Think of a number: A tale of iffy discount codes, supermarket loyalty cards and Hotels.com

Miscreants have been nabbing British supermarket chain Tesco Clubcard discount codes to snap up Hotels.com rewards meant for holders of the retailer's loyalty cards. Uncovered by researchers from CyberNews, a vulnerability stemmed from the way Hotels.com generated the discount codes, which are issued to Clubcard holders as a …

[heyrick]

selling the discount codes for between £200 and £750

Wait, what?

They were selling them for their face value? What the hell is the point of that?!?

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: selling the discount codes for between £200 and £750

Zero cost to create, so 100% profit. It's not so bad.

[Malcolm Weir]

Re: selling the discount codes for between £200 and £750

Never mind the profit: who would buy a £200 discount for £200? You can cut out the middleman and, you know, spend the £200 directly....

[spold]

Re: selling the discount codes for between £200 and £750

Tesco Everyday Value

[IGotOut]

Re: selling the discount codes for between £200 and £750

Ever thought they may be selling £1000 worth for £200?

[Malcolm Weir]

Re: selling the discount codes for between £200 and £750

Of course.

But the article states "were found to be selling the discount codes for between £200 and £750" which is not the same as "were found to selling multiple discount codes for between £200 and £750", due to the different words.

Now, those words could also be interpreted by binding the currency figure to the qualified noun "discount codes", so it reads the same as "were found to be selling the £200, £500 and £750 discount codes", which avoids the issue.

[John McCallum]

Re: selling the discount codes for between £200 and £750

The quote in full. "Two hacker forums," said CyberNews, "were found to be selling the discount codes" with a value of between £200 and £750. The individuals were selling the codes for much lower sums.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: selling the discount codes for between £200 and £750

Read the next sentence for full context. It was a quote so difficult to rewrite

[Detective Emil]

"Hotels.com, which has 325,000 hotels"?

" … touts 325,000 hotels" would be truer, and possibly conform better to El Reg style guidelines.