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30 Loopholes That People Exploited The Hell Out Of Before They Were Fixed, As Shared Online
Interview With Author
It’s always fun to find something you’re not supposed to, like a crack in a system that lets you get around it and use it for your own advantage.
When these loopholes benefit people, they rarely notify those responsible for fixing them and will usually exploit them as long as possible. These happenings also make for good stories, so when one Redditor asked people online to share them, the comment section was filled with replies. Scroll down to see the best of them! And if you get so hooked, this list is not enough, here’s a shortcut to another one!
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
One year our entire family went to the dog track for New Year's Eve. They had a really good dinner deal plus dancing with a great DJ, and of course gambling. At midnight, there was going to be a balloon drop. Each balloon had a strip of paper listing a prize in it. Most were small, like one free $2 bet, a free dessert, things like that. The grand prize was an all-expense paid trip for two to Durango, Colorado to ride a scenic railroad. Earlier that evening, I was on the dance floor, and happened to look up at the balloons. One odd thing stuck out to me... you could see the silhouettes of the paper strips inside the balloons. Most were small, around two inches long, but one right above my head was at least as long as my entire hand. I reasoned that that balloon HAD to have the grand prize in it, as it would take a lot of space to write out "All expenses paid trip for two to Durango, Colorado for a ride on a historic railroad". I made sure to mark that balloon, and right as it turned midnight, got directly underneath it and watched it like my life depended on it. I grabbed the balloon, and sure enough, I was correct. I won a $2000 trip, but then I turned around and sold the trip on Ebay and got enough money to then buy my wife's engagement ring. It worked out *really* well for me!
Austin L 2 years ago
I've been to that area in Colorado and rode that scenic train. Would recommend.
Michelle Reynolds 2 years ago
Durango Silverton Railroad. Very scenic and beautiful! The Royal Gorge Railroad goes through the Royal Gorge and it is also VERY beautiful!
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Deleila Charlie 2 years ago
Is a dog track something that's still allowed in the USA? I thought there were good laws for animals there but I guess I was wrong.
RELATED:
#2
During my first year teaching, teachers were each allowed 1500 photocopies a month. I had 150 students. That wasn't enough. One day, a coworker announced that she was leaving for a different opportunity. I asked her for her copier code. They never deleted her code, so I had 3000 copies per month for the last 5 months of the school year.
Rob D 2 years ago
There's only one side of the aisle openly hostile to public education. And it ain't the one I vote for
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Thomas Biorogue 2 years ago
One of our principals left in...2008? He gave me his code, it still works. :)
Michael Largey 2 years ago (edited)
At our school each department was charged for its copying, which was done by the bookstore. My department won a grant somewhere, but the money had to be spent on items in a certain catalog. The only thing in the catalog we had a use for was copy paper. So I bought it, and when it arrived every month I sold it to the bookstore. It covered our copying and more. The school business manager could not figure out how the balance in our department budget kept increasing each month.
Charles McChristy 2 years ago
This is pathetic. Obviously in the US. Pay our teachers and give them the supplies they need. This is how we end up with people like Trump for president.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Not necessarily the US. I'm Australian and my psychology teacher would use other teachers codes once she reached the limit. She used a lot of paper, because she would print powerpoints, often with only one sentence per page.
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Sharon Y. Van den Berg 1 year ago
Personally I don't think that is cheating technically. The usage was allotted for the school year? Hardly like the teacher was doing it to personally gain. Just sayin
pinkpie 2 years ago
The teachers I know teach multiple classes a day approx 30 students each class
Load More Replies...It’s most likely safe to say that, every once in a while, every one of us has a chance of encountering some overlook in the system that we usually get an opportunity to abuse for our own good. This is no less true when talking about the author of this post.
As Bored Panda found out by reaching out to the OP, u/Aarunascut, also known as Aaruna Njuguna, is a 34-year-old UK resident working as an e-commerce entrepreneur. As he told us himself, he’s a down-to-earth people person who is intrigued by diversity.
The author is a curious human being. He likes to ask questions and loves to get good replies, so she tries to time these posts to get the most responses possible. “It’s exciting reading some of the replies, and it’s kind of self-fulfilling when others say they like such threads.”
#3
The campground we stayed at when I was a kid had an arcade in the lodge with an air hockey table. I figured out that if you put quarters in and pushed the plunger to start the game just until the air started - you could pull them back out and get a free game.
I had that air hockey table running for HOURS. We had kids lined up around the table. We even did a little tournament - it was so much fun.
When my family was about to leave I told one other kid the trick. Turns out I'm a pretty good judge of character. For 3 years we met back up and ran that Air Hockey table until one of the campground attendants caught on.
The 4th year the table was fixed and cost a dollar to play. The arcade was entirely dead. The thing is - kids would always play other games while they waited for air hockey. The campground decided it was better to have a dead arcade that made nothing rather than one that made a little and had free air hockey. That was when I learned the importance of a loss leader.
One legged Steve 2 years ago
I remember the early Donkey Kong Jr arcade game and you could take an ordinary soda straw and slip it behind where you put the quarters, and when done right, you flicked it and it would rack up free credits. I hated the game but it was free!
Cathy Carey 2 years ago
Kinda like complaining about the bus stop outside your coffee shop so they move it and take most of your customers with it.
Jeremy Callahan 2 years ago
To be fair, they probably didn't know it would have that impact to fix the table.
Donteatme666 2 years ago (edited)
To anyone saying this theft has never been a kid in a arcade trying to kill Time for hours on end with just maybe if you're lucky 2$in quarters. I figured a lot of loopholes in the arcade I used to go to
#4
Not real sure it’s a loophole but I’ll still post it. I run a recycling center and when Mountain Dew did the win a Xbox one with codes under the soda bottle caps we got a total of 20 Xbox ones. Every worker got one that year. Also Casey’s pizza had a thing going that you collect 10 tabs off the large pizza box you’d get a free pizza. We had free pizzas weekly for years till they stopped doing it.
Private Caller 2 years ago
People weren't checking their bottle caps?? That's insane. Shoutout to yall.
Omima mimi miki 2 years ago
My family in Shizuoka run a recycling company and about 10 years ago i remember saying why don't you guys ever save the sticky labels to win prizes off the can etc.... my ex husbands mom would say because they prob wouldn't win and it takes time...I said I'll try it anyway - so i started it doing it for them and of course we won so much stuff....then my brother in law took up the mantle and now they have an entire room filled with an insane amount of stuff
Joe Sixer (gravitysixer) 2 years ago
I worked in a recycling center when you used to be able to get stuff with "Marlboro Miles". We used to get huge bundles of them that were printed off center or whatever and when the plant went down, which it frequently did, we would spend hours sitting in storage and cutting out those miles. We all had a boatload of Marlboro gear that year - pool tables, every item of clothing you could imagine, camping gear. Everything.
Karen Trotter 2 years ago
I LIVE IN ANITA IOWA AND HAVE A CASEY'S RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET. YUMMY PIZZAS.
Aaruna was eager to make his own addition to the list and share his own loophole story, telling us that in his home country, some random tech-savvy people would post instructions with codes on the X platform. “I’d get 100GB+ internet bundles for free,” shared the poster.
The OP also told us that his favorite story from the comment section was about a student renting a store as a front for getting a deduction, which made it much easier for her to fund her tuition fees. “It got me thinking,” said Aaruna, praising the person for their smartness in coming up with this hack.
#5
When I was a little kid, my dad would volunteer at the Farm area of our State Fair every year. I'd go with him all the time, and just run around since there was nobody there in the morning hours before the fair opened for the day. Across from the Farm area was a beer garden, with a big koi pond. Every morning I would go over to the (currently closed) beer gardens, wade into the pond, and collect like $20-30 in coins from the drunk fair goers the day before. It was an insane amount of coins, and they were damaging to the fish anyway - so it was a total win-win scenario. I did this every day for the entire month of the fair... several years in a row.
David 2 years ago
Your fair lasts an ENTIRE MONTH? Wow. Ours is a week. I think it was 9 days this year as they were experimenting with having it go over the weekend at both ends of the week.
Lili Octopus 2 years ago
Is there only one state fair per state? Do state fairs happen at a particular time of the year? Do state fairs travel from state to state?
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#6
You're not actually required to get married or have children. You are totally just allowed to spend that time however you would like.
Roxy222uk 2 years ago
If a couple are in love and intend to stay together forever, while everything is lovely marriage doesn't seem to have a purpose but if the s.h.i.t. hits the fan it really can make all the difference. E.g. trying to repatriate a dead body from a foreign country, or being accepted as next-of-kin if the S.O. is on life support. It doesn't have to be a 'wedding'. We have friends that just quietly got married for exactly these reasons. Children, on the other hand, are entirely optional.
DC 2 years ago
... which is just another point on a long list why any religion taken seriously is a mistake on its own...
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Making mistakes is human, so there will always be things that are not supposed to be where they are, yet get overlooked and stay there regardless. But it’s also interesting to learn why we keep looking for these easy ways around certain things and where is the place that a line should be drawn.
Looking for answers to these questions, we came across an article by Lifehacker, which explained that loopholes are not inherently good or bad and exist in a pretty gray area. When they’re being exploited, the result will likely tip closer to one or another side. However, that depends on a wide number of various factors.
#7
Oh, I've got a good one.
A well known bank offered a lucrative cashback reward points program for grocery store, gas station, and pharmacy purchases on a credit card they offered. The promotion only lasted the first six months of opening the card, but you could open multiple cards and get the same benefits again every time you opened a new one.
You know those prepaid debit cards you can buy at grocery stores? I maxed out the credit card every day buying those babies, then used them to pay off the credit card balance and just collected the cash from the reward points.
Made thousands of dollars a day doing this. It felt illegal, but it wasn't. I effectively robbed the bank legally. And since credit card reward points are considered rebates it was all tax-free.
This eventually became my full time job. It got more difficult to pull off over time as the grocery store employees understandably became increasingly suspicious of me and reluctant to keep selling me their cards at such a high volume. I had to start driving longer distances to new stores that didn't recognize me and work on charming store managers to dissuade them from hassling me. Still beat the hell out of any real job, though.
I rode this gravy train for a little under a year before the bank sent me a letter in the mail gently informing me that they were aware of what I was doing and kindly requested that I stop. I didn't want to find out what would happen if I pressed my luck any longer so I quit while I was ahead. The bank has since closed the loophole.
It was a pretty surreal year. I grew a huge beard, was baked at least half the time, ate way too much fast food, and went to the beach almost every day. Ultimately I was somewhat relieved when it came to an end, but I do have fond memories from that year.
David 2 years ago
I have read this story before and I find it very suspect. OP claims they are making "thousands of dollars a day" from this scheme. If we assume the credit card cash back rate was 5%, which would be quite generous compared to most cash back schemes, the guy would have to be charging $40,000 of goods per day to get $2,000 cash back -which is the minimum number for "thousands" per day.
Kristen Bagan 2 years ago
Also, I don't fully understand how one would pay off the balance of a credit card with a store gift card. I must be misunderstanding
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Nice Beast Ludo 2 years ago
That's why they don't let people buy gift cards on credit cards at most places. One time a man tried to buy $5,000 in google play cards but the limit was $500 and asked for his ID after a certain amount. My boss said it was money laundering but I didn't really get it
#8
My senior year of high school a Chick Fil A opened in our town and to advertise the grand opening they put a free chicken sandwich coupon in the yellow pages of the phone book. No purchase, no stipulations. For whatever reason there was like 1,000 phone books stored in a storeroom off the gym. Me and my buddies ate a chicken sandwich damn near every single day of senior year.
John Dilligaf 2 years ago
that's not really exploiting a loophole though. That's just using a coupon
It’s good to know why we look for these cracks in the systems that can be used. And the very first stop on this list is laziness. Humans like comfort, and we’re often pulled to do as little as necessary to achieve what we want. It may be bad for us, and it might also push us to find better ways of doing something, but the statement is true regardless.
People also love free stuff. So when we find an opportunity to get some, possibly without any apparent consequences, it’s hard to pass on it. At the same time, it comes to the issues with the existing systems, whether to fix it or to get around it.
And lastly, we are curious, love feeling smart, and hate being told “no.” Knowing something that others don’t always make us feel good, doubly so if it brings us benefits. However, when we’re told we can’t do something, it only excites our curiosity more, making us push the limits and see how far we can really take things.
#9
Last July I went to a metal fest. Beer was f*****g €7 and you paid by purchasing a coupon online, which would then be swiped off by the bar attendant on your own smartphone.
After the first legitimately purchased beer I thought to my IT self: what if the swiping off animation of the coupon is on client side? If that's the case, turning internet off before handing the coupon would prevent it from being voided. Then, turning internet on again and refreshing the web page should present it as new.
I was right. I got 7 free beers and a friend of mine 6.
#10
A long time ago when I was attending community college, I worked at an Imax movie theater in a mall. Next door was a two-story arcade that had promotion that if you brought in a ticket stub from the Imax theater or the movie theater, you'd get a $3 free play card. I'd assist in cleaning the theater and find lots of discarded tickets that I'd take to the arcade after my shift. None of the workers cared.
Most things can be somehow justified, and it all usually comes down to our own personal ethics. However, there are some questions that people should ask themselves before exploiting some loophole to make it easier to consider the consequences and find where they believe a line should be drawn.
To start with, ask, “Is it breaking the law?” If it is, being caught can result in losing a lot more than gaining and can cause a lot of regret down the road.
Following that up, another viable question would be, “Is it affecting someone else?” Someone else could easily get in trouble for your actions and have no way to protect themselves. While you might not feel the consequence, that person definitely will.
#11
For my sons 4th birthday party we went to Chuck E Cheese, he got to stand in the ticket wind machine, imagine a circular phone booth and wind would rush in there and tickets would fly around. The birthday boy got 60 seconds in there to keep what he could catch. I told him to hold his shirt out and stand there, he was 4000 tickets richer.
Lili Octopus 2 years ago
In my local arcade that’d be a good start to earning the cheapest prize
BlueBlazer999 2 years ago
At Chuck E Cheese’s, the prize for doing meh at skee-ball is less than 10 tickets, so… 4,000 is a lot.
Load More Replies... #12
My bank thinks the vending machine at work is an ATM and refunds my “atm fee” automatically.. chase bank if anyone wondered
I noticed I was always getting like $1.50 returned to my account here and there and then I realized what it was
David 2 years ago
I have only had my bank refund an ATM fee that was actually charged to my account so I don't get how this one gets the user any money. Various ATMs charge different fees, usually ranging from $0 to $2.50. When no fee is charged, no refund of said fee is paid by the bank because... DUH. But I have seen it where some ATM charged me $1.50 and then my bank credited the $1.50.
deejak 2 years ago
I'd guess that the whole transaction/charge is what is coded as the atm fee. So, if the item cost $1, it would be coded as a $1 atm fee.
Load More Replies...If the previous two questions end up with an answer “no,” ask yourself this: “Is it worth the trouble?” Just like breaking the law, this can lead you to bigger losses than gains, or at the very least, cost you precious time.
Lastly, it’s a good idea to think about what someone you respect would think of you if you chose to do it. If the answer is negative and you’re still trying to justify it, you’re most likely already looking for a loophole to get to a loophole, which should be a definite stop sign.
#13
If you're a Hilton Honors member and stay at a hotel where you get the $15 food and beverage credit, make sure you reserve as two guests even if it is just you. You will get $30.
David 2 years ago
What does that do to the room cost? Most hotels charge an extra fee for two guests even for the same room. Extra supplies and linens, extra free breakfast and so on. I can recall being charged an extra $7 for a second occupant way back in the 80s. Possibly does not apply at this hotel but worth keeping in mind. If you don't compare the price both ways you don't see it.
Paul Macdonell 2 years ago
Hilton. Diamond and gold members don't pay for an extra guest.
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#14
Back in the 80s we found vending machines which were not regularly serviced that would overflow the coin box and spill quarters on the floor. We used to scrape them out from under the machine with a stick. Was a good time to be a latchkey unattended minor.
Nice Beast Ludo 2 years ago
This should be it's own list- "latchkey adventures of the 80s and 90s"
Brazen 2 years ago
There was a soda machine next to a bowling alley in one of the small towns I lived in as kid that used to let us use washers that were the same size as quarters to buy drinks. I don't think I ever thought of it as stealing, but that is what we were doing. It was a sad day for all the kids in the neighborhood when they replaced that machine with a new one.
Monica Sargent 2 years ago
I know it was the 80s but, it wasn't the 1880s for crying out loud. Yesh
DC 2 years ago
We had two. A cigarette machine that let coins flow out the return slot by ... violence. Punching it. And a ticket machine on a small station that would return a 5 DM coin, regardless of what you put in, taking from 10 Pfennig up. We ... bought a roll of Groschen (the 10 Pfennig coin was called so) and fiftifyed them in about 20 minutes. Ok, not really a loophole, but ... we spent our money on cigarettes anyway. Dumb. I know about this.
In the end, there really is no set officiator that could undeniably tell us what is wrong and what is right. Even when talking about abusing some system, agreement, or rule through its shortcomings abuse, there are ways to use that for both good and bad. It all comes down to our own morals, but as long as we don’t hurt anybody, at the very least, we get some good stories to share online or in person.
What do you think of this list? Have you ever found and exploited any loopholes yourself? Well, don’t wait! Come down and share!
#15
Back in school, I found if you stuck two pennies together the vending machines would accept them as £1.
I had a LOT of cheap chocolate and soda.
BreGerEu 2 years ago
In the time before the €uro, there was a portuguese 2.5 Escudo coin with the same size and weight like a german 50 Pfennig coin. 2.5 Escudos were about 2.5 Pfennig back in those days. I was a kid and felt no guilt paying the vending machines only 1/20 of what I actually should have paid.
Marcellus II 2 years ago
Theres Russian and Thai coins that are very very similar to €2 coins. I’ve received them, most recently in the dark as change on drinks — barman probably accidentally defrauded me after being defrauded.
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Toe Jam 2 years ago
The plastic coins from the school maths department also used to work in vending machines, paid for drinks and sweets with plastic money for around 6 months until it was time for the vendors to empty the machine and found all the plastic coins in there, we just moved on to the next vending machine until one day they were all removed! Sorry former fellow school mates.
#16
When Pizza Hut first started online ordering they gave me a code for a free pizza for ordering online for the first time. Turns out the code also worked if you just ordered as guest and kept working.
#17
Buying oak molding at Home Depot. It was supposed to be $3.50/ foot and one store insisted it was $3.50/each sixteen footer so I bought all of it. When I finished the project I took back the extra and they gave me $3.50/foot about a month later. I think I made about $5k more on the returns than the actual project.
Dane 2 years ago
Well, that would be fraud, and yes, it can bring you financial gain if you get away with it, it's not really a "loophole". And before someone says it was the store's fault, no, it was an employee's fault, who may or may not have lost their job. And the OP didn't just purchase what he needed and enjoyed the spoils - NO! - he bought all of it, with the intention of defrauding the store again on the back end. NOT a loophole.
Krd 2 years ago
Depends on how it was labeled. If the price tag was printed saying $3.50/per piece, then legally they have to honor it, even if it's a mistake.
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Sugar Shack 2 years ago
This is theft. They took advantage of the cashier who was making a mistake. Speaks volumes about how they are in the rest of their life. Nothing to brag about. Also, I DESPISE people like this.
Rob D 2 years ago (edited)
F*** home depot. And f*** the Trumper contractors that sponge off underpaid labor while deluding themselves into thinking they're job creators. One acquaintance paints apt buildings... 6K for him, 2K for the crew of illegals he sits in his truck and watches. One never leaves the project manager trailer, trumper to his core, but wouldn't find crew if his racist a*s had it his way. Third, runs lawnscaping biz ...NobOdY wAnTs to wORk... Asked her what she and hubby offering: $12/hr landscaping in FL. Laughed in her face, (truthfully) told her I wouldn't put pants on in the morning for that kind of money and walked away. Get bent you "salt of the earth" "job creating" bible beating republican pieces of shitt.
Donteatme666 2 years ago (edited)
Stupid orange poop 💩 edit sorry I sound like a toddler but I still hate trump
Load More Replies... David 2 years ago
That is literally theft and at a felony level. Buying at the price the store sold it for - possibly not theft but immoral since he knew he was screwing them over a mistake. But returning it for a "refund" of thousands he did not pay - theft. And he probably paid cash and then claimed to have lost the receipt because otherwise they can look up your purchase via the credit card and know what you paid for it.
Anna Drever 2 years ago (edited)
I don’t know if this is a Kiwi thing but here you’d need a receipt (which would of course show the price you paid) to be able to return items, no matter what store. I assumed all countries did the same.
Sharon Y. Van den Berg 1 year ago
definitely more so now. not so much in the past.
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Barbara Skolly 2 years ago
I was given a double discount by accident on a leather jacket that is almost 20 years old and still going strong. I alerted the staff to the error and they let me keep it. So I don't feel bad for getting a leather belt and jacket for $75 Canadian
#18
My GF worked at a gas station that had points cards that gave a discount. if the customer didn’t have one she’d scan hers for them to get an item discount and we got the points for discount gas.
Never paid over $1/gal the entire time she worked there.
Ross “Sarcastic Dad” 2 years ago
I did that when I worked at Waldenbooks out of college. You got a $5 gift card for every $150 spent. Anyone that came in that didn't have a card? Oh yeah, I used mine. Got a lot of free books that year. The kicker was, you were judged by the percentage of customers that had cards. My manager could never figure out why mine was at 100% and everyone else's was around 60%.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
Your manager should have done some browsing in the bookstore's white collar crime section.
Load More Replies... David 2 years ago
LOL I think I've been on the receiving end of this. Not sure. A lot of places - if you don't have a card to get the special price - they have one at register to scan and give you the price. Win for the customer. But also a win for the checker if some of those folks are using their personal card.
Tammy Ralph 2 years ago (edited)
I worked at a supermarket that had a points system that gave a discount as well, a colleague was doing what your GF was doing and was caught and sacked for it, she had a really good contract as well as she was one of the first people to be employed there.
Sven Grammersdorf 2 years ago
I knew a lady who worked at Kroger for 20+ years and was fired for doing this exact same thing
#19
A few years ago, a vending machine company (Selecta) started a game where you would scan the barcode of your purchase (every month had a few partnership items) and get points. If you religiously scanned your 2 items every day, you'd get in 3 months enough points for the best gifts: iPads or TVs, things like that.
Except, to scan a barcode, you don't need to purchase it, you just need to have it. So if 1st day of the month you buy the chocolate bar, nothing is stopping you from scanning it again and again. You can even just take a picture of the barcode of the soda drink bottle next time you stop at the supermarket and actually never buy it.
And you can make a printable PowerPoint of it, to ease the task.
And you can open accounts to family and friends and share the Ppt.
It lasted a bit more than a year and it was very fruitful.
#20
Older vending machines like the ones in my high school and car wash used to take golden dollars(yes, the Sacagawea coin), count them as a dollar and then spit them back out. You could buy the whole machine with one golden dollar. My friends and I exploited this for 7 months senior year until they swapped all of the machines out.
Andy Frobig 2 years ago
Or, she was helping stick it to the man the second time
Load More Replies... David 2 years ago
I never saw that but I can recall the opposite problem. The Sacagawea dollar was so close to a quarter in size and weight that many vending machines mistook it for a quarter and you'd lose 75 cents on the deal. The color helped humans recognize the coin but vending machines did not look at the color. Frustrations like that are just one of the reasons this coin flopped.
Sand Ers 2 years ago
The main reason dollar coins flop is that the Treasury refuses to withdraw the dollar bill. Between the short lifetime of bills and the mandatory minting of the Sacagawea dollars, it's cost billions of dollars.
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Nicole Bowman 2 years ago
The old vending machines at the grocery near where I grew up had a defective machine. If you put your money and hit 2 selections, you'd get 2 soda pops! My sister's and I drank a LOT of (forbidden) soda pops that summer!
#21
Back in early 2022 I started using Coinbase for some crypto investing. I have Rakuten setup on my browser which gives you money back for purchases on certain sites. When I logged into Coinbase I'd get a pop up saying they were giving you $30 cash back, so I enabled it. This popup would show up every time I logged in so I would click it thinking nothing of it but turns out there was glitch and they gave me $30 EVERY time I logged in. I ended up getting a check from Rakuten for $800 before they figured it out. Check cleared and everything.
#22
When I was a kid I was in the swimclub. It was a pool open for the general public, and we swam when it was closed. A section of lockers had turnstile combination locks, you'd put 50 cent in and choose your combination but they would frequently jam so the 50c wouldn't come out again. People couldn't be bothered to get someone from personell for 50c, so the money would pile up in the lock. People kept putting 50c in, the lock wouldn't work so they'd move to the next one. We swimmers knew the trick of how to get the money back out so it was always a race to get there first. If you were lucky you could get 10 bucks in coins from all of them. That was a lot for a 10 year old 30 years ago, and you'd get yourself a frozen Marsbar, and if you had a big haul you'd buy your friends some to, that was the unspoken rule.
Nice Beast Ludo 2 years ago
The local pool had a broken snack machine last summer. If you put a 5 in and hit "change" instead of getting a snack, it gave you all the change.
David Paterson 2 years ago
It gets bad when the teens and preteens break the lock in order to get the coins out again. I've known that to happen.
#23
When me and my boyfriend (now husband) moved in together at 18 we joined a very expensive and nice gym. They told us they had a special deal for married couples that was pretty much two for the price of one. We just had to bring in our marriage license as proof. We never brought one in (obviously bc not married) and any time they’d ask we’d just say we forgot it and we’d bring it next time. Stayed there for almost two years with that fake married couple membership.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
In many jurisdictions, you two would have been considered to be in a common law marriage.
#24
I worked a job where we would have to book clients very expensive last minute hotel rooms if their flights were cancelled. My coworker would book the hotels using his personal rewards account with the hotel. One particularly bad week, he racked up about $15k worth of Marriot reward points. Yes, in one week.
#25
From 1980s found a skiball machine at chuck e cheese that dispensed unlimited tickets but you had to manually pull them. My pops helped and we slowly pulled out 300 tickets.
#26
Years ago, my office had a Christmas party at a bar and restaurant in the city. Just dinner and drinks. The service was absolutely atrocious, forgotten orders, wrong orders, when offered a free round to apologise, they forgot to bring the free round. So we clearly complained. Management gave us a call the next morning to apologise and to come in. Myself and a colleague went in and the management gave us a refund for one meal and one drink, and then gave us a voucher for $100 off the next time we were there. The issue was, this voucher wasn’t numbered. It had no date on it. It had nothing to show that it was unique. So, my colleague and I did what every good person who has access to a high colour copier would do. We copied the s**t out of it and drank there for free for nearly a year until we both got banned for life. Thanks Jade Buddha in Brisbane!
David 2 years ago
Another post of people proud of fraud / theft. This is not a "loophole". It is the equivalent of just making counterfeit gift certificates.
Adrian 2 years ago
Yeah, most of this thread is about people boasting about their fraud...
Load More Replies... CaptainSlapNTickle 2 years ago
Literally, yet again, not a "loophole". That's just pure fraud and theft. Admitting to zero integrity and terrible moral character.
#27
Enroll in a college class, get the student ID and e-mail address, then drop the class. Usually if you drop in the first week and you don't have to pay for it. Then you have a valid student ID and email for all the discounts you could get. I got a a lot of VERY cheap software back in the day. In my defense I was in college at the time. But a few semesters after I graduated I did this just to get a few more things I needed but couldn't afford.
ETA: it seems I need to check to see if my student e-mail still works LOL
DeoManus Argentem 2 years ago
My university ID didn't have an expiration date on it, so I used it for almost ten years after I graduated until I lost it. Feels scummy now, but at the time I had no qualms about using it for discounts (guess I rationalized it by considering I wouldn't be spending any money there at all without the discount.)
Sharon Y. Van den Berg 1 year ago
People like this love to steal. Until. Someone stills from them. And then. The indignity of it All!
Richienotsorich 2 years ago
You can enrol in free lesson at certain university sites and get a student discount in many places, including half price Amazon for a year.
#28
I lived in an apartment in a big city. The building lot was $120 per month. Street parking was $60 for the year, but it was first come first serve street parking, in designated areas. The rest of the street was metered.
There were some nights I had to pay for metered parking, just so I could go to bed. One time though, I found a meter that was broken. Parked there the rest of the year, then never renewed my parking permit and parked there for another year. Saved a bunch of money and uncountable hours of driving time, never got a ticket
Robert Martens 2 years ago
Amazing how this parking spot was always available for years, whenever you needed it.
M O'Connell 2 years ago
At nighttime, metered spaces might have been plentiful. When I lived in a city with meters the parking was actually free after 6pm, to try to encourage people to come downtown (no one did).
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Mark Mendenhall 2 years ago
I am confused. Why would your apartment not come with a parking space and what city charges you for parking at night? What kind of fool would live there?
Andy Frobig 2 years ago
Several years ago I worked in Manhattan. My shop was on a block where only commercial parking was allowed M-S 5 AM-7 PM. Then one day the city took down all the parking signs. Still not sure why. But other than curb cuts and fire hydrants, the rest of the block was 100% unregulated and free. I got to park my motorcycle across from the shop every day for a year and a half before they put the parking signs and permit kiosks back
#29
Create a new amazon account by adding a "." (period) to your gmail and get another free 6 months of Amazon prime. Your order emails still comes to the same gmail as gmail is period insensitive.
PataSata 2 years ago
Extending on this. You can put the dot anywhere in the email address, you can have not just one, but theoretically any number of dots (not tested), also by putting a "+" sign after your username, you could write anything after that, and would not matter (e.g. x.y.z+something1@gmail.com). Useful for registrations, subscriptions, etc, to find out which site leaked your email address, if you get spam. And apparently the thing the poster wrote.
WindySwede 2 years ago
Yes! This is good! But don't know if any have been used, cause I'm not going to click any spam with [adult title...]
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#30
Okay in the late 90’s the grocery store Albertson’s had a program called fresh or free where if you found an item on the shelf that was expired you got the expired one and a fresh one of the same item for completely free. They didn’t really advertise it but our friend worked there and told us. There were a few stores that were open till 1am so we would go in before midnight and scope everything set to expire that day and then at 12:01am start filling our grocery carts. Baked goods, packaged meat, dairy anything you could think of really. They couldn’t do anything about it. We literally left the store with grocery carts overflowing with all edible good items for completely free that summer. Remember you got the recently expired item (still good) as well as a non expired replacement all for free! It was quite the summer of stocking everyone’s family fridge. All went to college in the fall and guess they discontinued the program not too much longer after that, but holy smokes to have that now when I’m actually paying for my own groceries
Charlotte Sandoval 2 years ago
Honestly this one is actually really good, the expired items would likely be thrown out otherwise. Better to fee hungry bellies than feed a dumpster
#31
Burger King used to have an app where you’d shake your phone and it would sometimes display a free item. Guy at work write his own app that looked identical to Burger Kings, but would only ever show a Whopper Meal. Every lunch time he’d go to Burger King and get a free meal.
80 Van 2 years ago
Again, that’s not a loophole. That’s just cheating and stealing. Someone might feel they can justify the theft, but let’s not call it what it isn’t.
David 2 years ago
True. And predictably there is someone in the replies saying BK can afford it and this fraud is their fault.
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Nice Beast Ludo 2 years ago
I wish I was smart. I used to work at Babies R Us and would ask every single person that didn't have a rewards card to apply for one to earn rewards money. About 15% of the customers didn't have one and didn't want one because they were just there shopping for baby showers. Some people started asking me to just scan mine so they could earn the gift cards that came with purchasing 2 boxes if diapers or $100 in baby gear, etc. I didn't see the harm in it and scoured the handbook making sure it wasn't against any rules. Then I started getting $100 in rewards money every month 4 or 5 times and stopped. I started using a card with no one's name on it cause I was scared of being charged with some kind of felony and being fired. It was nice though since I had a baby and it bought a lot of diapers
Grant Caldwell 2 years ago
Yeah, that's stealing. I work security if I trick I person into coming with me I will be charged with kidnapping. This is the same.
#32
Not quite a loophole but whatever. In the early days of the iTunes Music Store (04-05), Pepsi had a promo for free download codes with each bottle cap. I worked at a university, made little money, didn’t have the internet access to regularly steal music, so would just look in the recycling bins every time I walked in the halls for Pepsi caps. Also befriended a secretary who was addicted to Diet Pepsi that would just give me bags of bottle caps. I probably got at least a dozen albums with that promotion.
#33
College 1985. Had to take a Risk and Insurance class. The professor was terrible and I had no idea what he wanted us to learn. I was a good student and normally I'd figure out in the first week what was needed to pass with a high grade. I was worried, really worried. So I looked in the book and as I recall in the front pages a work book was available. This had helped me greatly in my accounting classes so I called the publisher and ordered the book. It was page after page of multiple choice questions for each chapter with a key in back. I memorized the answer to each of those questions. And as you have likely already guessed the professor used those questions for the exams. I sailed through that class and didn't tell anyone what I'd done so I didn't mess up the curve and make the professor suspicious.
#34
Not me.
I worked in outsourced payroll a number of years back. Somehow, the company figured out they had paying this guy who was let go for 3 years.
The company came after my organization to say it was our error (converting into our system as active). This guy had a reporting manager who must have approved his hire every year (or did a c**p job of just oking it).
The story was they fired this guy and he wasn’t happy with the way they did it. So, he never told the company. The company tried to go after him, but the law wasn’t on their side.
We had our original files for conversion saved and they had sent the guy over to us as an active employee.
Would love for this to happen to me, though I’d probably tell them (unless they pissed me off like they did to this guy)
#35
Long, long time ago in school. No alcohol allowed in our dorm rooms and the administrators would check. No way to keep my booze stash. Discovered the admins didn’t track gym lockers. Set up one locker for liquor and one for beer. Problem solved and made extra cash selling to thirsty classmates.
#36
2018 I ordered pizza Hut for my office. I noticed the Free Stix coupon code took off like 4 orders of bread sticks... So we maxed it out. 99 orders of bread sticks, FREESTIX took off all 99 orders.. oh boy.. we can't screw them like that.. So we ordered like 15 and continued to do so as a Saturday night tradition for maybe 3 months before it was fixed. Dozen orders of bread sticks, completely taken off the total.. order like $12.99 worth of pizza to split.
#37
Long ago, 2009ish, bed bath and beyond gave 20% off coupons if you signed up with an email account. Email accounts are free and unlimited, so the 20% coupons are as well. I would buy an item using a 20% coupon, return it without a receipt, get store credit (consequence of not using receipt), then use the inflated store credit to buy something else using another 20% coupon. This method quickly stacks as compound interest and I would get my original investment out by buying the original item with a fraction of my store credit reserve and return with receipt. I fleeced that place for thousands.
Nice Beast Ludo 2 years ago
Those coupons were everywhere. We also honored them at Babies R Us
Joshua David 2 years ago
Makes me sad to think about because they are out or either on the way out. Wait, I dont feel bad for corporations.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
Right. If you went bankrupt, what corporation would feel bad for you?
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#38
Company requested we as remote workers fly out to headquarters every other month just to show face. They let the employees book their own tickets and set up their own car rentals. We just expensed our CC purchases and it was gewchie. There wasn't a hard limit on how long we stay, just aim for the 10-14 days. I worked 4 on 4 off. Ended up starting my trip on my weekend, taking my 4 off, working my 4 then taking 4 off before flying home. Got my $78/hr OT rate 10hrs a day for 8 days plus per diem while chillin in the hotel, or doing things around town because while it was my weekend, I was out on a work trip and OT applied. Also because we did the purchasing, we kept all the airline frequent flier and rental miles. Ended when I left for a position offering a nicer check, probably woulda been doing it to this day if I didn't leave.
#39
Okay so here me out. I got ~$400 of premium underwear for like $20 due to a website security issue.
So a few years back the company MeUndies was doing a 'national underwear day' sale where new users could order any pair off the site and only had to pay $1 for shipping.
The thing was, they didn't have any restrictions on verifying new users. You could type in any email address you wanted, slam in a random series of characters for a password, and it would make the account.
Then you could order a pair, log out, type in more random info, and repeat the process.
My apartment mailbox was literally overflowing with these purple confetti design packages. It was wonderful.
#40
Back when Redbox was new, you could enter the promo code BREAK ROOM and get a free rental on a new card. I passed that around like crazy.
aldebar 2 years ago
I used to donate plasma and the money received was put on a prepaid Visa. I don't know if this is still the case, but at the time if you didn't return your movie in time, Redbox would charge your card until the retail cost of the DVD was paid for and then you got to keep it. I would rent from Redbox when I only had a balance equal to what the rental cost. When they'd try and charge the card for additional nights, it would charge like a real debit (minus the overdraft) even though I had no balance. So I got a lot of movies at a deep discount for awhile there. It was nice.
#41
You used to be able to order dollar coins from the mint.
Pay for it on your credit card, free delivery.
Get sky miles.
Take dollar coins to bank, deposit, pay off bill.
Repeat.
InfiniteZeek 2 years ago
The dude is literally getting Skymiles for free.
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#42
When Kmart was big they were running a promotion where if you spent $50, you'd immediately get a $10 gift card for free. I figured out that you could keep purchasing the same gift cards with other gift cards and each transaction would get you a free $10 GC reward. The only catch was that you couldn't directly buy a $50 GC with a $50 GC. Instead, you had to buy a card with a slightly higher value (+$1) each time but they let you pay for the transaction with 2 GCs. So by the end of the night, I walked out with an iPod Classic and a plasma TV.
Anonymouse 2 years ago
You know, I love how people are figuring out these insane hacks and I just know that if I ever found one of these, I would be too scared to use it 🙃
#43
The railway crews each had a wallet full of fleet cards (like a credit card, but only usable for fuel and related things) so they'd be able to fuel up anywhere in North America. In the cities, that meant they could choose what gas station to go to, and that choice was usually based on where the crew leader had loyalty cards for. Company pays for fuel, crew leader gets the points. Anyway, one guy happened to have the points card for the bulk fuel/truck stop that I worked at. One summer they had a major project. They'd bring in two pickup trucks and a large commercial truck one the way to the job. The commercial truck also had a large fuel tank on it that they'd fill up and use to fill the heavy excavators, welders, generators and such. So he'd full that up, and then return later that day, fill the truck and the tank up again and go back out. They were spending thousands of dollars for fuel every day. Those points really added up quickly, and he used them to get gift cards. He used the gift cards to buy smoke and lunch every single day and still had some left over.
#44
I used to abuse the McDonald's coffee stickers scheme for a couple of years, you needed to purchase 6 cups of coffee and get 7th free.
You could just buy the stickers of eBay and stick them on the redemption cards, worked out 5 pence a coffee.
Then they came out with the app 😭
Donkey boi 2 years ago (edited)
They also used to deduct money when you removed things from the burgers, and the patty was worth £1, so... Use the self service, order a 90p hamburger, customise it to say 'no patty', that's now worth -10p, repeat 8 more times and now you're at -90p. Then add another burger, et voila, a free burger (with 9 buns with just sauce)! A bit wasteful, but if you're broke, you'll eat it.
Michelle Reynolds 2 years ago
My parents bought "forever" coffee cups at McDonald's when I was a kid and they still get unlimited free coffee with those.
#45
When I traveled for work (in the days before Uber) I got a ton of blank taxi receipts. And I’d fill them out for rides to and from the airport. It was $35ish each way. But I’d take the subway for $1.50 instead. So $70ish dollars tax free income for every trip.
Donteatme666 2 years ago
Back in the day my brother worked as a cashier at 7 a11 they were doing a Simpsons promotion with free scratcher's u scratch one and if u get a Simpson character three in a row u win a slupie or snacks and all sorts of things he would get the discarded one's at the end of his shift we got free stuff until the promo ended it took awhile tooo good times in the 90s
What do you think ?
JL 2 years ago
A lot of these people don't seem to understand the difference between 'loophole' and 'crime'.
brittany 2 years ago
so im not sure if this counts..... when i was in high school there was a rule that girls couldnt wear skirts that came above their fingertip sitting down. it was ridiculous bc a lot of girls are differently proportioned and the same skirt will measure different on different people. we got around this by wearing kilts which are skirt-like but because they are traditional garb and almost everyone in our area has some small even miniscule scottish heritage, we avoided the very unnecessary dress code rule. the boys joined in solidarity. almost all of us kids graduated wearing kilts and even some of the teachers joined in. i dont know if the dress code got changed after we left or not, but i like to think it did
OneHappyPuppy 2 years ago
All of these stories of awesome loopholes and all I know is rosebud and kaching... If you know you know
John Dilligaf 2 years ago
I'm not sure if it still works this way since it's been several years (decades) but when I was in the Army they promoted the junior ranks (below Sargent) by "promotion points". So many points for rifle marksmanship, so many for time in service , etc. ...... One of the things they gave points on was "College Education" - 1 point for each college credit, up to a 50 point max. ...... Now, there was (and is) this thing called a CLEP test which you can take to test out of certain college classes. For each CLEP test you passed the Army gave you 3 "College Education" points. BUT - you could also take that CLEP test to a school and they would, very often, give you 3 college credits for that same CLEP test. You then took the college transcript to the Personal Clerk and would get 3 more promotion points, for a total of 6 promotion points for 1 CLEP test. Maxed out my "College Education" points real quick that way.
JL 2 years ago
A lot of these people don't seem to understand the difference between 'loophole' and 'crime'.
brittany 2 years ago
so im not sure if this counts..... when i was in high school there was a rule that girls couldnt wear skirts that came above their fingertip sitting down. it was ridiculous bc a lot of girls are differently proportioned and the same skirt will measure different on different people. we got around this by wearing kilts which are skirt-like but because they are traditional garb and almost everyone in our area has some small even miniscule scottish heritage, we avoided the very unnecessary dress code rule. the boys joined in solidarity. almost all of us kids graduated wearing kilts and even some of the teachers joined in. i dont know if the dress code got changed after we left or not, but i like to think it did
OneHappyPuppy 2 years ago
All of these stories of awesome loopholes and all I know is rosebud and kaching... If you know you know
John Dilligaf 2 years ago
I'm not sure if it still works this way since it's been several years (decades) but when I was in the Army they promoted the junior ranks (below Sargent) by "promotion points". So many points for rifle marksmanship, so many for time in service , etc. ...... One of the things they gave points on was "College Education" - 1 point for each college credit, up to a 50 point max. ...... Now, there was (and is) this thing called a CLEP test which you can take to test out of certain college classes. For each CLEP test you passed the Army gave you 3 "College Education" points. BUT - you could also take that CLEP test to a school and they would, very often, give you 3 college credits for that same CLEP test. You then took the college transcript to the Personal Clerk and would get 3 more promotion points, for a total of 6 promotion points for 1 CLEP test. Maxed out my "College Education" points real quick that way.
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