If they are calculating the price in JS then maybe it is worth me spending a few minutes with the console open on their website to try and bring down my monthly bill. Yes, I would like to switch to the new $10 plan!
By the same token, AT&Ts malicious pricing malware running in your browser could be construed of "unauthorized access" of your own computer, thus AT&T would be violating CFAA.
The server validated that the coupon code was legitimate, but the actual discount value of the coupon code was validated client side in JS for some reason.
So he could turn any 10% off coupon into a 100% off coupon by modifying the API requests during the checkout flow. I'm sure this was illegal but he ate a lot of free fast food before they ever fixed it.
But don't sit there and pretend that you can say, "well, they let me do it because some of the code ran client side." No, that's not how it works. Changing the price of a $100 service to $10 on a website, is like taking a bar code from a $10 product and slapping it on $100 product. The biggest difference is, since it involves computers, there are even more crimes committed.
In none of these cases are the companies condoning or supporting your actions. You can try the argument that the bank teller gave you the money and that it's bank policy to do so. But it probably won't work.
It's strange to see people bending over backwards to deny that this is a crime. Surely if someone manipulated your bank's computers to wire transfer your entire balance to another account, you wouldn't be asking, "what crime could [they] have committed?" You'd feel like somebody stole from you.
Using your store analogy it would be like bringing a television to the cashier and telling them you will pay $10 and they accept.
I doubt a “reasonable” person would think of it like the latter case, but for people who think about software agents, it’s interesting to think about.
Disclaimer: don’t try this at home…
Just because you can physically enter a strangers house does not shield you from trespassing charges.
Society / the legal system is not code. There is all sorts of nuance and morals and subjectivity involved beyond the "bits on the wire", so to speak. You can go to prison for accessing a website you know you shouldn't, even if the HTTP response code is 200.
This is why educating the public about jury nullification is so important.
Don't ever do critical calculations like this client side. It's just dumber than dumb.
[ ] Plan X $30
[ ] Plan Y $50
[ ] Plan Z $70
You are basically just giving a counter offer, the company can choose to accept or reject that offer. There have been cases (cba to google them right now, just going off my memory) where customers have done what you have suggested, the company have blindly accepted the "counter offer" and have had to honour the amended contract they agreed to.
EDIT: The problems happen when trying to enforce such amended contracts, trying to prove the company agreed to such changes. For me when I'm negotiating my annual broadband contract I record the phone call (granted I'm in the UK, recording calls as an indivial is legal) just to make sure I have a record of what was agreed. But my current provider has always followed up with a updated contract after the phone call with the new terms, so it would be easy for me to prove that my provider agreed to those terms. My current provider agreed to a price which is £1 per month cheaper than the cheapest like fore like competitor I could find at the time and also agreed to waive any cancelation charges if I choice to cancel before the end of the 12 month contract.
However a) been pretty happy with their service todate so unless the shit hits the fan I have no plans to leaving them unless b) my local area finally gets FTTP but if that does happen I will prob use my current provider as my FTTP provider. So they really don't have any risk of myu cancelling during the current contract.
Maybe I'm misremembering but I vaguely recall a story of a man who altered a contract, signed it, and mailed it back to a telecom company. They signed it without reviewing and when it went to court it was upheld because both parties signed the altered contract.
But I understand that's different than "demanding" they accept it so it doesn't negate your point.
In the example I gave in my edit with my own ISP recently, the inital offer they gave me when my contract was coming up to expire was to keep my existing price and level of service, however over the previous year prices for new customers had dropped below what I was paying and a competitor was even lower than my own ISP's new customer pricing (For the same level of service - the pricing diffence wasn't much but it was still there).
So when my contract was due for renewal I called them up (easier to negotiate with a human than a computer) pointed out that a) I was happy with the service they had provided but I was not happy that the price they initially offered to renew was higher than if I was a new customer. b) Because they hadn't offered the price that they gave new customers it incentived me to compare prices elsewhere which lead me their competitor and I was inclided to switch, but suggested that if they sweetened the deal I would stay.
The rep offered a lower price and I said I would agree aslong as they wavied any cancellation charges during the contract. I did say to the rep that I had no plans to cancel unless my street finally gets fibred. It took a bit of wording in the contract, tech speaking the early termination charge is still there however the discount I have cancels out that charge so it would end up being a zero owed balance which I was happy with (Chances are that my street won't get fibred during the remainer of my contract and even if it did I would prob use my existing provider as my fibre provider as they do offer it where its available, so it was a safe bet for the provider and just gave me a bit of reassurance).
My ISP had every right to tell me to go pound sand, my choices would have then been to take the best deal my ISP offered and stay or switch ISPs (which here in the UK has been fine-tuned to a point there is very little downtime, basically for most people its a case of swapping out the ISP issued router, for me it would be configuring my own modem to the new ISP's auth come switch over). Customer retaintion reps usually have a bit of leeway to keep non probmatic customers happy, and tbh I would have been happy if they had just price matched the price they offer new customers, but hey if you don't ask, you don't get :-)
It's not like if you write it, they automatically need to honor it.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/updated-russian-man-turns-ta...
Eg the F12 debacle: https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/31/22861188/missouri-govern...
I haven't read the CFAA in a while but it is extremely broad. It boiled down to "if you access a system in a way you should not, illegal".
Or how accessing the same page a billion times per second, a page you have every right to access a few times, is illegal.
Or if you dial into a nuclear arms facility with your phone.