Earlier this week we introduced you to Jonathan Stark, who was testing out a social experiment. Today a hacker outlined exactly how he started to steal money from the card and transfer the balance to his own Starbucks card. The hacker goes by the name of Odio, who has decided to sell the loaded Starbucks card on Ebay and give the proceeds to the charity Save the Children.
The experiment started with Stark taking a picture of the back of his Starbucks card so that he could use his card on both his iPhone and Android phone. Once he did that he thought maybe other people would like to use it, and see how people would react to the possibility of getting a free cup of coffee. Stark put $100 of his own money on the card, and told people how to reload the card if they wanted to but it was never required.
His story hit the media and there was a some doubt about the real goal behind the experiment. Some people accused Starbucks of setting the whole thing up as a viral advertising stunt. Stark cleared up the confusion and stated that the motive behind the experiment were pure.
Odio figured out a way to transfer money from Stark’s card to his own. He then set up a reminder that would alert him when the balance on Stark’s card reached a certain amount, at which time he would empty out the account. In no time Odio was able to transfer $625 from Stark’s card.
Stark’s card and the iPhone camper are two interesting social experiments to surface this week. Let’s hope that the man camping out for over a month for an iPhone doesn’t get robbed like Jonathan Stark.
