Counterfeit iPhone schemes have been popping up quite a lot over the course of the last year, and now, we have yet another one to add to that list. More than a dozen people have been charged in the whole process of things, and there has often been categorizations, referring to this as “the biggest fraud of its kind.”
It was announced very recently that at least 14 people have played a major hand in a scheme which saw suspects importing fake iPhones as well as fake iPads from China. From there on, these people would proceed by taking these devices to Apple stores and claiming that they were malfunctioning. Apple then apparently replaced these counterfeit devices with legitimate iPhones and iPads.
Must Read: India running a Global network of Fake news and information against Pakistan
Once the suspects had gotten their hands on the legit iPhones and iPads, they would ship the devices back to China – making good profits for all their work. All in all, more than 10,000 of these devices were imported, exchanged and subsequently sold via this scheme – the authorities have suggested.
Apple has also since then commented by saying that all in all, the scam cost the company more than $6.1 million. NBC San Diego reports : “While a significant amount of money in any circumstance, this prosecution is about more than monetary losses.” The manufacture of counterfeit goods – and their use to defraud US companies – seeks to fundamentally undermine the marketplace and harms innocent people whose identities were stolen in furtherance of these activities. The United States Attorney’s office is fully committed to bringing to justice those who seek to damage American market and consumers through peddling of bogus products.”
The scheme may also be sounding familiar to you – and for good reason, as a similar sort of fraud was carried out earlier in the year by college students –as they were found to have profited more than a million dollars worth of iPhones via a similar scheme to this.
