In international locations just like the US, shopper safety legal guidelines normally enable prospects to buy a product and return it for a full refund or an alternate in the event that they’re not pleased with it or if there’s a defect. However, this in flip does open the door to the likelihood that such return/refund packages could possibly be abused.

This is what occurred with Haiteng Wu, a 32-year previous who was lately convicted of making an attempt to defraud Apple out of greater than $1 million value of counterfeit iPhones. According to the Justice Department, this was a scheme that occurred over a 3 and a half yr interval.

What occurred is that Wu took counterfeit iPhones from Hong Kong with spoofed IMEI and serial numbers that corresponded to genuine iPhones. He and his conspirators then took these units to Apple claiming that they have been professional units beneath guarantee, after which acquired actual iPhones as replacements.

Those actual iPhones have been then shipped again to Hong Kong the place they have been presumably offered for a revenue. Wu and his conspirators have been finally caught and arrested again in 2019, and was lately convicted and sentenced to 26 months in a US jail, whereas additionally being ordered to pay $987,000 in restitution.

Filed in Apple >Cellphones. Read extra about iPhone and Legal. Source: appleinsider