In a recent case of fraud, two men have been sentenced for their elaborate scam defrauding Apple by taking advantage of Apple’s return policy.
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Haotian Sun and Pengfei Xue, two Chinese nationals living in the US, used to import counterfeit iPhones from Hong Kong to various UPS mailing addresses, subsequently submitting them at Apple stores or authorised partners for refunds and replacements.
They provided the company with fake IMEI numbers, thus receiving genuine iPhones in return for free. The court has sentenced both of them to several months in prison, along with hefty restitution orders totalling ₹12 Cr. It was revealed that their scam resulted in Apple losing $2.5 Million (₹21 Cr)!
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While fraudsters scamming the public has become a common thing, it is rare that we see a multi-billion dollar company like Apple getting scammed in such a manner for such a long period.
Public opinion has been increasingly divided over the matter, with some praising Apple for swift action against the scammers, while others question how an incident like this was allowed to happen in the first place.
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This incident exposes the ground-level mismanagement at Apple, a company that often portrays itself as the ‘perfect’ organization without any flaws. It also raises a serious concern that if Big Tech giants such as Apple are not safe from such scams, then how much safety can a common man expect to have from these frauds?