Chinese Counterfeiter Busted for Selling $1.1M of Fake iPhones and iPads

[satchmo]

Geez. This scam must've taken so much effort. I'd just sell some scam cryptocurrency instead, way easier. And whoever built a fake iPhone and fake iOS obviously had a lot of legitimate talent they could've used for, you know, a regular job.

If you know the right people in the manufacturing plants in China, it's not that much effort. Culturally, making knockoffs of popular brands is sadly still, an accepted business practice.

 

[kdarling]

In a way, it goes to show you the notoriety and popularity Apple Products has that a counterfeiter would go to these lengths to sell fraudulent Products.

You should’ve seen the early Galaxy Note counterfeits . The details that went into the fake boxes and included guides was amazing.

Anything popular is gonna get copied, and the more expensive it is, it seems the better the copy looks.

 

[Jar Jar Abrams]

GOOD!

I've been burned once before wiht an iPhone 5C and reported it to the cops. ****** left the country left me out $500 for a crappy Android knock off that wouldn't even fully nor hold a charge to be used as a phone that I really needed. Hope he got busted just like these frakers. That was good hard-earned money in some tough times back then. Now I know what to look for when buying on the grey market which I'll stop from doing going forward.

Me too, I got burned once. I try to buy apple gear always new now, I know it’s hard for some for different reasons we all have priorities, life commitments but when I can I’m not taking that risk again.

1. Likewise when I buy somethimng from Amazon I always make sure it’s sold by and shipped from Amazon, found I’ve bought fake stuff from Amazon before that was sold by a ....third party... and shipped by Amazon, who knows how the fake gear (Bose QC25) got into Amazons fulfillment Centre but it did.

Reckon it’s about time the world started faking the few original Chinese companies products - DJI and ....I’m sure there’s another.

 

[SteveW928]

That people use all day, every day, to build and produce stuff only to fool people and make it a knockoff quite honestly baffles me - to be able to live with yourself

We've gotten to used to assuming a certain level of ethics. It doesn't just come out of nowhere, and unfortunately, I think our 'Western' society is headed back more towards these other places again. I see a lot more attitude of either 'it's legal' vs whether it is right or not, but also 'what I can get away with' makes it right. And, if you don't have ethics, it doesn't take much of anything to live with yourself.

Some of the sales of this carefully-crafted product are probably domestic in China (and not as badly marked up, one would assume--selling a status symbol at a lower cost), but a lot are going to be small-time scammers in another country.

Actually, I'd bet the majority of the sales are in China or other countries with less stringent policies. I doubt these jokers were even involved in the production, they probably just skimmed some off and devised a scheme to try to get them into the US market.

Heck, if they hadn't used Apple's trademark, it might not even be illegal in many places.

 

[pratikindia]

In China, you can get fake products from any brands. Be it clothing, electronics, auto or food items. You can't even tell it by seeing the it's duplicate. Do you know that they have fake rice, fake eggs too? It's ridiculous.

 

[gnasher729]

I think robbing a bank for thousands vs scamming people of millions are very different crimes, with the former being a whole lot worse in most cases.

A bank robber usually if not always has a gun, creates an atmosphere of fear and panic, threatens people’s lifes, can cause life long suffering for their victims. Scammers like this usually result in a lot of anger and caution amongst those immediately affected and the general public.

Therefore, handing down a harsher penalty to a bank robber seems appropriate.

For the scammer: one day in jail. For every victim. In this case 40,000 victims.

 

[CrystalQuest76]

We need stricter rulings like these where i am from. Here a rapist of a teenager gets a 1.000€ fine and 2 years on probation and crap like that

You will need to be more specific. From what I have been reading there are lots of countries that don't have laws or systems in place protect females or children.

 

[itsmilo]

You will need to be more specific. From what I have been reading there are lots of countries that don't have laws or systems in place protect females or children.

The judge was like „since the victim did not even bother to appear in court today clearly it wasnt much of importance to her“

 

[mguzzi]

That' wild - I watched a couple of the clone reviews on You Tube and the fakes are not easy at all to spot.

 

[Soccertess]

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Unlike the USA, business crimes are not overlooked and these men will go to a chinese prison or face a firing squad....

Using Siri is like going infront of a firing squad

 

[pika2000]

Sometimes it amazes me how people are so willing to buy from highly dubious sources just so they can save a few bucks or so. No wonder these counterfeiters are highly profitable. I can understand them in places where there is zero official channels (people have no choice), but in the US?

 

[mguzzi]

I actually bought some Power Beats 2 from a friend that were counterfeit and I didn't know that they were fake until months later. They worked fine for the most part. However now that I know how to spot a fake I am really surprised t the amount of counterfeit merchandise that is for sale on facebook marketplace. Especially Beats Headphones and iPhones.