The US Justice Department uncovered a major iPhone fraud which has been taking place for years. Two accused members Haotian Sun and Pengfei Xue were arrested by the US Department last week for exploiting the company’s iPhone repair policy in exchanging more than 6000 counterfeit phones for genuine phones. It is reported that the two members have been sent to jail for holding the iPhone repair scam. Know more about the scam and how they fooled Apple‘s repair services.
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iPhone repair scam unfolded
According to the US Department of Justice (DoJ) report, two Chinese nationals defrauded Apple by exchanging more than 6000 counterfeit phones for real iPhones worth 2.5 million ( ₹20 crore). The press report revealed that between May 2017 and September 2019, Sun, Xue and other involved members took counterfeit iPhones to Apple Inc. for repair, unaware of the duped iPhone, Apple was compelled to exchange the device with a real iPhone as part of its repair policy.
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The entire case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Washington Division and Homeland Security Investigations’ Washington Field Office. The duped iPhones were exported from Hong Kong via DHL and UPS mailboxes with manipulated serial numbers or IMEI numbers. The scammers used multiple email addresses for raising iPhone repair requests, tricking the Apple Care workers that their iPhones were not working or had some major defect. DoJ said, “ On February 20, 2024, after three-and-a-half days of testimony, Sun, of Baltimore, and Xue, of Germantown, MD, were found guilty by a federal jury in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and mail fraud.” Now, both accused have been sentenced to more than 4 years in jail.
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Well, this is not the first time, such a scam has been reported as the National Retail Foundation revealed that auch return fraud cost companies $101 billion itself in 2023. On the other hand, for every $100 product return, retailers lose about $13.70 in fraud which is quite concerning.
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