JohnsonBox Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 (Accoding to South Daily report on Sep.28) Recently, in some busy quarter of Guangzhou city, China, you may "come across" some strange salemen, who secretly tell you how advanced and how cheap their laptop is. If you costed thousands of yuans (hundreds US dollars) to buy one "name brand laptop", you would finally find out that is just worth tens of US dollars. The following shows how these swindlers can run their lousy business to make big money. Changing some messages of OS (1) The street swindler tells you: "This is Intel P4 laptop!". And when you want to check it out. Okay, he turns on the laptop and the screen tells you: Intel Pentium4 1.8G and other messages such as 40G/7200 HD, 512M ... "How much?" you ask. "Only 400 USD!" he tells you. "Why is it so cheap?" you ask back, skeptically. "Cos I need money for emergency!" He replies, looking honest. (Or he answers you sneakingly:"I stole this laptop from sb.!" He smiled at you shamelessly.) "How about 300 USD!" you try to beat down the price, coz you think you are so sophisticated. "..." he seems hesitating."How about 350 USD?" At last he asks you. "No! 300 USD!" you answer firmly. He looks at you with a bitter smile, and finally he agrees. You pay him 300 USD, triumphantly. Getting home, you play your dear P4 laptop ... you always feel there is something quirky ... Get on your feet to call your friend -- a computer expert. After examination, the expert tells you: "It is just worth about 60-90 USD, not P4 at all!" Why? Because laptop is not as the same as a desktop computer. You turn on a laptop, before it enters Windows, it would not show you the message of BIOS, while a desktop can! What you've seen -- the message of the configurations of the laptop -- was actually the logo image of Windows! The swindler has changed the logo! And the logo has been disguised as the configuration report of BIOS! (2) If you check out the system info when the laptop has entered Windows, alright, the dialog tells you: Intel Pentium4, IBM! Hehe, it has been changed as well! Good luck and post yours about anti-swindler's legerdemain! By JohnsonBox The link: http://tech.sina.com.cn/h/n/2003-09-28/1047239547.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianicoleman Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 wow.. clever (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MxxCon Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 :sleep: thanx for wasting my time reading this pointless post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keldyn Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 Scams like this are more common than you think. Scammers have been re-marking chips and selling them as higher spec for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnsonBox Posted September 29, 2003 Author Share Posted September 29, 2003 Scams like this are more common than you think. Scammers have been re-marking chips and selling them as higher spec for years. Yes. But that is old story that I've heard of many years before. :) Regarding the scam of laptop, this thread is a newest one, I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biorK Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 Hmpf. Don't know what I would have done if this happened to me. I know that my trust on strange people would have minimize alot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Montage Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 Whoever bought that laptop deserves to be ripped off. Sheesh, IF I bought a laptop on the street, I'd give it a THOROUGH once over first. I'd expect it to be stolen, but thats not a major issue. But I would REALLY check everything was as it seemed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forster Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 Street traders selling laptops? Some people really are gullible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnsonBox Posted September 29, 2003 Author Share Posted September 29, 2003 With LogoEasy, you can change your logo easily. (Someone may have ever used CBROM -- a tool for modifying BIOS. One of the functions of the CBROM is to write an 16 colors BMP (640X480) into BIOS. But this function may not work, quite often! Now, LogoEasy shows off its charming feature; or, you may know something better than LogoEasy, tell us pls.) How to use LogoEasy: a piece of cake, see its help and all right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spyder Veteran Posted September 29, 2003 Veteran Share Posted September 29, 2003 this is totally off topic but Guanzhou reminded me of a game I used to love to play on my SNES back in the day.. Romance of the Three Kingdoms! Was such a cool game. I liked playing Liu Bei because he starts off as such an underdog, but every once and a while I'd play Cao Cao. woot woot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaise Veteran Posted September 29, 2003 Veteran Share Posted September 29, 2003 heh..there is always someone ready to be ripped off :p They still pull the $50 Big Screen TV scam here, a box with a couple cinder blocks in it, or the $2,000 watch for $35 US Can't feel sorry for someone who wants something for nothing, or is just utterly stupid, like the people who patronize the Gypsy shops here. My favorite: some lady is having bad luck and the Gypsy tells her "Take your money out of the bank and bring it here, I will say a special blessing over it and bury it in a secret place for 3 months, you come back then and your money will be "clean" :D IMO if you are overthe age of 18 and still that gullible, you have no reason to be carrying around money in the first place, someone should be appointed to look after your affairs :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_RJ_ Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 I was approached by two of these salespeople last night while I was walking through Beijing Lu. The first guy showed me a Sony Vaio, and he went straight to the system information to try and convince me that it was all legit. Out of curiosity I asked him if it was stolen and how much he wanted for it. He said it wasn't stolen and offered it to me for 2000 RMB. I then told him I had no money and walked away. He followed me for several meters, trying to negotiate the price. His final offer was 1000 RMB before he gave up. Two minutes later, another guy approached me with a bigger laptop. He did exactly the same thing and went straight to the system information. By this stage I knew they had altered it using some software. I told him the same thing and quickly walked away. I think this scam is very clever, because many tourists carry at least 1000 RMB with them and they are likely to only do the basic tests rather than test for performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Flash Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Holy moly this is probably one of the worst thread resurrections I've seen in a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panacik Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 :sleep: thanx for wasting my time reading this pointless post. I found it an interesting read actually! Although i would have asked for less, simply because P4 alone is a bit outdated now :s Edit:- Just read the post above... 2003 :s Wow... Answers the question on the P4 etc :s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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