Apple couldn’t tell fake iPhones from real ones, lost $2.5M to scammers
Repair scheme got Apple to replace 6K fake iPhones with real ones.
"These counterfeit phones, Cohen said, were either out of warranty or contained counterfeit parts, but Apple "wrongly" believed that they were real phones under real warranties"
So not counterfeit. Just real iPhones that were out of warranty or has been repaired by a third party.
real phones with counterfeit parts resulting from third party repairs doesn’t seem that surprising given how restrictive apple is about providing authentic repair parts. i would not be surprised if this turns out to be another case of them shooting themselves in the foot because they got too greedy.
They truly are a ridiculous company. If they were a bit more open about their Macs I would buy one, but they aren't so I don't.
Their desire nickel and dime people as much as possible ultimately ends up in the earning less money. Meanwhile every small computer shop on the planet sells Windows computers.
or has been repaired by a third party.
Oh, the horror!
I used to work for Apple and before I joined the Genius Bar I was working the avenues (what they call the sides where they keep accessories) and because I’ve been known to pull a few scams myself (companies, never people) I have an eye for something out of the ordinary.
So I saw a lady bring in an iPhone and receipt to change it for the same phone in a different colour. Not that odd mind but I did notice it.
A few days later I see the same lady do this again with another employee and now I am thinking something is definitely off.
The next time she comes in I make sure I approach and ask them if they need help, again they ask to swap for a different colour.
I then say sure we can help with that and as is procedure we would confirm the Serial Number matches that on the receipt, we didn’t have access to the tools that read this from the hardware as we would on the GB, so we would power on the device and press the little “i” to view and compare. It’s a match, but still this isn’t legit obviously.
At this point, not that I’m protecting Apple here I wanted to work GB and this would get me on their radar, plus I was the shit at faking extroversion and giving outstanding service as I was depressed and I found being overly nice and energetic made me happier I would leave work on cloud 9 and then crash. I take the phone to the GB host (dude who checks people in) and say something is off here and explain all of the above. They send me to the repair room 🥰 never been in before and I was excited.
Once inside I explain to the tech guys that’s up and they’re like yeah that’s odd. They say to tell her that we need to do a few more checks and to come back in 30 minutes. Basically we were going by to open the phone and verify it’s innards. As well as using the serial number reader tool (forget the name now) to verify all is legit.
Go back to the lady and explain this, she’s flustered but agrees as she can’t not. Take the phone and box and drop it in the GB repair room. When I come back out I can see the lady is on the phone in an irate conversation with someone. A few minutes later she says she’s changed her mind and wants the phone back.
Go get her her phone and am instructed to write on the receipt to do a check before returning (again I forget the terminology) so that if she went to another store they’d now go open this phone up.
She’s pissed at this and leaves with her phone and receipt unhappy.
A while later I recall seeing a bust of a gang of folk from a certain country (the same this lady appeared to be from) for returning iPhones that either had fake innards or were not the phone in question.
As a scammer in the past it hurt to stop someone doing the same but this was my patch and I wanted to make a good impression. Which I did as I moved to the GB for 3 years which changed my life. They offered so much encouragement and you’re surrounded by talented people that I unskilled and I’m now a software developer (not for Apple).
I don’t know what it’s like working there in the USA, but in England it was amazing. They paid more than any other retail store, stock was given every year, you could buy it too at a discount, you were trusted and not micromanaged, the benefits were outstanding and led me to my ADHD diagnosis with healthcare (as sadly mental health support on the NHS is underfunded).
Did you ever have to deal with the HMRC Apple gift card scam? One lady I dealt with had literally thousands of pounds in Apple gift cards she wanted to purchase.
Super suspect.
GB = Great Britain?
Genius Bar as the other person as commented. I should have put it in parentheses, apologies.
Genius Bar
Is 2.5m even worth apples time?
It all trickles down. Some paralegal will get stuck negotiating a deal
Probably, so they can stop further abuses. This might only be 2.5 million that they know about...
For reference, Apple currently has roughly 70 billion USD as cash on hands. 2.5 million USD is 0.0035% of their cash reserves.
If you have a yearly salary of 50k USD, that would be equivalent to losing 1.78 USD.
I am bad at math, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Depends on how much it cost to pursue.
Since the scammers spoofed the ID numbers of real phones, it is quite possible that real customers will be affected bu this, so I wonder what will happen if a real customer who has issues with their real phone that had it's ID stolen and needs help....
oh no
Anyway
more like lmao, anyway
If there would be a B or T after the number it would be at least a bit interesting...
🤣
Sure, it's all "fake". It's foxcon with Apple logo.
Foxconn doesn’t design the phone they build it. I’m a mechanical design engineer with 20 years experience, that has been to many similar factories of large contract manufacturers across china and several other countries for my products, where we were teaching them and fixing the loads of issues in their manufacturing process. We often also designed the fixtures and tools for manufacturing too. I wager strongly you don’t know what you’re talking about
As an American, makes me think of real dollars backed by silver and gold and then everything else that's been printed and printed and printed (and printed) since the 70's. Same manufacturer.
The gold standard is interesting, but wouldn't the gold end up in a few hands eventually?
The gold standard is a myth anyway. You can't actually get that gold even if you do have an original dollar. The number of times it's been reprinted doesn't matter.
The US isn't backed by gold anymore the Euro was backed by the Dollar. Every currency is simply backed by that country's economy, that's why you get hyperinflation in countries with civil unrest or war.
Right, it was more of a metaphor between the Fed and Apple
