Hacking a CoinStar machine to bypass transaction fees

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve seen a number of somewhat innocent (and equally wily) hacks that save the little man a dime or two, but the latest shtick is especially satisfying. CoinStar machines — best known for charging a whopping nine-percent or so for the convenience of counting our coins for us — have finally been outsmarted, and now you can make that greedy green machine convert your coins to dollars gratis. The process is incredibly simple: you just insert your change, inform the about-to-be-duped device that you’d like all of that placed on an iTunes gift card, and before continuing on, reach around back and unplug the jack that connects the thing to the internet. As you may expect, the flabbergasted gizmo will spin its wheels for a bit whilst trying to reconnect, and after a number of failed attempts, it will resign to trying and spit out a cash voucher for 100-percent of your change. Brilliant, we say.

[Thanks, Joe]

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