12mo ago

Hacker Shows How to Get Free Laundry For Life

www.404media.co

Michael Orlitzky was not having a good day with his laundry. First CSC Serviceworks, a laundry management company, replaced all of the machines in his building with new coin-op or app-powered ones. The card reading machines had been an issue for years because the cards would stop working and the recharge machine would steal dollar bills, Orlitzky said. Now he had another enemy with its own quirks to get used to. Plus, CSC had replaced the machines about a week ahead of schedule, meaning that any cash on his or others’ laundry cards was now worthless and unusable.

Then, one of the new machines ate his quarters. The first machine was stuck on the cold setting, and he had to pay another $2 and move all of his belongings to another machine. He called CSC customer service and was on hold for an hour. CSC eventually told him to get a refund through the company’s website, which in turn insisted he install CSC’s app to proceed.

“That was the day I decided laundry would be free,” Orlitzky told 404 Media in an email.

Orlitzky then discovered multiple bypasses to CSC machines that allow him to wash his clothes for free. Since then, he’s been pretty quiet about the whole thing. Orlitzky published a brief write-up of his escapades on his personal website last year, but hasn’t shared it on social media. Some people in his building know his secret, but that’s about it. That is, until now, with Orlitzky due to speak at the DEF CON hacker conference in August about how he found infinite money cheats for CSC laundry machines. The talk is called “Laundering Money.”

58 comments

CSC eventually told him to get a refund through the company’s website, which in turn insisted he install CSC’s app to proceed.
That should be illegal. I already refuse to install most apps, and I certainly won't install one for absolute basic customer support purposes.
Lol, like, I hit a deer a few years ago. Insurance wanted me to download their app, walk around my car and take pictures, and they'd send me a check the next day. Nope. I made them send an adjustor. I'm that dedicated to not installing apps. 😆
- Right?
  I offered to take photos at the angles they wanted and email them to my agent, but they said it had to go through the app. I'm pretty sure the adjustor that came out used the same app, but hey, that's his (work?) phone, not mine. Nor is it my personal info I'm signing away the rights to by clicking "agree".
  
  300 pages of terms of service where i agree to be a human centipede
  Oh my god, that's exactly what it's like. I'm borrowing that one.
  
  and doesn't mine bitcoin in background, or isn't so terribly written it seems it does that even if it doesn't.
  that being said, is there anything that prevents michael to have his own washing machine in his own apartment? is there some strange american rule that forbids that?
- "Download our app!"
  "Oh, I don't have a smartphone."
  
  My current phone is about 8 years old and long overdue for replacement. If I can find a dumb phone that can also act as a hotspot, that's probably going to be my "upgrade".
- Lol there's rental companies here FORCING you to download their app to pay your rent. Can't even give em cash or a check...has to be done through their app.
  
  Hmm. They can't evict you by app, can they?
  Somebody should make this hurt for them.
  
  Double dipping right there. Make money on rent AND selling renter's data. Capitalism at it's best. :/
  
  Read up on your local laws, in Australia for example it's required that 3 basic methods of cash, cheque, and bank transfer are accepted, may be something similar for you
lol. Did this in my old building - the dryer was on an improperly rated circuit and the breaker would trip half the time, eating my money and leaving wet clothes.
It was one of the old, "insert coin, push metal chute in" types. Turns out you could bend a coat hanger and fish it through a hole in the back to engage the lever that the push-mechanism was supposed to engage. Showed everyone in the building.
The landlord came by the building a month later and asked why there was no money in the machines, I told him "we all started going to the laundromat down the street because it was cheaper"
This quote is hilarious.
CSC probably has a record of someone opening up the machine. “My personal stance on that is suck my diiiiiiiick, but feel free to perform your own risk assessment,” Orlitzky writes.
He was hacking the machine. But isn't it stealing and illegal, if he short circuit the machine? I mean its like showing someone how to get free apple, by going in a shop and stealing without anyone notices it. Or by hacking into a server and ordering a meal for free. I don't see how this is any different.
- Meh, it is illegal, but personally I don't find it immoral. Laundry machines like this are just another way for landlords to extract money from their tenants for basic needs. They have them in a captive situation and should be providing either hookups in unit or free laundry facilities.
  
  'Free laundry machines' could essentially be included in the rent, provided laundry machines are used properly and intentional damage paid for. I would be okay with CCTV being employed to ensure this. An extra $10 for water usage, and everyone uses their own detergent.
  But does that make sense for capitalists?
  
  What stops a tenant from just getting a laundry machine themselves?
  This is such an American thing.
- Isn't a machine taking your money and not receiving anything from it isn't?
  
  That's a different issue. The machine was obviously defective, not stealing your money. And even if someone steal from you, doesn't change the fact you stole too. Someone doing something illegal does not give you the rights doing something illegal too.
- It's not the same kind of stealing as stealing an apple or meal. Those remove the product, the material in its entirety.
  The only devaluation washing does is in wear. And even less directly in the initial investment not being paid back upon use.
  That's concerns outside of morals of course. But stealing products isnt equateable to stealing usage.
If you have an older coin-op washer in your building you can usually look up the model number and either buy a master key or learn the default programming code to set the price.
If you have the room, you can often buy these second hand for a bargain from colleges etc. They’re built like tanks and you can wash almost anything inside them. When they do break, laundry operators try to DIY so there are videos everywhere on how to do repairs.
My apartment building also converted their coin machines to CSC Go, so I've been biding my time until he reveals this exploit. They're $2.50 per wash cycle and $2.25 per dryer cycle, but if you do a big load it won't get fully dried so you might need an extra cycle. It's basically highway robbery even considering the water and electricity usage.
- His work around is here.
  https://michael.orlitzky.com/articles/csc_serviceworks_laundry_machine_coin_bypass.xhtml
  
  Holy shit what a mensch, ty! The machines in my building are the easy kind too, no lock picking required!
!chaoticgood@sopuli.xyz
(deleted - moved instance)
- Tbf I don't think CSC Serviceworks intentionally stole residents money. They just ignored the problems ... like you're doing rn.
  
  (deleted - moved instance)

58 comments