Yet another reason to not "rent-to-own" a computer

General discussion of identity theft issues, including identity theft schemes, phishing scams, and related issues.
Judge Roy Bean
Judge for the District of Quatloosia
Judge for the District of Quatloosia
Posts: 3704
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 6:04 pm
Location: West of the Pecos

Yet another reason to not "rent-to-own" a computer

Post by Judge Roy Bean »

Aside from the financial stupidity, rent-to-own computer systems have a hidden (until recently, that is) 'feature':
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/05/05/36358.htm
One of the nation's largest rental chains spies on customers by equipping rent-to-own computers with secret software that remotely snaps their photos, takes screen shots, tracks keystrokes, and snoops on private communications, a class action claims in Federal Court.
The Honorable Judge Roy Bean
The world is a car and you're a crash-test dummy.
The Devil Makes Three
fortinbras
Princeps Wooloosia
Posts: 3144
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 4:50 pm

Re: Yet another reason to not "rent-to-own" a computer

Post by fortinbras »

If it's just the rental company putting in spyware, you're lucky.

I bet a lot of cybercrooks are planting secret spyware on borrowed or rented computers, so they can steal credit cards numbers and the like from future users of the same machines.