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Man Who Tricked Apple into Replacing 1,500 Fake iPhones Pleads Guilty to Trafficking Counterfeit Goods
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No iPhones produced after the 4S have serial numbers engraved on the device or SIM cards. The phone either has to be powered up and accessed via Settings, or powered up and accessed via iTunes when connected to a Mac. For later versions of iOS it can be accessed via Apple ID at applied.apple.com on the web.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204073
It's interesting that no one at Apple quickly caught the guy via his claimed associated Apple ID (if he ever supplied it). When the phones didn't power up, the techs examining the phones took the easy way out and just replaced them. Just guess.
Yes, but he didn't plastic suergeryof his face, if you visit a shop they will recognise you, atleast at the 100th visit.
Since they would not turn on there was no quick way to determine they were a fake; meanwhile Apple immediately started the replacement so as not to delay the exchange. My guess is once they started dismantling the phones they realized something was up, and it took them a while to figure out who was behind it. They may have waited to build a solid case that would be worth pursuing; or even trying to walk back to the suppliers in China.
$895K seems close to the retail value of the phones;that works out to $600/phone. Since he was running the scam a few years ago that's not too far off of the prices for an iPhone in 2016-17.
I doubt he got $200K for his efforts. His suppliers needed to take a cut for the fakes, as well as make a profit on the resale. Given the retail value was said to be $600K in China, giving him a third of the total would be awful generous; even if they can sell them for full retail price. He was just the sucker who took all the risk for a small cut.
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The larger story here is that 50% of the time Apple couldn't tell the difference between China counterfeit iPhones and real iPhones. Think about that.
Well no actually, jail is temporary holding (Usually less than a year), prison confinement is what the article is suggesting, which would be more of a permanent place for such a crime at this magnitude.
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I get your point but if all you are doing is making a phone that is externally identical to an iPhone, weighs the same but won't power up it's not all that hard. Given the volume of repairs Apple probably handles each phone is not going to get more than a quick check and the replaced; which is what the scammers relied on to run the scam. Of course, as with many crooks, they thought they were the smartest ones in the room and eventually found out they weren't.
The question for Apple is what is cheaper - stronger controls to catch fakes or go after crooks after they find out they are scamming Apple. Apple doesn't want to upset customers with legitimate warranty claims by making an exchange take longer, especially since people depend on a phone. If the cost of scams is mall enough it's better to simply go after the major scammers and accept that some losses are simply a cost of doing business. Apple can also put pressure on suppliers to make sure components aren't leaking as well as to get the Chinese government involved.
Do you remember this news?
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/10/09/apple-dramatically-reduces-iphone-fraud-in-china/
So they could have been real iPhones with stripped out parts, really hard to tell for an employee.
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/10/09/apple-dramatically-reduces-iphone-fraud-in-china/
So they could have been real iPhones with stripped out parts, really hard to tell for an employee.
A life sentace for killing a human being is 30 years:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-a-life-sentence-definition-length-statistics.html
knocking off some dumb company's mobile phones should be 20 years? get your priorities right people
It's easy to by external shells of iPhones as a replacement parts. The inside is another matter.
Care to explain why you feel this way? Is it not enough, or too much? Perhaps you feel he should just get a slap on the hand, your comment offers little value in it's current form...
Likely used a serial generator of some kind, and then used Apple's own AppleCare page and find current serial numbers with warranties. Then laser engraved serial numbers into the counterfeits. The weakest link in Apple procedure's was the automatic replacement if the iPhone doesn't power on. I wonder what a solution would be for proving a genuine device if it doesn't power on?
Yes, this was the best part of the whole article. We are talking about nearly a million dollars of criminal activity, and a 2015 Mercedes is specifically listed as part of punishment? I don't get it... is that a really expensive Mercedes?
Ummmmm.... apparently you didn’t read your own article that you linked?? Lol.
All it says is that “if a judge commutes a sentence of 30 years to life; the convicted may apply for parole at the 30 year mark”. It says ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE that a life sentence is 30 years. Wtf are you talking about?
For actual perspective: jacking a car is a 9 year offense. That’s a one time (perhaps unplanned) theft of something w/ a value of say $30,000... where the owner will likely get their property back. This is a long-term planned theft of like $900,000- where the victim is unlikely to recoup much, if anything.
Yeah- I’d say it sounds like roughly twice as big deal as grand theft auto.
Counterfeit definition according to Apple Inc. Any Apple product serviced, or opened by an unauthorized 3rd party immediately defines the device as a counterfeit Apple product.. So all of these phones could have had all original parts in them from other iPhones and just not turning on. Servicing your iPhone or benefiting financially from Apple's replacement warranty are all in violation of Apple's TOS.
Seems like this guy was using legitimate undamaged parts to trick Apple and cashing in on warranty exchanges. Apple is not cool with that (understandably).
Seems like this guy was using legitimate undamaged parts to trick Apple and cashing in on warranty exchanges. Apple is not cool with that (understandably).