$89K worth of counterfeit Apple products seized by police from Maryland mall
Two stores at Maryland's Arundel Mills Mall were discovered by police to be carrying hundreds of knock-off Apple products and components, falsely being offered under the guise of authorized Apple repair shops.
Police estimate the value of the items found at the stores to be around $89,000, according to WBAL TV in Baltimore, Md. The counterfeit items were reportedly taken from raids on the mall's Cyberion store and ST Tech Pros kiosk.
The products seized include colored iPhone conversion kits, allowing customers to give a new look to their smartphone. But the parts were improperly adorned with the official Apple logo, suggesting to customers that the knock-off parts were authentic.
Other fake parts included covers, cases and replacement screens, for both the iPhone and iPad. Police had an Apple representative check the items to confirm they were fakes.
In addition to putting the Apple logo on non-Apple parts, the shops were allegedly engaged in other activities, such as putting black stickers over parts to cover up the fact that they were counterfeit.
Authorities also said that the unauthorized repair shops were taking iPhones and replacing interior parts with inferior components not built or provided by Apple. The raids were conducted after a 7-month investigation.
Dealing with counterfeit products is not a new issue for Apple, though most of the company's troubles with knock-offs tend to stem from China, not the U.S. Some have even gone as far as to build entire fake Apple stores in China.
Otterbox, a case maker that specializes in Apple's iPhone, also announced this month that it had shut down a counterfeit operation and secured a $2 million court victory against a New York-based company named S&P Trading Inc.
Police estimate the value of the items found at the stores to be around $89,000, according to WBAL TV in Baltimore, Md. The counterfeit items were reportedly taken from raids on the mall's Cyberion store and ST Tech Pros kiosk.
The products seized include colored iPhone conversion kits, allowing customers to give a new look to their smartphone. But the parts were improperly adorned with the official Apple logo, suggesting to customers that the knock-off parts were authentic.
Other fake parts included covers, cases and replacement screens, for both the iPhone and iPad. Police had an Apple representative check the items to confirm they were fakes.
In addition to putting the Apple logo on non-Apple parts, the shops were allegedly engaged in other activities, such as putting black stickers over parts to cover up the fact that they were counterfeit.
Authorities also said that the unauthorized repair shops were taking iPhones and replacing interior parts with inferior components not built or provided by Apple. The raids were conducted after a 7-month investigation.
Dealing with counterfeit products is not a new issue for Apple, though most of the company's troubles with knock-offs tend to stem from China, not the U.S. Some have even gone as far as to build entire fake Apple stores in China.
Otterbox, a case maker that specializes in Apple's iPhone, also announced this month that it had shut down a counterfeit operation and secured a $2 million court victory against a New York-based company named S&P Trading Inc.
Comments
j/k
It's crazy that people are manufacturing this stuff. To go through all that trouble and not have your own brand name to print on it? That's just weird...
Quote:
Originally Posted by brutus009
It's crazy that people are manufacturing this stuff. To go through all that trouble and not have your own brand name to print on it? That's just weird...
People want a quality brand, probably with a good warranty. Thinking about it, I wonder if any Samsung knock-offs have been made?
How would you get a pink one otherwise? Apple doesn't sell those.
"$89K worth of counterfeit Apple products seized by police from Maryland mall"
Are they talking about Samsung? ~
Dear authorities, you'll find more idevice knockoffs under the Galaxy brand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marsk
"$89K worth of counterfeit Apple products seized by police from Maryland mall"
Are they talking about Samsung? ~
It wouldn't be worth that much.
Each fake Samsung phone still counts towards the number they shipped.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
Nice to see someone getting arrested over this, but where I live if you stopped this sort of thing, you would have to arrest tens of thousands of people a year.
No arrests have been made.
http://www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel-county/police-seize-hundreds-of-counterfeit-apple-products/-/10137088/21698892/-/11ka12wz/-/index.html#.Uh_6SxB90hY.link
How dare Apple stop those poor small business owners from earning a living? Apple has plenty of money so they shouldn't worry about $89 K. /s
I don't think one could create a worse-than-Samsung-quality product.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eternal Emperor
Thinking about it, I wonder if any Samsung knock-offs have been made?
How would you tell?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jungmark
That's crazy. Everyone knows the Apple logo is the convergence of logo design. Apple is trying to have a monopoly on fruit themed logos. /s
Dear authorities, you'll find more idevice knockoffs under the Galaxy brand.
Wrong! Having a Apple Device in some countries is a status that you are wealthy or rich. You rarely see people wanting their Galaxy SIII in all pink, green, etc. sure you see some but how often? 1 time in the last 2 years... How many people do you see if colored iPhones? Thousands. Apple has the most customers, sure Samsung is right there with them, but the majority of people have iPhones. If you broke it down by company Apple would be first with Samsung, but you have to remember that samsung does only make the Galaxy line, they make the cheap ones too. Take out the cheap ones, bam Apple is in the lead by a lot. Apple is the most popular phone company, if you put all the companies that license Android you've got more but more people have iPhones than Galaxy's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilBoogie
I don't think one could create a worse-than-Samsung-quality product.
Its possible. Working for a repair company in Maryland ive seen it, and when that happens we send the part back to get a better one. We have a 6 month warranty on all of our parts that covers defects but not water damage of physical damage. We sell OEM parts and for Apple parts we do not sell backs with logos, they are straight black, or white, or whatever color you want, and we tell that to customers. Its the same quality part just with nothing printed on the back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Curtis Hannah
And they charger the full prices obviously, anything with the apple logo has to always Cost 10 times it would without /s
Full price would be a brand new phone for 200+, repair is less than 100...
Quote:
Originally Posted by TogetherWeStand
How would you tell?
Higher quality.
I think you misread it. In short, Galaxies are iPhone knockoffs.
The definition of a loser: A store trying to sell knock-off Microsoft Surface RTs.