[tptacek]

The customer won't keep it because the Snowball contract will put them on the hook for it.

Whether the shippers do or don't keep it, there are much more valuable things shipped every day. Where do you think the gargantuan Catalyst and Nexus switches come from? The line cards in those things probably cost more than a Snowball device.

[mpeg]

I think the difference in price between what it costs to get it shipped and the market price of the components (even if you just strip out the hard drives) is what makes it fraud-prone.

From my day job, I know this is an issue for mobile operators