Acheter un téléviseur d’occasion n’est peut-être pas la meilleure affaire à réaliser. En effet, Samsung vient de communiquer sur une histoire de vol en Afrique du Sud : le constructeur coréen a tout simplement désactivé à distance tous les téléviseurs volés.

Last July, a logistics centre in South Africa was looted. The case was noisy in the local media, as the kidnappers set fire to the warehouse and distribution centre. Several videos were shared on social media, the thieves were leaving the warehouse with TV in their arms. We are talking about dozens and dozens of stolen TV, then sold in different ways to businesses and individuals. The opportunity was too good for Samsung: they activated a new feature called TV block.

How Samsung is able to block a remote TV

As you probably know, most of the TV sold today is connected, and TV builders take advantage of this opportunity to broadcast advertising and retrieve valuable statistics.? For customers, this allows you to access many services but also to benefit from some software developments. In many cases, it is mandatory to connect a television when it is configured. At Samsung's, it is.

Samsung has activated TV block on stolen TVs, a feature that is present on all new TVs sold. This means that as soon as one of the stolen TVs is connected to the Internet, which is mandatory during configuration, the system detects its serial number. If the serial number matches one of the stolen TVs in the warehouse, all television functions are disabled. Samsung offers to unlock them via customer service if the customer is able to provide legal proof of purchase.

In short, think twice before accepting the purchase of a used TV. Always ask for proof of purchase, you can also check the serial number with Samsung customer service.

Want to change TV to switch to 4K and take advantage of your PS5 as it should, or simply give up the classic LCD in favor of OLED or the QLED Sans? Here is our comparison … Read Next

To follow us, we invite you to download our Android and IOS app. You will be able to read our articles, files, and watch our latest YouTube videos.