A class action lawsuit with a related FTC warranty fraud investigation is a pretty tough thing to fight.

And in return Gamers Nexus is teaching all of their viewers what their consumer rights are, and how to report fraudulent activity to the proper regulatory authorities. This isn’t the first time Gamers Nexus has gotten regulatory agencies involved with computer part manufacturers fucking over customers, and the history of those incidents didn’t go very well for other companies involved.

On the other hand Gamers Nexus has also gone out of their way to point out companies that have done the right thing when issues came up, to make sure those companies are getting kudos for NOT fucking over consumers. Because sadly that’s all we really want.

If the FTC gets enough complaints to warrant the manpower to investigate ASUS warranty fraud, there is no doubt in my mind that they’re gonna be fucked based on what we’ve seen so far.

Credit checks.

Nowadays they offer financing for devices. But even in the past it was required. They would determine the maximum number of lines you had available, and if there were any deposits to open new lines of service. Even before phone financing, those phone contracts came with hundreds of dollars of phone discounts at time of purchase and had hundreds of dollars worth of early termination fees and they want to make sure their customers had a good chance of paying if they left.

Social Security Numbers were never meant to be used for anything other than Social Security itself. Credit agencies use the SSN because they view it as an easy identifier and they didn’t have to create anything themselves.

True, but the timing is extremely suspect. They could have laid them off at any time in the past weeks or months.

It may be a coincidence, but when it comes to corporations and their bottom line, there are rarely coincidences.

I’m sure this has nothing to do with the upcoming SAG-AFTRA strike since no deal was reached yesterday. I’m sure Epic is ensuring that no union workers are being fired immediately before an authorized strike.

https://deadline.com/2023/09/sag-aftra-video-game-strike-talks-no-deal-1235559424/

Of course nothing will work if the SIM is removed, no new SIM is inserted, and they don’t connect it to Wi-Fi. But at that point, whoever has it also isn’t using the device either are they?

There is no way to have a device know it is stolen and wiped without it being able to get that notification from somewhere.

If that device is connected back to the Internet though, all of the find my device services work just fine, and you can queue a wipe to wait for the device to be online again. None of them are reliant on your SIM or phone number, they all use the MEID/IMEI and your Apple/Google/Samsung/etc. account to manage it.

A better option would be to use a good password generally and the built-in lost device functions like Find my iPhone, Google Find my Device or Samsung Find my Mobile.

If you’re using Android, and want a separate app that can lock down your device outside of the built-in functionality, among a ton of other features:
I used to use Cerberus years ago for that security before that functionality was really built in. It is a side loaded app that allows remote tracking, lockdown, etc. and functions as a system app. They have a version of the apk that is listed as “System Framework” with a stock Android icon and as well to hide in the app listing. You can have it hide the app and access it via a dialer code as well for added security. When I used it, you could have it take photos to send to your email with location data for incorrect login attempts, send messages to the device to display while lost, etc. www.cerberusapp.com