14 DAY TRIAL // For over a month, an electronics shop in Wenzhou, China housed several scammers who would trick Apple into providing them with iPhone parts which then ended up in full-fledged handmade iPhones.
The Register reports that five employees at an electronics store were arrested in Wenzhou (a Chinese city) “after they submitted 121 fake iPhone 4S BAND parts to Apple, claiming they were damaged and needed replacing.”
The scammers would exchange the fake components for real ones which they then used to assemble iPhones providing their own back cover, battery, and other components that they could afford.
The scammers would sell the “new” iPhone 4S devices for a profit of about 1,000 yuan (£105 / $160 / €123).
Apple eventually caught wind of the scam and started an investigation. About a month later, “on April 1, police finally cuffed a shop engineer and her boyfriend as the ringleaders,” according to the report. Another three, who participated in the scam, were also arrested.