Two Chinese people were found guilty of causing Apple to replace more than 5,000 counterfeit iPhones with genuine ones, causing damages of more than 450 million yen.
The US Department of Justice has announced that two Chinese people living in the US have been found guilty of causing more than $3 million (about 450 million yen) in damage to Apple. The defendants shipped over 5,000 counterfeit iPhones to Apple to have them replaced with genuine iPhones.
Office of Public Affairs | Two Foreign Nationals Convicted of Multimillion-Dollar Scheme to Defraud Apple Inc. Out of 5,000 iPhones | United States Department of Justice
Two people found guilty in $3M iPhone repair scheme with over 5,000 iPhones - 9to5Mac
https://9to5mac.com/2024/02/20/iphone-repair-scam-arrests/
The two people found guilty were Sun Haotian and Xue Pengfei, both residents of Maryland, USA. In 2017, both defendants opened eight post office boxes using Maryland driver's licenses and university ID cards. From May 2017 to September 2019, I received counterfeit iPhones sent from Hong Kong at my post office box.
The two then used forged serial numbers and IMEI numbers to send the counterfeit iPhones to Apple retailers and authorized service providers to exchange them for genuine iPhones. More than 5,000 counterfeit iPhones were sent to Apple, and Apple is said to have suffered more than $3 million in damages.
A federal court in the District of Columbia found both defendants guilty of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. The detailed sentences are scheduled to be handed down on June 21, 2024, and each carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.
According to 9to5Mac, an Apple-related news site, fraud cases in which counterfeit iPhones are exchanged for genuine iPhones have occurred in the past, and they point out that the method is almost the same as this case.
A man who exchanged an iPhone worth 100 million yen with a fake iPhone under warranty is arrested - GIGAZINE
Related Posts:
