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Comment by tyingq | Hacker News Reader

Hah! That's over the top brazen. Like purposefully designing the scam device to not require a battery? And making it look/work just like a "dowsing rod", which should raise suspicions?

Including a bit of fake circuitry seems like it would have made sales easier, though he seems to have sold plenty as-is.

It feels like he was trying to make a point about how stupid people can be.

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Most likely, it's a fraud scheme in which their customers are also involved. Easy way to steal your country's military budget while pretending to be the victim of a fraud.

If it was deliberate fraud why would they not have tried to disguise it? They must be convinced it works.

Second that. Most of the countries mentioned have highly corrupt system.

From the Wikipedia article:

McCormick told the BBC in 2010 that "the theory behind dowsing and the theory behind how we actually detect explosives is very similar"

Also:

He told The Times that ATSC had been dealing with doubters for ten years and that the device was merely being criticised because of its "primitive" appearance. He said: "We are working on a new model that has flashing lights."

I imagine the device may have been as effective as other parts of security theatre. Operators simply had to observe how nervous their suspects were. The high price added a needed prentense to the technobabble. Wondering if some buyers understood this?

Maybe, but it's a handle with a hole in it and a rod with a 90 degree bend at one end. Pretty sure you could find a cheaper source :)

Where I grew up they had checkpoints and would sometimes scan for car bombs. One guy had a mirror he’d use to look under the car, while a couple of other guys had assault weapons strapped to their chest. That seems like enough to make someone nervous without needing a $60k kit.

> The high price added a needed prentense to the technobabble.

How is a bomber supposed to know how much you payed for your high-tech dowsing rod?

If they haven’t seen one in wild it must be very exclusive and hence expensive.

The stated goal is to make them think it's an expensive high end tool they haven't seen before to make them nervous. By definition if they don't know what it is you just wasted $60,000 to buy a rod they don't know about instead of... a $6 rod they also don't know about.

The only way the buyer was "in" on this being fake is via corruption and kickbacks.

Perhaps it has more to do with the personnel wielding the dowsing rod and the commanders who make them sign for the expensive equipment?

Not requiring a battery is actually pretty genius because it covers up failure in testing as user error. "No, no, the device isn't useless - you just don't have enough static electricity to power it!" Repeat until you get an accidental positive result.

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