20 ways to buy iPhone fraud

When we disassembled the iPhone 6, provided by one bold online store, on September 19, its owner Igor told us amazing stories about fraud associated with this popular gadget. The stories were as fascinating as they were sad. After the epic with the analysis and collection ended, I asked Igor to tell all the methods of cheating he knew, of which there were already twenty pieces. Most of them concern iPhone buyers, but some relate to sellers, who are also trying to deceive with reluctant regularity.



The result was a post that, I hope, will help you avoid many troubles when buying gadgets. Moreover, the tricks of fraudsters are universal, and can be applied not only in operations with Apple products.

Method 1. Selling iPhone prepaid.

This is the most common way to scam. Perhaps you even read about him. But scammers have recently become trickier. Resourceful black businessmen write down the conditions of purchase in the announcement: “no prepayment”, “pickup”, “payment after a performance check”, “without Corn cards” and even buy the “Shop” status on Avito for 40,000 rubles a year. The sales scheme looks reliable even for a suspicious guy, and you call. On that wire, a confident competent manager talks about the pros and cons of the model you are interested in, advises on emerging issues, takes an order, learns about the need for additional accessories (protective cover, car charger, etc.). Everything, as in decent stores. Then they promise you delivery within two hours,

This is followed by a sly feint with ears. The manager explains that due to the increasing attempts to rob couriers and pay with fake money, you will have to pay for the iPhone by replenishing your own personal account, and the check with the security code, without which they supposedly cannot withdraw your money, must be handed to the courier. When you go to the Qiwi terminal, Eleksnet or any other, you call the manager and he explains to you that you need to go into one of the wallets and enter your contract number.

“So, are you ready?” Enter! Nine zero three five five one one two one seven ”(9035511217, ie regular telephone number),“ now pay the full amount of payment ”. What happens next - guess for yourself. In addition to terminals, fraudsters famously use Euroset with its Corn, Svyaznoy and even Sberbank cards, issuing cards to dummies.

“What about pickup?” You ask. Yes, everything is fine! “The office is closed for repairs in the next 3 days” or, as an option, “It is located at 17 Mikhogovo, Gogol Street, directly opposite Sberbank” or “We have very long lines, wait 2-4 hours.” After that, you will be offered a scheme with a courier - and then according to the described recipe.




Method 2. A large online store sells an iPhone with a big prepayment discount.

Unfortunately, the well-known shops that have been proven for years are used to pay in advance. It happens like this. A 50% discount is declared, but with a 100% prepayment and delivery in three weeks. The fame of the store and the low price for the device pushes people to line up to give their money. There is a transfer of funds in the office, they give you a full package of documents - checks, a contract, everything is decorous and noble.

When, after three weeks, call to clarify whether it is possible to pick up your telephone, they explain to you that due to the very high number of placed orders, the company can’t cope with the delivery of such volumes, does not meet the deadline and transfers your order for another 2-3 weeks. This is allowed by the terms of the contract, which you most likely did not read very carefully. After 2-3 weeks, the story repeats itself, but the reason for the delay may change. Theoretically, you can start the money back procedure, but they tell you that the iPhone is already close, and you need to wait a little while. Well, right here is a bit. Some lend themselves to persuasion, others do not. The story continues until the buyer runs out of patience. But even if he immediately goes to fill out the refusal, he learns that under the terms of the contract (who reads these contracts?) The funds will be returned within a month, and in some cases, withholding a certain commission. In the most funny cases, you have to sue and wait for the bankruptcy of the company. With unpredictable results.

Let's count. For example, BigBazzy in 2012, having launched the action “iPhone 4s with a 51% discount for 19990 rubles,” collected more than 50,000 orders worth an amount approaching 1 billion rubles. The company used this money for 3-5 months. Perhaps the collected simply lay at interest at the bank, perhaps it was used to purchase goods and advertising. This is not very important. But to twist a billion rubles for about six months is very, very nice. Some of the “buyers” were lucky, and they managed to get their money back, while someone is waiting for their order to this day.



Method 3. Selling the “restored” iPhone under the guise of new ones.

Often in the description of iPhones there are the words refurbished, ref or just “ref”. Some sellers simply write this without explaining what the designation is, and some stores claim total novelty. Like, the device is completely new, sealed, etc. For those who do not yet know what “ref” is, I’ll explain. Sellers will talk about the iPhone, which returned the dissatisfied customers directly to the Apple Store, they were sent to the factory, carefully tested, re-packaged and now sold at a big discount. In fact, everything is a little sadder. In Russian conditions, “ref” is an iPhone with low-quality Chinese parts. Everything is Chinese there - screen, speaker, microphone, cables, antenna, bolts, etc. Everything except the motherboard so that the operating system is original. The percentage of marriage in such masterpieces tends to 100 percent. Usually they live a couple of months before repairs. "Refs" are sold everywhere, but according to announcements from private owners, there are especially many of them.





Method 4. Selling a Chinese iPhone fake under the guise of the original.

If you think you can easily distinguish the Chinese copy of the iPhone on Android from the original, I will greatly disappoint you. Copy mastery has grown so much that even with rather thoughtful eyeing, the difference is hard to notice. Well, maybe put a real device next to it and poke at all the menu items.

This disgrace is often sold under the guise of the original iPhone, and for greater persuasiveness they apply a check from Euroset or Svyaznoy. The story is told in a standard way: two things were presented for my birthday, I sell the extra at a big discount, I really need money. “Purchased” at Euroset for 26,990 rubles, iPhone 5S will be given to you for only 9,000, and in the process of dialogue they will drop another couple thousand. Like, the pipes are burning, it is very necessary to put out the fire.

The check is printed on a cash register printer, which is available in all bars and restaurants. You can buy your own - it costs from 2000 rubles. The invoice is built on a conventional printer. Prints, as you know, can be ordered by print in almost any profile company. With home delivery, one seal will cost 500 rubles, and this with home delivery.



Method 5. Selling the layout of the iPhone under the guise of the present.

For some, this is not a secret, but someone will know about it now for the first time. If you see a pile of Apple products in the storefront or on the radio market, these are not real devices, but their models. Firstly, spreading the originals is not safe. Secondly, too expensive. I note that they do the same for the hill.

But there is another category of citizens who use these models for personal gain. Let's calculate the costs. Box-dummy - 300 rubles, dummy iPhone - 900 rubles, a set of Chinese accessories 150 rubles, shipping films 50 rubles, seal iPhone in a film - 50 rubles. Post an ad on a bulletin board - for free. Total is 1,450 rubles. To sell quickly, put the price low, for example, 19,000 rubles. And the asset is 17550 rubles and slightly spoiled karma.

True, the dummy weighs much less than the original, and occasionally it is adjusted by weight. Ask how you can confuse a fake with a normal device? So the film is in place! It’s clear that it’s new. Therefore, you can not even open up to the house. Or the seller himself will reverently cut the film and show that everything is new inside. You have no idea how often this works.


author of the photo Andrey Kovalev



Method 6. Selling a faulty iPhone.

The scheme is similar to the previous one, only a little more expensive for a fraudster. The device, decently looking from the outside, but actually dead, is glued with shipping films, and the box is sealed in a factory film. An announcement about the sale is cheap - and it started.


This video is provided as a demonstration of packaging technology. The company that provided the video conducts an honest business.

Method 7. Locked under the iPhone operator.

The device purchased in America with a contract for $ 200 is printed out, a bottom sticker with the data of the device, for example, from Germany, is glued to the back of the box, the box is sealed in factory film and put up for sale for 19,000 rubles. If you bought such a miracle, there is a chance to stumble upon scammers again, only others. In search of a way to unlock the iPhone, you will find a lot of sites that for a modest fee of $ 15 to $ 90 will “untie” it from the operator of any country. Naturally, prepaid. Well, you get the point.





Method 8. Robbery of the buyer.

Completely frostbitten individuals expose the new iPhone 5S with 64 gigs of thousands of memory for twelve rubles. But they can only meet in the evening after work, in the Vykhino district at 22:00. The goal is simple - to find the victim in the right place at the right time with decent amounts of cash. And again you won’t believe how many freebies lovers are ready to go to Vykhino to buy a cheap iPhone at night ...

Method 9. Fake SMS.

The buyer finds an ad for the sale of iPhone cheaply and without prepayment. Unfortunately, the seller is located in the farthest region of the Russian Federation (these famous Chukchi iPhones!), But sends orders via DHL. The buyer makes an order, leaving the delivery address, phone number and name. After 3-5 days, an SMS arrives at your number. DHL is indicated by the sender, and inside the text that the package was sent to your name from the iPhone 6, in order to receive it, you need to specify the departure number. You contact the seller, and he asks you to make a payment, after which he will inform you of the departure number. Since DHL cannot provide you with any information without a departure number, many are doing this. And the SMS was actually sent by an attacker.

Method 10. Selling an iPhone with the Find iPhone feature enabled and an active Apple ID.

The first clever men with similar fraud appeared relatively recently, 9-10 months ago. With the release of iOS 7, it became possible to remotely block the device through your Apple ID in cases when it was stolen or lost. It is impossible to unlock such a device, but at the same time its location on the map is easily tracked.

As a result, the divorce looks like this. A trusting buyer buys a used device, and a day later a message comes to him: “This phone has been stolen. I know your location. Call the number ... and return the iPhone, or I am writing a statement to the police. ” After that, the device is blocked. In addition to the location, the victim's phone number is also known. In 95% of cases, such a device is returned to the owner, and after a day it is put up for sale again. And so on to infinity. If the potential victim does not return the phone, a statement is written to the police with the provision of available data, after which the phone is confiscated. According to the same scheme, they can block your personal iPhone by stealing your mail and asking for a ransom in the amount of 500-3000 rubles. Still, they say photos can steal.



Method 11. Selling the original iPhone with further substitution for a copy or layout.

In this method, the name speaks for itself. You are met by a seller, you check a really original new device, but at some point the attacker changes it to a fake. A little sleight of hand, but how many impressions.

Method 12. Selling deliberately defective iPhone.

This method is often practiced on Yandex Market. Looking for cheap options, you come across a store with more than 1000 reviews and 5 stars. Without reading the reviews (after all, five stars are enough), you place an order and wait for delivery. A courier arrives, and at the door gives you an iPhone and signature documents. Patter says that the warranty is one year, return-replacement within 14 days, asks to sign and is removed.

Having found a marriage, you contact the store for a refund, you are dictated by a support service number that composts the brain in various ways (send the order number, wait two days. Now send a copy of the check and wait another two days. Now we need a photo of the fault - and so on infinity). The number is often busy and does not respond, they respond to mail for a long time or do not respond at all. Having decided to write a review on Yandex.Market, you are horrified to find out that there are already a lot of similar ones, but there are a lot of similar positives between them, many of which were bought at 20 rubles apiece.



The foregoing methods of fraud mainly affect buyers. But Apple sellers are often the victims of villains.

Method 13. iPhone wholesale from 10 pieces.

An announcement appears on the sale of the iPhone 6 with 128 gigabytes on board at a price of 30,000 rubles, but the minimum order is 10-20 pieces. Old-timers of the market do not even pay attention to such announcements, but newly-minted businessmen do. You make an appointment (without money) to check if these are real iPhones, and not ref, copy, dummy, etc. And it really turns out that the original is for sale, and the terms of the transaction are transparent: goods are money.

Why is this done? And then, now that the attackers know what the potential victim looks like. In the next meeting (or in front of her), a successful or not very good attempted robbery will occur. Or the conditions will change to prepay.

In some cases, resourceful dealers themselves call sellers and online stores with an offer to buy an iPhone cheap. So, for example, a couple of days ago a clever man phoned everyone and offered the “six” for 128 GB for $ 750. When he was told that the price was suspiciously low, he already began to offer others $ 850 each. Learn fast.



Method 14. Verify iPhone photo and video.

A buyer from another city contacts the seller to buy an iPhone. He himself suggests sending a full prepayment in any convenient way, plus 3,000 rubles for shipping costs. For example, via DHL. But before that, he wants to get a photo and video with a sealed box, in order to make sure that it is new and not activated. What can be done with this data can only be guessed at. Below I publish a dialogue and the materials requested by the attacker. My interlocutor gently sent the man and posted on the website a warning material indicating the phone number of this character. After just a couple of days, a search query with a phone number began to bring in 20-30 people a day. That is, the tricky guy still managed to get photos and videos, and to breed dozens of people at the expense of this.





Method 15. Robbery of the seller.

The most common way to cash in on the seller of the iPhone is a brazen robbery in its various manifestations. In the store or at the seller, they order several more expensive iPhones, call the delivery address and wait for the courier at the entrance. It even comes to the fact that the girl draws an order with a small child in the background. Mostly eastern people and guests from very central Asia are robbed. No offense, this will be said to someone, but that is how things are in 99% of cases. Interestingly, an order is always executed by a person without an accent, who speaks good Russian.

Method 16. Payment with fake money.

Fake banknotes with a face value of 5000 or 1000 are bought on the black market for 50% of the face value, or they work for criminal elements at such a rate. Next, place an order for an expensive iPhone - in the evening with urgent delivery or in advance, but with delivery in the evening. With poor lighting, counterfeit money is practically impossible to distinguish from real money. In the afternoon they can play a small scene. The seller meets with the buyer, specifies the full amount that must be paid, and then goes - supposedly - to withdraw money at the nearest ATM. After 3 minutes, returns with brand new bills. Not the most vigilant couriers and sellers often fall for this bait.

Method 17. Hall of money.

Also, when buying several iPhones and iPads, they often use the bill room. The seller meets with the buyer, he takes the devices and transfers the money that the seller recounts, and there are not enough, for example, thousands. The attacker is surprised, apologizes and asks for money back to recount on his own. Yes, indeed, thousands are missing. Then the swindler takes out another banknote of 1000 rubles and reports in a total bundle, but at the time of recounting he bent about a third of the amount. And in the process of getting an extra thousand, he hid the broken money. Some sellers do not double-check the money again and put it in their wallet. With those who are going to recount the money again, the following happens. The buyer, citing strong employment, begins to abruptly leave or run away, and the seller, not having time to count the money, faced with a difficult choice, to run after or count. Both options are bad.



Method 18. Remote purchase in order to obtain bank card data.

This case occurred with a sale on the Molotok website. After placing the order, the seller dialed the customer’s number, but he dropped the call and immediately wrote an SMS that he couldn’t speak now, he would call back later. Then came something like this dialogue:

- On what question are you?
- As for the purchase on the “Hammer” of the iPhone.
- Yes, I ordered, discard the card number for payment, I will transfer the money within an hour.

We drop the card number. A few minutes later a new message arrives.

- I just went to the Euroset, but here to replenish your card they ask for the date of its validity.

We are sending the wrong date ...

- I will now send 50 rubles to make sure that I entered your data correctly.
An SMS arrives with approximately the following content: “The amount of 50 rubles to be credited to the Beeline number has not been made.”

After reading only the first 5 words from SMS, we confirm that 50 rubles were received. After this, an attempt to withdraw 3000 rubles follows. Those. an attacker, having your card number and knowing the date of its "expiration date", can transfer funds without confirmation of the card holder. Many people think that without three digits on the back of the card this is impossible, and send real data. Two days later, the site support service Molotok.ru notifies you of the danger.



Method 19. Payment by bank transfer from a legal entity.

A customer is contacting the manager of the online store who wants to buy a bag of iPhones by bank transfer, but due to the urgent need, the goods are needed just today (the tyrant-chief of the jubilee simultaneously with his bitch-wife, and all this coincided with a silver wedding). On the manager’s explanation that the issue of iPhones can be carried out only after the funds have been credited to the account, the buyer offers to make a payment personally with the manager at the office. Long persuasions and explanations of some convince (weak man!). The transfer is executed in the presence of the manager, the attacker takes the purchase, after which the payment is withdrawn on the same day.

Method 20. Replacing the original iPhone for a fake or layout.

Everything is like in the 11th method, but this time the seller becomes a victim. A fraud buyer contacts him with a desire to buy an iPhone. At a meeting, as a rule, the buyer does not come alone. Before payment, the fraudster wants to check the phone for performance, at this time his accomplice asks the seller about something. Then the buyer does not like something and he refuses the purchase. The couple quickly leaves, taking with them a real iPhone, and leaving a fake in a box.

Summing up, we can understand that the most obese herds of scammers graze on various sites of free classified ads. And all this happens with the connivance of the leadership of the sites, which is in no hurry to introduce protective measures (for example, for sellers of goods with a price higher than 9000 rubles, you can enter verification, indicating verified by some sign, as well as the ability to leave reviews). The only thing that bothered to do on Avito, is to write “Do not agree to prepay if you are not sure about the seller’s reliability”, and also set the date of registration of the seller on the site. However, at the request of the seller himself, information on registration can be hidden.

But we must understand that not the management of sites is a source of evil, but dishonest citizens. At all sites there are decent and responsible sellers. And they are actually the majority. And you can insure against scammers by following the three rules.

1) No need to peck at an awkwardly low price. There are no miracles.

2) Pay for goods in cash only after the fact, after checking the devices for operability.

3) Check iPhone by IMEI - if it has been activated before and what color it is. Often, buying a new white iPhone 5 and checking it by IMEI, you will find out that it was activated 10 months ago, and then it was black. IMEI, by the way, is indicated directly on the box, it is not necessary to open it for verification. But if it is opened - of course, you need to turn on the device and see the IMEI in it itself.

You can also recall that the official Apple online store operates in Russia , where, for example, students can buy equipment at lower than market prices.

The author thanks for the help in preparing the post of Igor Runcis ( http://my-apple-store.ru )