iPhone scammers going strong

We’ve already reported on Scott Frederick Byers, an iPhone scammer that managed to defraud hundreds of Canadians of hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was ultimately caught, but it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have any followers.

Very commonly one can see ads for super-cheap iPhones on various internet forums. The people that advertise them offer very cheap prices, from $200 to $400 for brand new contract-free unlocked iPhones. In fact, the iPhone World forums were under attack from these people for months.

The problem is that these too-good-to-be-true deals are being offered by scammers that apparently originate from Nigeria, a country well known for its 419 advance-fee internet scams. The people responsible for this fraud scheme will ask you to wire them money for your iPhone, without ever shipping your device.

One businessman from Durban, South Africa has recently described his experience with these scammers.

He fell for a cheap iPhone advertisement. He answered one of these “cheap iPhone” ads. After paying the original price, the person he contacted “told me his boss had told him that the full amount needed to be paid and they would ship the goods only then, so I paid R1 600 into his account on the Monday. He then called me and told me the phone would get to me on Monday afternoon.” The phone never came on Monday. But the scammer contacted him again. “This time he wanted shipping charges of R1 100! So this was my position – either I take a gamble and pay the R1 100 in the hope that I’d finally get my phone, or lose the R3 600 I’d already paid.”

The businessman ended up paying the extra money. But guess what? He still did not receive the iPhone. “So I paid that R1 100. Guess what? I still didn’t get the phone, and when I tried his cell number he didn’t answer,” he says.

What’s next you might be thinking? The scammer eventually replied, saying “IT IS A SCAM. U CAN NEVER FIND ME. ALL INFO GIVEN TO YOU ARE FAKE. SIM CARD WILL BE DAMAGED SOON. SO DON’T CONTACT ME AGAIN. WE GOT MORE THAN 50 FAKE BANK DETAILS SO THAT IS NO PROBLEM“.

The police was alerted, but so far no results were obtained from its investigation: no one was arrested, while the businessman has not received even a part of his money back.

The bottomline is that there are many scammers online. You should really avoid taking on offers that seem to good to be true. And it probably makes sense buying iPhones from official distributors, or directly from other companies that sell them. Overall, be cautious!

Thanks to iol

Tags: app, iPhone, News, OS, unlock, USA

Related posts:

1. iPhone Scammers Hit eBay
2. iPhone Resellers Attract Scammers
3. “High quality” Apple iPhone copies in China for $196.53

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