BTW, the dude is a student at Oregon State University, not Oregon Sciences University (or Oregon Health & Science University). Although in this case, I'm sure OSU would be happy to not be represented accurately.
I remember reading a while back that this sort of fraud was quite common in China, and Apple was seeing a huge number of phones brought in for return that were fake. Apple even resorted to closing their store in China for a while. Hopefully they throw the book at these 2 criminals posing as students, punish them hard, and then deport them after time served.
Apple opened its first retail store in China in Shenzhen in 2009. The nation started to become one of its most important markets by 2012-13, and in 2015, sales represented a quarter of its global revenue. As a result, fraud started to become a serious problem. The Shenzhen store reportedly had three times the returns of Apple's flagship 5th Avenue in New York Store.
At that point, fraudsters became disruptive, which resulted in the closure of the Shenzhen store at one point.
I would think it would be possible to build a near field type identifier into each iPhone that doesn't require power. Something like a common security key card used for building entry.
iPhones are purchased using stolen credit cards. These phones now need to be laundered.
The phone is opened up and air is injected into the battery between the black covering and the battery internals, giving it the appearance of an expanded battery.
It is then taken into an Apple store. Phones with expanded batteries are not opened by techs for safety reasons, so the phone is replaced and the customer now has a fully working phone with a clean serial number.
The damaged phones have always been purchased in a different country, so the SN is not on any local police database. The person bringing the phone in is always Chinese.
Why do I suspect that some part of the narrative is missing, for example that the perpetrators were working with pals in China who were sending them screens and phone backs from recycling plants to use in making IPhonr-Alice’s that could pass muster with Geniuses? Or that actual counterfeits were manufactured using tools and dies used in earlier production runs at Foxconn?
iPhones are purchased using stolen credit cards. These phones now need to be laundered.
The phone is opened up and air is injected into the battery between the black covering and the battery internals, giving it the appearance of an expanded battery.
It is then taken into an Apple store. Phones with expanded batteries are not opened by techs for safety reasons, so the phone is replaced and the customer now has a fully working phone with a clean serial number.
The damaged phones have always been purchased in a different country, so the SN is not on any local police database. The person bringing the phone in is always Chinese.
Are you sure? inject air into battery (not N2?) will cause Li ion battery to explode. not just swelling... interesting Apple couldnot track SN - defeated whole purpose of SN. Apple phone is sealed, it is easy to put some indicator that seal was broken (like the moisture indicator - expose to water and turn red... could be as easy as back door pop up - discounnect antenna of wifi or NFC will send a signal to network as warning for example - or even just store in memory that can be retrived via NFC... sure apple genius can think about something to provent such event before it got out of the hands - like near 1 million we are talking about here... something fishy here... can't wait for the whole story come out).
iPhones are purchased using stolen credit cards. These phones now need to be laundered.
The phone is opened up and air is injected into the battery between the black covering and the battery internals, giving it the appearance of an expanded battery.
It is then taken into an Apple store. Phones with expanded batteries are not opened by techs for safety reasons, so the phone is replaced and the customer now has a fully working phone with a clean serial number.
The damaged phones have always been purchased in a different country, so the SN is not on any local police database. The person bringing the phone in is always Chinese.
sounds like you have lots of experience with this...
Wow, that's pretty bad that Apple technicians cannot detect a fake without powering on, or do they and this is simply a protocol error on the part of the people making the decision to send a replacement?
It's like 1400 iPhones if I remember correctly, so...probably should have caught it before now. Surprised Apple doesn't track returns, especially of this magnitude. Nordstrom does it, and they're a much less valuable company.
Well, this kinda pops the balloon of the critics who say Apple’s warranty process is too strict and they should be more liberal in replacing phones. But, as usual, all the above posts blame Apple for not being more suspicious. It’s always Apple’s fault... ALWAYS!
What you're arguing are two totally different points.
Point 1: Apple has critics that think they shouldn't automatically tell someone that their phone/computer etc is water damaged when it's been shown that humidity can change them over time. Point 2: If I consistently brought back 3000 phones to 3 different locations, that's 1000 phones per location. They have customer history. Heck, I've read stories of Apple stopping and seizing their proprietary screws for their laptops at the port when purchased by a non authorized repair service. If they can track $5 worth of screws, they can surely track $1 million in returns from the same people.
iPhones are purchased using stolen credit cards. These phones now need to be laundered.
The phone is opened up and air is injected into the battery between the black covering and the battery internals, giving it the appearance of an expanded battery.
It is then taken into an Apple store. Phones with expanded batteries are not opened by techs for safety reasons, so the phone is replaced and the customer now has a fully working phone with a clean serial number.
The damaged phones have always been purchased in a different country, so the SN is not on any local police database. The person bringing the phone in is always Chinese.
sounds like you have lots of experience with this...
iPhones are purchased using stolen credit cards. These phones now need to be laundered.
The phone is opened up and air is injected into the battery between the black covering and the battery internals, giving it the appearance of an expanded battery.
It is then taken into an Apple store. Phones with expanded batteries are not opened by techs for safety reasons, so the phone is replaced and the customer now has a fully working phone with a clean serial number.
The damaged phones have always been purchased in a different country, so the SN is not on any local police database. The person bringing the phone in is always Chinese.
Are you sure? inject air into battery (not N2?) will cause Li ion battery to explode. not just swelling... interesting Apple couldnot track SN - defeated whole purpose of SN. Apple phone is sealed, it is easy to put some indicator that seal was broken (like the moisture indicator - expose to water and turn red... could be as easy as back door pop up - discounnect antenna of wifi or NFC will send a signal to network as warning for example - or even just store in memory that can be retrived via NFC... sure apple genius can think about something to provent such event before it got out of the hands - like near 1 million we are talking about here... something fishy here... can't wait for the whole story come out).
Yes. The air is injected in the cavity between the black outer covering, and the metalised internal battery cover. It's not injected into the battery cells/chemicals as such. It was always easy to spot as a real expanded battery is rock hard, while the injected one was pliable and could easily be deflated again with a pin-prick. I have seen literally hundreds of this particular scam.
From what I understand, one team DID tell their manager that there was a problem with these customers, but her reply was "Just do what you can to keep things in "SLA" - she did NOTHING about the issue, it was finally dealt with by another manager. Strange that manager is still working there.
The phone is opened up and air is injected into the battery between the black covering and the battery internals, giving it the appearance of an expanded battery. rock hard, while the injected one was pliable and could easily be deflated again with a pin-prick. I have seen literally hundreds of this
WELL, APPLE FALL FOR SUCH A SCAM AT STORE THAT FULL OF GENIUS? APPLE BATTERY SUPPOSE HAVE VENT TO PREVENT HEATING AND SWELLING, IF THEY DON'T, THE DESIGN NEED TO GET THEIR HEAD EXAMED.
Comments
Apple opened its first retail store in China in Shenzhen in 2009. The nation started to become one of its most important markets by 2012-13, and in 2015, sales represented a quarter of its global revenue. As a result, fraud started to become a serious problem. The Shenzhen store reportedly had three times the returns of Apple's flagship 5th Avenue in New York Store.
At that point, fraudsters became disruptive, which resulted in the closure of the Shenzhen store at one point.
https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/10/iphone-chop-shop-parts-ring-china/
iPhones are purchased using stolen credit cards. These phones now need to be laundered.
The phone is opened up and air is injected into the battery between the black covering and the battery internals, giving it the appearance of an expanded battery.
It is then taken into an Apple store. Phones with expanded batteries are not opened by techs for safety reasons, so the phone is replaced and the customer now has a fully working phone with a clean serial number.
The damaged phones have always been purchased in a different country, so the SN is not on any local police database. The person bringing the phone in is always Chinese.
Point 1: Apple has critics that think they shouldn't automatically tell someone that their phone/computer etc is water damaged when it's been shown that humidity can change them over time.
Point 2: If I consistently brought back 3000 phones to 3 different locations, that's 1000 phones per location. They have customer history. Heck, I've read stories of Apple stopping and seizing their proprietary screws for their laptops at the port when purchased by a non authorized repair service. If they can track $5 worth of screws, they can surely track $1 million in returns from the same people.