Just follow the yellow cable!

Hi Welcome to my auction.

You are bidding on an AS NEW IPHONE4.

This iPhone is in the original box, with all cables, and has been FULLY restored back to factory settings. Rest assured, there will be no private data on this device.

The screen is melted, and most of the circuitry has disintegrated. All this for a $0.99 starting price!

Happy bidding.

1. Encrypt the data into your own 'insurance' file, and upload to bit-torrent tracker.
2. Post a Slashdot article with links to the torrent, and and a crappy article/summary.
3. Inform computer shop.
4. ...
5. Profit?

Wow. Not a bad deal if the unit was some kind of laptop-desktop hybrid, can you please send pictures.

On a serious note though, I had similar issues when I did installation services for a retail chain. We started writing our initials on some of the cash-office hardware, as we suspected that we were returning DOA equipment, only to have it show up as "new" a few weeks later on another site.

s/your =\/=you\'re/s\/your\/you\'re

Get it right son.

Yeah they put one of the windows on backwards, so it stopped the visible light, but let through all the harmful radiation.

Oblig: http://xkcd.org/865/

Condor? Is that you? I've been trying to get in touch with your for months!

[The cartoon character Smilin' Joe Fission informs Bart's class about nuclear energy.]
Smilin' Joe Fission: Uh-oh. Whoops. Looks there's a little leftover nuclear waste. No problem.
[Smilin' Joe tucks the waste under a rug.]
Smilin' Joe Fission: I'll just put it where nobody'll find it for a million years.

Yes, this is a brilliant example of how to take "viral marketing" for lack of a better term, into real life. The only problem is, realistically, she would need to have planned the logistics, security, catering and facilities in advance.

Off-topic, yes, but: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Mc7bTG3-c

On day when I worked for the college IT department, we were rolling out computers to student apartments. We set-up one computer and the girl's room mate came out and asked if we wanted to go to her dorm for coffee. We said no cause we were really busy setting up computers. I thought the boss would tell us off if we were hanging about, but instead he told us off for not going into the room. I was going to go back later and ask for coffee, but didn't for fear of tripping the Spook-o-meter.

John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute.

Buckie?

Yes, I had a similar issue with Paypal a few years ago, when I sold a friend's Xbox on Ebay. I sent the Xbox out to the buyer, after receiving the funds on Paypal and transferring the money into my bank account, confident that I had the cash in hand.

Two days later the Paypal transaction bounced, telling me that the buyer had been suspected of using a stolen credit card. My Paypal balance fell to -£250, and a dispute was raised. I provided proof of postage, and a full explanation that I had followed the process fully. However this fell on deaf ears, and within a few weeks I was being contacted by a third-party debt collection firm asking for the money.

At this stage I had no choice but to pay the money back to the debt collectors. Scandalous, really, that Paypal would favour the buyer who used a stolen card (and received the Xbox) even though the money had cleared fully to my account in the first place.

Paypal protection? Yeah, protecting themselves.