Circuit City Used Consoles Had Porn, CC #'s
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Used, Consoles, Security | Themes: Business
Apparently, pre-owned consoles taken in by Circuit City--before the chain officially closed its doors--contained personal information such as credit card numbers and homemade porn that was never deleted before liquidation.
It's truly unfortunate that Circuit City ultimately closed its doors. Locally, the building sits deserted, with shadows darting within its darkened windows like ghosts of previous consumers and employees trapped in time. Grass is beginning to reach up to the sun through cracks in the pavement. At one time, the store thrived with business and showed no sign of its economical troubles, it's bright sign a beacon of economic success and electronic wonder. It was a great place to pick up gadgets, gizmos, and much-needed hardware, and for some, a handy place to trade in used gaming consoles.
For consumers who actually did trade in used consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 before the corporation closed its doors, they may find themselves in a bit of a pickle. As it turns out, Circuit City liquidated everything--including gaming consoles. The catch is that Circuit City did not wipe the drives before selling off the used merchandise. What this means is that personal information stored on the hard drives (or other data storage devices) remained intact if the consumer did not remove the information prior to selling the device.
That, of course, is bad news. Third party buyers now have access to a plethora of personal data consisting of credit cards details, photos, videos, downloaded retail and arcade games, and even home-made porn. One firm that bought a good chunk of the used console stock from Circuit City even claimed that most of them were actually broken, or "non-functioning" as stated. Once the firm began to repair all the damaged consoles, it discovered loads of sensitive, personal data.
"The facility discovered this while repairing the damaged consoles," reports Kotaku. "They'd fix them, turn them on, test their network connectivity, then suddenly start receiving friend requests, chat requests, game invites, etc. What's more, with the user details still recorded on the system, they could have easily purchased game content on an unsuspecting former owner's credit card." To back up the claim, the unnamed firm sent images showing stacks and shelves of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.
While the idea is somewhat humorous--especially visualizing someone's homemade porn planted on an Xbox 360 hard drive--it's a good eye-opener to the fact that even gaming machines can compromise personal security. Even game-related stores such as EBGames are notorious for not inspecting used hardware thoroughly. As witness to that effect, it personally took three tries to get a working, used PlayStation Portable: the first one locked up completely, and the second one had a bad thumbstick and a dead pixel. Thankfully, the third PSP still functions well today, however unbeknown to the local EBGames shop, it contained a memory card housing the prior owner's pictures and other personal information.
Way to go.
The message here is that consumers should wipe all personal information from any electronic device before selling it, whether it's an iPod Touch, PSP, Xbox 360, or a 500 GB external hard drive. Obviously retail organizations will not thoroughly wipe personal data, and it may be that external shops hired by said corporations may actually access that data if the devices go in for repair. With that in mind, consumers should be extremely cautious.
As the famous X-Files saying goes, Trust No One.
-
Previous News Article
It's Official: PS2 is $99... -
Next News Article
Sony Files Trademark for "PS Cloud"
Hmmm, how is this Circuit City's fault? It would be the previous owners responsibility to take off their data from their own machine. I have only had to send in my laptop in once for repairs and I made sure there was no personal information on it before it left my hands.
man i wish i bought a console there now XD
man i wish i bought a console there now XD
Win
So there's no password protection for the credit card information? So someone steals your console and you're just as screwed? No thanks.
While its not Circuit City's responsibility to wipe the data, they should have at least asked or reminded people to do so. I mean, if a good portion of the people shopping at Circuit City or Best Buy weren't technologicaly impaired, they wouldn't need FireDog or GeekSquad. Obviously these people don't know what they're doing, so a friendly company should at least warn people their sensitive data could still be on the console, and even offer to show the person how to erase it.
Maybe he just bought a special XBOX 360: Porn Edition.
Hmmm, how is this Circuit City's fault? It would be the previous owners responsibility to take off their data from their own machine. I have only had to send in my laptop in once for repairs and I made sure there was no personal information on it before it left my hands.
So if I bought a used sofa from some resale shop, it's the prior owners fault if I find a rat in it? Come on now, I don't know about you, but if I bought used stuff, I would expect it to be cleaned. Ethics man, ethics.
man i wish i bought a console there now XD
Dunno - if you've seen the average US gamer and their girlfriend, you might reconsider that...
Maybe he just bought a special XBOX 360: Porn Edition.
That might just be on the model list. They make so many freaking models these days.
As far as the article goes. "Duh."
Truth is, outside of company attorneys, Circuit City could have cared less (and same with Best Buy, or EBGames, etc). They're all about moving product and generating revenue. The time it would take (and cost) to have someone sit down and thoroughly test and format the hard drives on every single unit, would cost them to much money to be profitable.
This is all about getting someone to trade-in their old system for a new one, at a profit. We'll give you $20 for it, sell it for $99, and throw in a free game with your new system.
If you're stupid enough to put home-made porn on your XBOX360, you deserve to have someone else view it after you give away your system. Erase your stuff.
I think it's the sellers mistake, they must have deleted their data from what they are giving (selling) to someone else!
if my ps3 filled with my porn, I sold it, the buyer saw my girl friends naked body, in action, that's my mistake, I must have removed everything before I handed/sold it to a stranger!
Maybe he just bought a special XBOX 360: Porn Edition.
You run home, all excited like getting your first Playboy. You turn it on... and its some fatty, with missing teeth!
RMA!! RMA!!
I agree the seller should remove their personal information from any hardware. You certainly wouldn’t sell your car with your wallet still in the glove box.
If I were a buyer however I also would have like the unit “good as new” and not containing someone else’s junk.
I’m really on the fence on this one.
Maybe its just me but I never really thought this was a surprising thing. Just doesn't seem cost effective to pay someone to clean these things when a good portion of them will be returned anyway.
Porn left on a gaming system = fail for the former owner.
this brings an all new meaning for red ring of death
Maybe he just bought a special XBOX 360: Porn Edition.
Yeah the HardCORE bundle
Even though credit card applications are being sent to kids still in high school (heck, maybe even middle school), I'd still say anyone old enough to have a credit card should be old enough to understand why that kind of information should be protected. There's really no excuse for leaving it on there. Either they simply forgot about it, or they actually decided to be lazy and leave it on there, which makes it their own fault either way.
As for the porn, ignorance is no excuse for them since they apparently were able to upload the videos. Deletion can't be that much more difficult.
Doesn't anyone else realize that "most of them were actually broken, or "non-functioning" as stated." means that people can't even boot it up to wipe the hard drive? Their only option would have been to place the hard drive in a working console before deleting everything.
The seller should remove personal information, but what Circuit City stores "traded in" consoles? This isn't GameStop we're talking about, they didn't do trades.
Yeah the HardCORE bundle
The disturbing thing is the color was still white.
How are you supposed to wipe clean a device which ceases to function?
I would:
1. Remove HDD
2. DBAN HDD
3. Reinstall HDD
However, the average consumer would never do this. Including the fact that it would void the warranty (especially if turning it in under warranty would mean a free or discounted replacement).
Always wondered what the X's in XBOX where for
Most of these consoles were probably returned en masse the moment Circuit City announced they were closing.
These might or might not have been defective and my CC checked all of them to make sure, however, we didn't specifically check for any data of any kind on them. If your CC number or your porn got into someone else's hands, you were the idiot that decided, "hay, I'm gonna get my money back! ;D" and didn't bother to understand that you had personal information on the system.
It's not a company's responsibility to cover for the screw-up of someone who couldn't be bothered to press delete on some home movies.
haha you guys are funny... just for kicks though everyone that received porn on their used game console that they purchased should post videos/pictures on the youtube "videos of shame" so everyone can point and laugh at the morons who were stupid enough to not be proactive in "protecting" themselves... pun intended.
I'm willing to bet that a large proportion of the consoles with something as personal as homemade porn were stolen and then sold to the store. I mean, how stupid would u have to be to totally forget that u had left your S&M video on your Xbox before selling it? Something like leaving your login installed (and hence allowing whoever buys it to use your login and CC details) is a little more understandable... but still dumb.
I'm glad a few people actually realized that these were non-functioning systems. The owners probably COULDN'T erase them, and was not technically savvy enough to know the data could be recovered.
Circuit City did not take trade-ins, the units that were sold were all customer returns. They were brought back to the store as defective units by customers and were sent back to our distribution centers to receive credit from the vendors. All of the units the vendors did not take back were sold as a lot from the distribution center to a third party. The third party that bought the units knew of the conditions, and they bought them at a low price. For example: the cost of the arcade version of the xbox 360 would cost a consumer $199.99, this item was sold to the third party for only $34 dollars for each unit, the 80GB PS3 would cost a consumer $399.99, the third party paid only $68 for the unit. To get the units at these low prices they had to buy them by the pallet, they were not allowed to just buy the units that worked. Normally over 50% of customer returns still work or may need minor repairs. They also could sell the cables, power cords, controllers, hardrives, games or other accessories and still make a profit on the items. The porn and credit card info will just be a little bonus for the consumers.
Used HDs with info personal info or homemade videos shoul be disposed of with thermite
Hmmm, how is this Circuit City's fault? It would be the previous owners responsibility to take off their data from their own machine. I have only had to send in my laptop in once for repairs and I made sure there was no personal information on it before it left my hands.
The blame goes on both. Circuit City has a responsibility to reformat the hard drives of any machines before re-selling and they didn't do it. On the other hand the customers need to have some semblance of common sense and delete sensitive information beforehand.
I also find it very sad that people would so quickly steal from another person given the opportunity.
it would be very amusing to find porn on your console... I wouldn't say it would be awesome, because ugly people like to buy xbox360s and ps3s too....
I wouldn't mind it if the pornography was decent, but otherwise I still wouldn't mind just because it'd be a good laugh.
As for the credit cards, I doubt I'd use the info, but when LIVE costs that much, who knows? I bought the system and all the info on it, so just consider it a rebate program. ;D
I just wiped my xbox HDD immediately after I bought a used one. Maybe I shoulda tried live.