Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Two individuals had been discovered responsible of defrauding Apple out of tens of millions of {dollars} value of iPhones.
- The 2 despatched over 5,000 pretend iPhones to Apple for restore, which Apple changed with actual iPhones.
- This isn’t the primary time Apple has fallen for this identical rip-off.
Because the saying goes, idiot me as soon as, disgrace on you; idiot me twice, disgrace on me. Apple has as soon as once more fallen sufferer to a restore rip-off the place pretend handsets had been switched with actual fashions, just like the iPhone 15.
Based on a press launch from the US Lawyer’s Workplace, two residents of Maryland — each Chinese language nationals — had been discovered responsible by a federal jury within the District of Columbia of trying to defraud Apple. Haotian Solar, 33, and Pengfei Xue, 33, had been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and mail fraud, which comes with a most sentence of 20 years in jail.
The 2 had been stated to be engaged in a “subtle scheme” that concerned sending pretend iPhones to Apple for restore. Apple would then change these counterfeits with real iPhones. Over a span of two and a half years, the duo reportedly submitted over 5,000 handsets with the intention of inflicting “a lack of greater than $3 million.”
In an try and preserve anybody from catching on, the 2 used numerous aliases. Nonetheless, they had been caught and arrested on December 5, 2019. Sentencing is ready to start on June 21, 2024.
As talked about earlier, this isn’t the primary time Apple has fallen for this. The tech big has skilled this rip-off no less than three different instances. You’d assume one of many greatest firms on the earth would have methods of telling actual from pretend.
