Maryland Police Seize $89,000 Worth of Counterfeit Apple Products From Local Mall

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Posted August 30, 2013 at 10:07pm by iClarified

Maryland State Police raided two local cell phone stores and confiscated $89,000 worth of counterfeit Apple products last Friday, reports WBALTV.

Hundreds of fake products were taken from the Cyberion store and ST Tech Pros kiosk in Arundel Mills Mall.

The items recovered included iPhones and the colored fronts and backings that go with them, cellphone conversion kits, iPhone and iPad covers, Apple product ID stickers, iPad replacement screens and various internal iPhone parts. Detectives also found packaging materials, equipment used to design and print those materials and computer equipment believed to be used to clone phones.

"Our investigators believe that they were acting as some type of authorized Apple repair shop and they were taking Apple phones and replacing them with interior parts that were inferior, that were fake, that were not Apple products," said officer Greg Shipley.

"These companies are printing the name Apple. They are putting the logo on there. They are doing what they can to cover up the fact these are counterfeit, but even some of the things they're doing are very simple like putting a black sticker over it to try to cover up something that notes it's counterfeit," Shipley said.

More details at the link below...

Maryland Police Seize $89,000 Worth of Counterfeit Apple Products From Local Mall

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Sami - September 4, 2013 at 4:08pm

Those repair shops use parts that have no apple logo on them just to stay out of trouble. It's up to the consumer to exercise the option to repair their iPhone at a repair shop rather than going directly to apple. They all have disclaimers saying that the use and installation of any parts sold will in fact void any existing warranty that you may have through apple. I don't know about you guys but if my car breaks down or needs a new part, I'd rather go to a local mechanic rather than go directly to the stealership. They might use aftermarket parts or unbranded parts but they aren't getting shut down like these stores and kiosks who are trying to make some money by providing a more affordable option to repair their iPhone or iPad.

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Exactly - September 1, 2013 at 8:06am

Exactly!!! Apple are so greeeeeedy!!! Here is is how much it will cost you to replace some iphone 5 parts: Mic. = 250$ Speaker = 250$ Home buttone = 250$ Power/volume buttone = 250$ Actual cost of any of this is under 1$ !!!! Proffit over 160-250 fold (over 16 000%)

AppleIsMoneyHungry - August 31, 2013 at 5:48pm

I agree with you and EVERYONE, uses 3rd party parts. They are not saying that it is illegal to repair iPhones using aftermarket parts. What makes these item counterfeit is that they are using the Apple logo (Trademarks & Private Labels). I know this because my store was raided by the police as well however I got arrested for it. I told the officers and all of my customers that we only use aftermarket parts and that they are NOT OEM. They do NOT care if you say they are OEM or not, I know this first hand. In order for me to continue to do business, I had to look for a supplier that sold aftermarket parts that DO NOT have any apple logos or apple marks. All my back covers for the iPhone 4/4S are not plain glass with no logos or marks. This is the only "Legal" way to continue to operate as a smartphone repair shop without having the risk of breaking the law. If you are using the color conversion kits with the apple logo, They CAN/WILL arrest you as it is considered a Felony. I hope this info helps out any repair shop owner/technician because I would not wish this whole ordeal that I had to go through to any. Its been a year now and I still paying my fine for this BULLSHIT. Apple is just a greedy company and want to get rid of business like us because they are NOW realizing the amount of money they are losing for not doing repairs on their own products.

the real J - August 31, 2013 at 2:07pm

Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve!!!

CrazyNick - August 30, 2013 at 10:49pm

If all of this stuff is counterfeit, how can it be worth $89,000? Shouldn't it be worth $0?

Apple certified 9yrs - August 30, 2013 at 10:28pm

Wanna buy some??

Mr bo jangles - August 30, 2013 at 10:20pm

What about the thousands and thousands of items like those on eBay and amazon