How could this even happen?

[Howie411]

Interested in how this happened.   If someone bought a used Arlo, they would still need to sync it to their own base station which should remove all the information ot it.  So how did someone even set a pre-owned model up if it was still linked to someone elses account.

http://wjla.com/news/offbeat/woman-gets-security-video-from-strangers-camera

FRESNO, Calif. (KMPH) - What would you do if your email was flooded with video from a stranger's surveillance camera?

That is exactly what's happening to Deanna Meraz. She says she bought a NETGEAR Arlo security camera system in December. After having it for a little while, she decided to take it back because she felt it wasn't working.

"It wouldn't send me any emails. I wouldn't be notified that there was any motion. The mailman when he went by. My kids would go in and out of the house and it wouldn't show them," says Meraz.

Now, she is getting email after email. All of it is security video from the camera she took back. Only now, it belongs to someone else.

"It just kind of creeped me out because I am getting this guy, I had like 20 plus emails of him in his house. But I could see him," says Meraz. She says she feels like she is invading this man's privacy.

FOX26 reached out to officials at NETGEAR. They sent us this comment:

"This is a case of the camera not being set up completely by the new user. Each camera can only be assigned to one account at a time and what is occurring is not an error or a security risk, but a capability for owners of Arlo cameras to be able to move from different Networks without going through set up again. As soon as the new owner of the Arlo completes the simple setup by installing the app and assigning his account to the camera, the previous owner of the camera will no longer be receiving notifications. To avoid this scenario, NETGEAR has asked all our retail partners not to resell returned cameras. They need to come back to NETGEAR to be set to factory default."

Meraz hopes this man finishes the set-up process soon so he can start getting the security notifications he may need.

[TomMac]

No, once the base is setup.... you can simply unplug it and move it to another location. Plug it into an ethernet port and it will be online. You can sync cameras without signing iinto the account...which is why shes' waiting for the guy to fiinsh the sighn in process...which usu involes a call to Netgear to release the serial number of the base form the prior onwrs name

you just would be able to do any housekeeping nor log in unless you had the previous name/pw and her name/email was in the setup

[manfredz]

not as drastic as this but after christmas I bought a refurbished arlo system from best buy but couldn't set up. tech support said the base station was still registered to someone else and wouldn't reset until I emailed them proof of purchase.