Apple's Anti-Counterfeit Team Has Targeted Over 1 Million Listings on Instagram and Other Marketplaces in the Past Year

[doobydoooby]

Its incredible for companies that are so big and successful to have such outrageously obviously counterfeit tat, or scam honeypot accounts, and just be fine with it. There have been a few occasions where I have flagged up items or people, ones which are so blatantly obviously fake, and an hour or two later i get a message back saying theres no problem with their posts. I see adverts for counterfeit wordpress plugins all the time that it takes seconds to check out and see how wrong they are. It really makes me wonder what their motivation is, since the end result for me at least is that i would never ever buy anything advertised on either, I start from the default position that its probably a lie.

 

[IceStormNG]

It really makes me wonder what their motivation is, since the end result for me at least is that i would never ever buy anything advertised on either, I start from the default position that its probably a lie.

Simple. The grand majority falls for this. Most people can't tell the difference between a counterfeit charger (even a bad one) and a genuine one. It looks like an Apple charge, the package says it's an Apple charger, so they believe it's an Apple charger.

Remember: The grand majority is pretty "stupid" (maybe "uneducated" is the better term?) when it comes to tech.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

I’d also like to point out Amazon has done a good job weeding out counterfeit Apple products/chargers/accessories that was a problem, but being the popularity that follows with Apple, obviously there’s loads of Chinese counterfeits. It Really is a collaborative effort to protect the consumer the best they can.

No they haven’t. One of the top rated cable packages up right now comes with a card that offers 25 dollars if you give 5 star reviews. I pointed this out to Amazon and wrote a review about it and they took no action, and declined my review.

Amazon continues to be trash

 

[IceStormNG]

No they haven’t. One of the top rated cable packages up right now comes with a card that offers 25 dollars if you give 5 star reviews. I pointed this out to Amazon and wrote a review about it and they took no action, and declined my review.

Amazon continues to be trash

That's typically for Amazon. The cheap products bring in a lot of money for amazon. As long as there's no big pressure against them, they won't do anything.

I mean: Amazon is like AliExpress. Just that on AliExpress you know that you get cheap stuff and pay way less than on Amazon.

 

[ackmondual]

I’d also like to point out Amazon has done a good job weeding out counterfeit Apple products/chargers/accessories that was a problem, but being the popularity that follows with Apple, obviously there’s loads of Chinese counterfeits. It Really is a collaborative effort to protect the consumer the best they can.

Yeah, another thing is despite the barriers being higher, many people did jailbreak their iDevices to be able to sideload apps. That was where many of the nicer apps were, and to this day, still applies.

 

[ackmondual]

Apple's looking out for their bottom line. That consumers benefit from this is a side benefit.

With large companies these days, I won't discount their acts of generosity, but alas, their bottom lines will always be numero uno. When I mentioned that Apple seems to becoming more and more like the big brother in their 1984 ad, even a huge Apple fan has corrected me me in saying that they've always been like that. They just did a better job of hiding it back then is all.

 

[LV426]

They are motivated by the exact same thing: covering their own backside. Are you saying Apple offered genuine chargers out of the kindness of their own heart? The statement "The company was more concerned about keeping people alive" is one of the funniest things I've read on this site in years.

Well, Apple replaced them at cost (or even below cost) so it wasn't a money-making exercise.

 

[Antgee]

Thank you for looking out for us, Apple.

Ah fab!! I found the American with a feet sense of irony!

 

[tranceking26]

Great, now can they branch out a bit and take down eBay and Amazon counterfeits too?

 

[nekton1]

Apple has a dedicated team of experts that focus solely on ferreting out counterfeit products and stopping them from being sold. Apple shared the tidbit in a statement to Bloomberg on a piece about counterfeit iPhone chargers.

Apple in the last year had more than a million listings for fake Apple products removed from various online marketplaces like Facebook and Instagram.

Bloomberg's piece delves into fake chargers that have sometimes caused harm to users, with many of those chargers investigated sold on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media sites.

Chinese factories and illicit vendors sell knockoff Apple accessories at cheap prices, and those products are difficult to tell apart from real products. They're outwardly identical to the real thing in every way, but don't have the same safety standards.

• How to Make Sure Your Apple MagSafe Charger is Genuine

Andrea Stroppa, a security researcher who accidentally used a counterfeit product borrowed from a friend, launched an investigation with his colleagues from Ghost Data Team. Their study from February 8 to March 8 uncovered 163 wholesale sellers of counterfeit Apple products on Instagram, ranging from fake $25 AirPods Pro to a fake $5 MagSafe Charger.

When purchasing an Apple accessory, it's important to make sure you buy from a reputable retailer or from Apple's own site to avoid fakes, and accessories should never be purchased on sites like Instagram.

Article Link: Apple's Anti-Counterfeit Team Has Targeted Over 1 Million Listings on Instagram and Other Marketplaces in the Past Year

If you want faked Apple products—try any Amazon store where fakes are legion.

 

[MacBH928]

Isn't this the job of the government to catch counter-fit products?

 

[sosososo]

Before everyone goes off congratulating them know they are also doing this on craigslist trying to deliberately kill the second hand resale market for higher priced items like lap tops. I've tried a number of times to list mac books and mac airs for below peak pricing and those all get flagged and taken down immediately. This seems to be relatively new and no doubt they are flexing there muscle by claiming they are just taking down scammers. I've spoken to some resale specialists especially in California and they conformed its happening to them too, most of them have gone to Ebay etc. Apple doesnt give a fk about you anymore than they care about people committing suicide at foxcon, they only care about people continuing to buy there products new at the highest prices possible - this used to be called price fixing, now it's called ok.

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

That's typically for Amazon. The cheap products bring in a lot of money for amazon. As long as there's no big pressure against them, they won't do anything.

I mean: Amazon is like AliExpress. Just that on AliExpress you know that you get cheap stuff and pay way less than on Amazon.

I would be a little bit more conservative talking like that.
i think amazon should sue you! Amazon is a high quality retailer - world-wide - offering a wide range of fantastic products.