where you could use internet on your mobile phone (GPRS back in those days) forever after your credit reached $0 on prepaid. Needless to say as a young high school student I was always out of credit with unlimited internet access on my phone.

    Another similar 'loophole' was with 3 in about 2005-2006 was you would be able to use your emails of the service for free without any charge to your credit or data allowance, so I created a program which communicated with me via my 3 email to send myself emails of downloads so I could download anything on the internet for free through my free 3 email.

    They're small things, but for a young me were absolutely amazing :)

  • snivy on 13/02/2016 - 14:39
    +2

    A lot seems to be transport related.

    Some years ago when Melbourne tram used paper tickets, there was this ticket you can use within city boundary for one-way trip (I can't remember its name), a lot of the trams traveling across the boundary wasn't programmed to accept the ticket because they're coming from out of the city. I got a lot of free travels because of that, got caught once but they couldn't do anything because I was within the area which the ticket specified.

  • Clear on 13/02/2016 - 14:58
    +5

    Back in 2005 I was able to send text messages for free from my Telstra 2G simcard on a Motorola flip phone. When I had no credit I'd repeatedly press send and after about 3-10 tries the message would go through. Stopped working about a year later and I have no idea how it happened.

    • Clear on 13/02/2016 - 17:06
      +1

      And in 07' I could get paid channels on my phone for free like Foxtel, Channel V, Fox, Disney etc without using any data. Basically once you paid for a channel you were given a URL starting with rtsp:// and clicking on it would show the content. I learnt that you only needed to change the channel name in the URL to see the other channels. The downside was that new content was weekly and not daily.

      Someone posted it online 6 years ago too.

  • [Deactivated] on 13/02/2016 - 15:05
    +7

    Note 3s didn't have water indicator stickers when first brought out… dropped mine into a creek. Got a brand newie, all it cost me was lying to a large, evil, faceless corporation; I feel such guilt.

    • djprima on 14/02/2016 - 08:00
      +4

      This is fraud:
      You could use bleach to turn that red indicator back to white. Just make sure do it both to the battery and the one hidden inside the handset

  • timbo83 on 13/02/2016 - 15:13
    +2

    Event cinemas, purchasing the 'additional adult' tickets that are only meant to stack on a family (2 adults, 2 kids) ticket.

    Not sure when that loophole closed, but I used it a number of times thinking surely they will catch on.

  • iBuzz7S on 13/02/2016 - 15:20
    +4

    Optus pre-paid free SMS. Sometimes it worked, sometimes they'd catch on and your balance would be wiped in an instant. All you had to do was change the message centre number from your message settings.

    This was early to mid 00s.

    • baybaboy on 15/02/2016 - 19:12

      the loophole still works lol :)

    • Agret on 16/02/2016 - 23:13

      Change it to what though?

      • iBuzz7S on 22/02/2016 - 15:08

        I can't remember what the number was, sorry. I'm sure it was identical to the original number, maybe 3 or 4 digits were different.

  • mmd on 13/02/2016 - 15:31
    +5

    Subway stamps in the mid 2000s.
    There was subway stamp cards before the current subway club membership.
    If u buy a footlong, u get 2 stamps.
    10 stamps would allow you to get a free footlong.
    Anyways, people (presumably Subway employees) were selling the stamps on eBay.
    I can't remember how much they were selling it for. I vaguely remember working it out that a stamp cost 20/30cents, so a footlong would have cost $3 at the most.
    Everyone (employees, customers) won except for the franchisee owners.

    • The General on 14/02/2016 - 11:12
      +3

      They stopped using the stamp system in the U.S. So all the Subway franchise owners had boxes and boxes of stamps out the back. It was them that was selling them to Australian buyer.

      U.S. Franchisee's ripping off Oz Franchisee's effectively.

  • wonderboy on 13/02/2016 - 16:10
    +9

    Recently was the 7/11 app that gave you a free Krispy Kreme doughnut when you sign up. It didn't even require you to confirm the email so it took 2 seconds to make a new account and get a free doughnut.

    Best one was the buying 3 games for $15-$20 and doing the 3-for-1 trade deal for a new game at JB and trading the new game to EB for $80-100+. Then I found out that you can return preordered games that was paid with trade in credit for cash. Made a lot of money from that.

    • Merlict on 13/02/2016 - 17:17
      +6

      Oh man those JB trade in deals were solid gold. As a pov student it kept me in new release games for years.

      When it was brand new there was no exclusion list at all and I bought 15 copies of some crap old soccer game for $5 each. It was pretty obvious to the checkout dudes that their store was getting hosed on the trades but they didn't really care.

  • oztite on 13/02/2016 - 16:19
    +3

    Back in 2007 for 1 year I could use a zero dollar balance VISA debit card at any Wilson's carpark machine to pay for any ticket for any price… for free…

    • JIMB0 on 13/02/2016 - 20:54
      +2

      Wouldn't that put your card into negative so the next time you put money on it would be gone straight away?

      • realfancyman on 16/02/2016 - 21:02
        +1

        you could just use a prepaid mastercard from coles or similar and throw it away when your done.

        • ronnknee on 16/02/2016 - 23:20

          So does this still work?

        • JIMB0 on 05/03/2016 - 14:15

          @ronnknee: I tried at my local shopping center car park (not Wilson) with a prepaid Coles Mastercard, it was denied due to zero balance. Tried an old credit card and it picked up that it was expired.

  • stirlo on 13/02/2016 - 17:27
    +18

    I parked in a Wilson car park when I lived in the CBD for around 6 months just using a prepaid ($10) exit ticket whenever I wanted to use my car (only the occasional weekend) as I walked to work. Then one day I got a call from the cops who thought my car had been stolen as they realised it had been left in the same car park for 3 weeks. The car park was $18 per hour so paying $10 every few weeks was awesome.

    • FutureTech on 15/02/2016 - 00:30
      +4

      I'm actually glad that cops are on top of these stuff

      • WT on 04/03/2016 - 14:32

        I would have been a staff member or someone who noticed your dusty car always there.

        You can call the cops if you think its dumped/stolen and they can access the contact number and call the owner.

  • Baebs on 13/02/2016 - 17:40
    +5

    Not really a loophole but, ages ago got $400 cotd credit by introducing a forum to the $10 referral during the steam game sale.

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