Posted on 05/14/2021 10:19:39 AM PDT by 11th_VA
In April of 2018, a 23-year-old university student in Shanghai whose last name is Xu found a loophole in KFC’s online ordering system. He discovered that he could pay for food using coupons in a KFC app, then he could get a refund of the very same coupons immediately if he used a different app. In other words, free food! At one of the most popular restaurants in China! But then he flew too close to the fried chicken sun, and things ended very poorly. Vice has the story.
After Xu discovered the KFC loophole, he ordered a lot of free KFC for himself and then started reselling the coupons online. He also shared the secret with four of his schoolmates, who took advantage. The shenanigans continued all the way through October of 2018. Xu himself got about $9,000 worth of free chicken, and his four friends each ordered between $1,400 and $7,300. That’s a lot of chicken.
Eventually, KFC caught on and took the students to court. The court ruled that the five had committed fraud and that they participated in criminal activities by taking advantage of the loopholes in the two apps. And—oh boy—they were all sentenced to prison for 15 to 30 months and had to pay fines ranging from $155 to $930. Yikes.
Some people on the internet have said that the sentences were too harsh, and that KFC’s own online design flaws are to blame, not the students. Loopholes like these aren’t unique to KFC or China. We reported earlier this year about students in Spain who managed to get free Domino’s pizza, but this is on a whole new level. I like KFC and all, but that is a hell of a price to pay for drumsticks.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
General Tso has corporal punishment for you if you eat _his_ chicken!
That guy ended up in a bucket himself. He was extra crispy.
Only if you’re a Democrat
Look up the legal rules defining fraud.
Just because you’re getting away with it doesn’t make it legal.
And if you have any conscience at all you know it’s wrong and report it to the company.
Was that their punishment?
KFC is a franchise operation, and you can be sure that the Chinese Communist Party gets its cut.
These idiots didn’t just cheat American KFC. They ALSO cheated franchise owners who likely were Party members.
They were lucky they didn’t get “disappeared”.
“He flew too close to the fried chicken sun”
You get a really nasty sunburn that way.
Yes but the skin is delicious! Don’t forget the slaw!
In China? Ok, where should I look?
“I saw a special on KFC founder - he actually killed someone in self defense once - tough cookie.”
Very tough.
Once he started franchising his KFC system he made every franchisee buy the cooking equipment from him.
He toured around with cooking equipment in the trunk of his famous white Cadillac.
If he inspected a franchisee who wasn’t following the KFC rules pertaining to cooking, cleanliness and menu items he would yank their equipment on the spot. He then drove around letting local outlets know the old place was no longer affiliated with KFC and he was taking offers.
Not a man to trifle with.
Strangely Harlan Sanders had a soft spot for Dave Thomas.
Dave Thomas had a couple of KFC franchises that were doing great. Sanders asked Thomas to go go straighten out some franchisees that were losing money.
Dave went, got the problems licked and was rewarded by being able to buy those franchises at bargain prices.
Dave founded Wendys when he retired and sold his KFC businesses. He got bored and went back to his first love, hamburgers.
“Look up the legal rules defining fraud.”
In China!!
In China its only fraud if the CCP isn’t getting it’s cut.
Cultural appropriation!
You kinda missed the point.
There seems to be people on this site who think this was OK behavior.
Who would want to eat KFC even if it was free.
Maybe Xu and friends dug the fried chicken feet.
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