Am i being tracked?

[Erie Fred]

Wife used to work in Sainsbury's years ago. They used to stick RF tags to trolleys or lay them sticky side up on the floor for amusement.

So that a customer was taken down by security upon leaving ?

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

So that a customer was taken down by security upon leaving ?

Gets boring mate.

Security?
20 years ago in a small devon town.
Not likely.
Floor tags were aimed at staff

 

[Drains]

That's just a bigger version of the ones they put in the Covid vaccine

 

[gaz1]

So that a customer was taken down by security upon leaving ?

some obnoxous customers certainly need bringing down a peg or two

 

[bricol]

some obnoxous customers certainly need bringing down a peg or two

Need to start with the ones who seem to think shops are a free source of supply!

 

[Erie Fred]

some obnoxous customers certainly need bringing down a peg or two

Are they placed on random trollies though ?
I wouldn't appreciate it very much if I'm stopped at the exit and accused of stealing.
I would not shop there anymore that is for sure.

 

[m_c]

Probably more likely!
Is there an easy way of reading them?
Not that I have a need to other than curiosity..
Is a phone app available?

With a RFID reader unsurprisingly

Depending on the tags capabilities, you might need to know what security code has been programmed, in order to get a response from the tag, whereas other's will simply transmit their ID when excited.
In this application, I'd guess the tag simply responds with it's ID, with no other meaningful information being stored.

 

[DAPPH]

Are they placed on random trollies though ?
I wouldn't appreciate it very much if I'm stopped at the exit and accused of stealing.
I would not shop there anymore that is for sure.

If the trolley passes through the tills it's not likely , it is those who rush out of the in gates with a full trolley as new punters are about to enter the store through the in gates

 

[Bobupndown]

Have you noticed a lot of guys jogging wherever you go ? Or maybe men in raincoats with the collar turned up and reading a newspaper ?

There are probably a couple of guys hiding in bushes nearby with a curly wire in their ear.

It whenever you can't see them that you know they are watching you, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you....

 

[Barking Mat]

My wife bought me a pair of trousers a couple of years ago, for two months every time I left the cashiers at local supermarket they set off the alarms, took me ages to find a wire sewn in somewhere, to be fair, the staff just looked at me and said 'have you got any new clothing recently ?'.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Are they placed on random trollies though ?
I wouldn't appreciate it very much if I'm stopped at the exit and accused of stealing.
I would not shop there anymore that is for sure.

That doesn't happen in the UK now. Anyone stealing from shops is waved out with a cheery smile. Anyone attempting to stop them gets fired and NO, I AM NOT JOKING.

 

[Greeves246]

That doesn't happen in the UK now. Anyone stealing from shops is waved out with a cheery smile. Anyone attempting to stop them gets fired and NO, I AM NOT JOKING.

Some years ago when repping in the bike trade I called on a dealer in Glasgow and the store man told me he caught a shoplifter who was offered the choice of either the police being called or five minutes in the back yard with xxx the owner. He chose the five minutes. Bad choice. The owner wasn’t very tall but built like the proverbial outhouse.

 

[Morrisman]

That doesn't happen in the UK now. Anyone stealing from shops is waved out with a cheery smile. Anyone attempting to stop them gets fired and NO, I AM NOT JOKING.

Friend of mine worked as a maintenance guy in Asda until quite recently. He reckons their store security doesn’t even bother stopping the groups of shoplifters who wander through the store fairly regularly.

The ‘security’ guard on the desk by the main entrance was a lady of retirement age, hardly the stuff of nightmares for ‘people without passports’…. which is what the majority of the gangs appear to be.

 

[roofman]

Are they placed on random trollies though ?
I wouldn't appreciate it very much if I'm stopped at the exit and accused of stealing.
I would not shop there anymore that is for sure.

Just another day at the shops Fred....i would rather be accused of stealing than getting it stolen

 

[Tom O]

I was being followed by a Indian I’m not sure if he was tracking me or wanted a smoke/quarter.

 

[Erie Fred]

Tracked ?
yes, and manipulated as well......Beep!

 

[beatie]

it connects to your phone so they can track that also listening to every word of your conversations they want to check your not in touch with the aliens from mars

 

[brightspark]

That doesn't happen in the UK now. Anyone stealing from shops is waved out with a cheery smile. Anyone attempting to stop them gets fired and NO, I AM NOT JOKING.

and any theft under 200 quid and the police dont want to know

 

[skotl]

Back to the tag (and away from the politics-adjacent discussions!), as others have said it's an RFID tag used for stock taking and security.

It's a passive tag which means it can't transmit its location or data, instead it responds to a reader, which could be a handheld device or these security gates that you walk through when you leave the shops.
Anything with a single-use tag, like your trainers, at the checkout should be waved across the scanner so that it is registered as "sold", which stops the security gates having a fit when you walk past.

Multi-use tags look and operate exactly the same, except they are housed in a reusable container like the pin-tags on clothes and the stopper-locks on the top of high end bottles of booze.

RFID and NFC (Near Field Communications) are very similar technologies and sometimes people intentionally or unintentionally mix the terms up. NFC, as the name suggests, tend to only work up to a range of a few centimetres - a common use is keycards for door entry.

Most modern phones can read NFC devices (Apple Pay and Google Pay use NFC), and you can get a bluetooth or USB RFID reader for them / PCs as well.

 

[Smallfry]

One of SWMBOs friends works at the local CoOp, and the staff have been told NOT to challenge shoplifters.

Its ridiculous. There is no deterrent, courts and the justice system is a waste of time, unless you call someone nasty names.