Fake iPhone Scam in Russia

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Posted November 5, 2008 at 8:15pm by Shalom Levytam

Fake iPhones are being sold to unsuspecting victims in Russia in an increasing common scam according to EnglishRussia.com.

They are often being sold in the manner of a big rush, something like “Look, bro, I don’t have enough money for my train/plane tickets or whatever, but I’ve got a real iPhone, look the battery is dead but when you turn it on pushing the power you can see an apple logo for a while, so just charge it and you have an iphone!”. So people fall on this and then bring such devices to the service centers where they are being disassembled, and what a surprise - inside there is no anything looking like iPhone inner stuff but only two batteries and a light bulb lighting an apple logo shadow when the power button is being pressed, also there is a bar of steel so that the phone can weigh like a real thing.

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harry in russia - November 6, 2008 at 4:44pm

What would they do with the rest of the phone? Keep it for what? They'd need to find a broken phone to put the real stuff in, wouldn't that cost money too? It's not about 3rd world or not. Just people are smart in a different way :)

manit - November 6, 2008 at 5:52am

Thanks for info. I work near Paveletsky railway station in Moscow)