This is how they swindled 12 million euros from Apple, using fake iPhones

Five citizens of Chinese origin defrauded Apple of $12.3 million over ten years. It’s surprising that it took them so long to discover it.

iPhone phones are the most desired in the world, they sell like hotcakes on the black market. That is why they are also the target of all kinds of scams. Like the one they have suffered numerous Apple stores for a decade, without them realizing.

Five Chinese citizens residing in Los Angeles, Yang Song, Junwei Jiang, Zhengxuan Hu, Yushan Lin, and Shuyi Xing, They used fake iPhones to defraud Apple for an amount of almost 12 million euros, Explain Gizchina.

As detailed by State Attorney Martin Estrada, who revealed the case, These five criminals had accomplices in China, who sent them fake iPhones and other Apple devices. On the outside they were identical to the originals, but on the inside they had components that did not work.

The fake iPhone scam

These criminals manipulated the identification numbers of the devicesto match US identification numbers, which were still under warranty.

For ten years, they took fake iPhones and iPads to different Apple stores in California, claiming that they were under warranty, but did not work.

The Apple store employees, believing that the device was genuine, being within warranty, They gave them a new one.

Using this system, the criminals managed to sneak into Apple the incredible amount of 16,000 fake devices, from 2015 until a few months ago. The scam amounts to 12.3 million dollars.

After They sent these new devices to Chinawhere they sold them as new products.

It is surprising that, for a decade, and after receiving thousands of returns, nobody in Manzana Would you bother to review any of those devices?, and check why it had failed. Everything indicates that they do not check the defective devices they receive, they simply throw them away.

The five suspects have been charged with identity theft, conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Each of the charges carries a possible sentence of 20 years in prison..

Not even Apple itself is free from the scam of fake iPhones. Customers from whom the valid identification numbers came from are also harmed, although the complaint does not indicate how they obtained them.

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Tags: Viral, Curiosities, scam, iPhone