back to article 'I posted winning race ticket in Facebook selfie ... and someone stole it!'

An Australian woman says she lost out on AU$900 (US$643, £418) after someone lifted her winning race ticket from a Facebook photo. Chantelle, whose last name was not given, said she won the money on 100-1 long-shot Prince of Penzance at Tuesday's Melbourne Cup horse race. Shortly after the race, the Perth woman snapped a …

  1. elDog

    Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

    However, enjoy your fun and the lesson. And a chicken dinner can be had for around 6$AU.

    1. Mark Simon

      Re: Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

      … and certainly not FaceBook

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

        >Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

        It seems it's easily done: only a couple of years ago a Reg writer included a photo in an article in which his credit card details could be read (except of course for those numbers on the back by the signature strip). I won't speculate on whether the bank account or credit limit of Reg hack is worth ripping off! : )

        I guess credit cards could be printed with a pattern such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation which would then cause a camera to blur the surrounding area.... Yes, I know that's an overly complicated and tech-heavy solution to a problem that could just be avoided with some care, but hey, that's why I read the Reg.

        EDIT: Even easier solution for things like betting stubs and gig tickets - print half the required information on the reverse side.

        1. Robert Baker

          Re: Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

          "It seems it's easily done: only a couple of years ago a Reg writer included a photo in an article in which his credit card details could be read (except of course for those numbers on the back by the signature strip)."

          It's for that reason that, when I took and uploaded a picture of my Raspberry Pi with a "credit card" for size comparison, what I actually used was my Costa Coffee Club card; no identity information on the front.

        2. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

          Re: Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

          "Yes, I know that's an overly complicated and tech-heavy solution to a problem that could just be avoided with some care, but hey, that's why I read the Reg."

          On The Reg, NO solution is overly complicated or tech heavy!

    2. Xamol
      Headmaster

      Re: Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

      Yep - she should think of it as school fees

      1. BillG
        Thumb Up

        Re: Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

        "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

        - Albert Einstein

    3. TheVogon

      Re: Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

      There is no shortage of stupidity:

      http://i.imgur.com/pksOtvx.jpg

    4. NoneSuch Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

      Yes, her friends were to blame.

  2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    With friends like these

    who needs enemas?

    1. Martin Summers Silver badge

      Re: With friends like these

      I wouldn't mind giving it a go to be quite honest. I've heard it's like walking on air afterwards.

    2. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: With friends like these

      @allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      "who needs enemas?"

      Or a catheter, nothing like taking the piss out eh?

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon

        Re: With friends like these

        "who needs enemas?"

        Squawk!

  3. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Timely reminder to us

    We need to remember that the ordinary user out there simply might not quite realise what a jungle the interwebs are.

    Sometimes it feels a bit like giving matches to 5 year olds.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Timely reminder to us

      Except 5-year olds will sometimes ask: "What does this do?"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Timely reminder to us

        "We can't selfie here, this is bandit country"

  4. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Facebook could really benefit from an 'Acquaintances' option, since people use it as a contacts directory.

      1. Test Man

        "Facebook could really benefit from an 'Acquaintances' option, since people use it as a contacts directory."

        What... like the Acquaintances option it already has?

      2. Shufflemoomin

        It already does. When you go to a friend's profile, you can select which "group" they're in and acquaintance is one of them. I put people I don't know well in there and make sure my posts are only seen by people in the "friend" group. That way I stay connected with the others and they don't get bored by my posts or get a peek into my personal life. A lot of people complain about Facebook, but in the spirit of normal users, they simply don't understand how to use the thing properly.

      3. Andy Nugent

        +1 as I assume you're joking.

    2. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

      10,000 people who you have not spoken to once, are not, "friends", in any sense. They are just people you spoke to once.

      FTFY

      1. MCMLXV
        Headmaster

        "10,000 people whom you have..."

        FTFY.

    3. Terry 6 Silver badge

      Or people that people you spoke to once spoke to once.

      (Or people that.........)

    4. 080

      the photo was limited to Facebook friends.

      This demonstrates the difference between, "facebook friends", and real friends.

      10,000 people who you have spoken to once, are not, "friends", in any sense. They are just people you spoke to once.

      Or with the irritating FessBook feature "Add this twit to your friends", someone you have never spoken to or met or would ever want to meet.

  5. Jeff Cook
    Meh

    Maybe it's for the best...

    She probably would have spent it all on more so-called hats or head-wear like she is wearing in the picture.

    1. skeptical i
      Devil

      Re: Maybe it's for the best...

      Must be a race-watching thing, I hear that the Kentucky Derby is an annual milliners' dream (for sales) or nightmare (to witness).

    2. Steven Roper

      Re: Maybe it's for the best...

      That's part of Melbourne Cup culture - the women all compete to see who can front up in the most elaborate and outlandish headgear!

    3. Big-nosed Pengie

      Re: Maybe it's for the best...

      Isn't that what they call a masturbator?

      1. MrDamage Silver badge

        Re: Maybe it's for the best...

        Nah, it's called a fascinator.

        The masturbator is the hipster she went there with.

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Maybe it's for the best...

          Maybe she was having a Kentucky Derby fried chicken dinner.

  6. Old Handle
    Facepalm

    Reminds me of when FEMA gave out debit cards to Hurricane Katrina refugees and one of them was persuaded to show it off for the TV news. Exactly what you would expect happened.

    I think people have a hard time grasping that when you have something like a ticket or a credit card, it's the information written on it, not just the physical item that you have to protect.

    1. John H Woods Silver badge

      I've had to blur barcodes

      in pictures posted by friends for concert tickets and the like ... of course they thought I was paranoid!

    2. Peter Simpson 1

      Thumb over the barcode/number/last name...ALWAYS!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      item or information?

      "I think people have a hard time grasping that when you have something like a ticket or a credit card, it's the information written on it, not just the physical item that you have to protect."

      It depends. You don't have to protect the information printed on a bank note. (It's not really your problem if someone fakes a tenner with the same serial number, and it's unlikely to affect you if they did.) If you were given a concert ticket made of cardboard or plastic with a hologram in the corner then you probably don't have to protect the information printed on it. If you printed the ticket yourself then you probably do have to protect the information printed on it, but in the case of a flight ticket you probably don't have to worry too much seeing as they typically want the passenger to produce both a passport with a matching name in it and the bank card that was used to purchase the ticket, and for security reasons they probably wouldn't let the plane depart if you were to turn up at the airport and tell them that they have someone on the plane who isn't who they claimed to be...

      If a company sold you a physical ticket and didn't tell you to protect the information printed on it then the company should presumably compensate you if the company couldn't accept the ticket because the company had been conned by someone using a fake ticket. Cost of fraud should be met by the people who are in a position to do something about it.

      If I remember correctly, gambling debts are rather a special case in English law...

  7. RFC822

    When did we start using US$ here?

    Thank you so much for converting AUD to USD (twice!) within the story.

    I must have been asleep when we stopped using GBP here...

    1. Daniel Hall
      Thumb Down

      Re: When did we start using US$ here?

      I mentioned this last week and just got a load of downvotes!

      1. Tony S

        Re: When did we start using US$ here?

        And it's happened again!

        (but not by me!)

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. ShadowDragon8685

      Re: When did we start using US$ here?

      El Reg's attraction of snarky tech and vaguely-tech news and the Bastard Operator from Hell couldn't POSSIBLY be of any possible interest to any English-speaking audience outside the United Kingdom (and maybe Ireland, if they're particularly drunk and/or sober,) right?

      Hell, El Reg has a San Fran office, don't they? I don't think it's unreasonable for the stories to carry the conversion that those of us yankees will understand without having to visit xe.

      1. Daniel Hall

        Re: When did we start using US$ here?

        Im in danger of having more downvotes than upvotes from this, boo bloody hoo.

      2. Quortney Fortensplibe

        Re: When did we start using US$ here?

        The only thing consistently British about El Reg is the 'co.uk' domain. I think it raises people's expectations too much.

        [Mine included]

        1. 404
          Coat

          Re: When did we start using US$ here?

          theregister.com works as well as the uk.co version... almost like a redirect ;)

          El Reg does have a office in San Francisco. However, if they had written the story, it would have been about the hat, not the race ticket....

  8. NanoMeter

    Remember someone posted their airline tickets on facebook

    They found out they already had checked in when having their tickets checked at the check-in.

  9. G.Y.

    name change

    Ahmadinejad had a photo taken during 2009 vote -- and it came out that he was born Sabourjian , changed name later

  10. Breen Whitman

    Apparently her post was friends only viewable. Oops.

    1. Mark 85

      Right.. real friends that you know because FB says it's your "friends" list. Some people shouldn't be allowed to be within 100 feet of a computer or "smartphone"...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just as likely...

    ...but much less entertaining, is that she was photographed by a crook using a super-zoom compact camera at the race course while she jumped up and down shouting "I've won I've won" or whatever.

    1. MassiveBob

      Re: Just as likely...

      Less likely but more entertaining:

      The wifi communication from the phone was compromised and the culprit decrypted the traffic as the photo was being uploaded?

      http://www.afr.com/technology/melbourne-cup-goes-high-tech-with-wifi-20130909-j0f5o

  12. Captain DaFt

    Rule #1 peoples:

    You ain't won jack until the cash is in your pocket!

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Rule #1 peoples:

      ... and you've left the casino without being stopped by the burly man at the door.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Huge fail...

    ...I would have thought if the betting machines aren't covered by CCTV.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hardly a first

    Nakedsecurity ran an article about this a few weeks back. Apparently a tv station did a behind the scenes section and didn't check the notes visible behind the speaker...

  15. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    No, she does not need a major culling of her FB friends

    Although that couldn't hurt.

    What she really needs is a major culling of her activity on Facebook. And the realization that posting your life willy-nilly for all to see does nobody any good.

    Well, in this case, almost nobody.

    In any case,it's an expensive lesson. I hope she won't need another.

    1. Cuddles

      Re: No, she does not need a major culling of her FB friends

      "In any case,it's an expensive lesson."

      Well, not really. She spent the equivalent of about £4 for a ticket. Sure, she could have won significantly more, but failing to win something you didn't previously have (and have managed perfectly well without) isn't the same as actually losing something you already owned. If anything, I'd say that lesson was remarkably good value.

  16. Yugguy

    Enormous mouth

    She has a very big mouth.

    That is all.

    1. Peter Simpson 1
      Trollface

      Re: Enormous mouth

      Good teeth, though, and no fillings.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Enormous mouth

        Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

  17. Seajay#

    Only visible to her friends

    Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. She doesn't seem like someone with a good grasp of the privacy settings so I wouldn't mind betting it was visible to at least friends of friends.

    And if I won that bet ..

  18. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. ShadowDragon8685

      Re: Theft is still theft, if true...

      Just because you've done something unwise that enabled a criminal to take advantage of you does NOT in any way, shape, or form, mean you "deserved" to be victimized, or that the police shouldn't do everything in their power to catch the perfidious party and plonk them in the pen.

      1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

        Re: Theft is still theft, if true...

        It should be easy enough to interview thousands of friends. All they need is a computer, they could even post the questions on FaceBoob

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Theft is still theft, if true...

        If you leave your wallet on your dashboard in an open car park then you are encouraging thieves to target that car park specifically since it is a place with rich pickings. You deserve to have your wallet stolen so you will stop putting other customers at an increased risk of being targetted by car thieves.

        The same is true of facebook "Leave it on show, expect it to go" as the police say.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Theft is still theft, if true...

          Yeah, but ... what if it's a bobby trap?

          DON'T PICK UP THAT TEDDY BEAR!

      3. Havin_it
        Joke

        Re: Theft is still theft, if true...

        CATCH "pinch" would've worked better there. Just sayin'.

        Back to Reg sub-head writing school with you!

        1. ShadowDragon8685

          Re: Theft is still theft, if true...

          I was exhausted and only started alliterating with the word "perfidious," but yeah, it would've done.

    2. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

      Re: Theft is still theft, if true...

      So what is the legal definition of a "winning ticket"?

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Theft is still theft, if true...

      Of course not, but if you get burgled and it turns out you left the door open and unlocked, few people will have the same level of sympathy as someone who properly locked up.

      Ignorance can be cured by education and experience. Stupidity can't be cured. Only time will tell which group this woman is in.

  19. imanidiot Silver badge

    It's staggering

    both how little safeguards there are in these systems to make sure the right person gets the money and how many people don't realise the amount of information a single picture of them can contain.

    1. auburnman

      Re: It's staggering

      From the bookies point of view the money is already not going to the right person when they are paying out, it would make sense they're not that fussed if it goes to the wrong not right person.

  20. Ben Norris

    Worse still, loads of people post pictures of their keys when they buy a house and also when they are going on holiday!

  21. Isendel Steel

    Location

    Done by a "friend" who was there as well, unless the automated terminal was at another establishment, or someone else was close enough to eyeball the ticket.

  22. JJKing
    Holmes

    Um, what's this thing called Facebook that you speak of?

  23. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge
    Coat

    Well blow me...

    What a big mouth you have...

  24. x 7

    I dunno about chicken dinners, but it looks like she can open her mouth wide enough to gobble a turkey neck

  25. HAL-9000
    Thumb Up

    Thanks el reg

    That's the farking funniest story I've read in a long while

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like