Two Chinese language nationals have been sentenced to jail for scamming Apple out of greater than $2.5 million after exchanging over 6,000 counterfeit iPhones for genuine ones.
Between July 2017 and December 2019, Haotian Solar, Pengfei Xue, and their co-conspirators, Wen Jin Gao and Dian Luo, exploited Apple’s system substitute coverage to interchange non-functioning faux iPhones for real units.
Their aim was to “unjustly enrich themselves by fraudulently obtaining authentic iPhones from Apple after submitting inauthentic iPhones to Apple for repair and replacement,” in keeping with the court docket paperwork.
The counterfeit iPhones have been shipped from Hong Kong to business mail receiving company (CMRA) mailboxes in United Parcel Service (UPS) shops in the US. To open these mailboxes, they used their precise college identification playing cards and driver’s licenses.
As found by the investigators, they submitted these faux iPhones with spoofed IMEIs and serial numbers to Apple retail shops and Apple Approved Service Suppliers.
Apple despatched them substitute iPhones through personal and business interstate carriers (together with FedEx, DLH, and UPS). The units have been then shipped again to Hong Kong, the place they have been bought, and the proceeds have been shared among the many conspirators.
Their return fraud scheme was attainable as a result of Apple prospects can return defective iPhones through mail, at Apple retail shops, or by means of Apple Approved Service Suppliers and trade them for brand spanking new ones inside one yr of buy beneath the corporate’s guarantee service and handset substitute program.
“Members of the conspiracy submitted more than 6,000 inauthentic phones to Apple during the conspiracy, causing a loss of more than $2.5 million,” the Justice Division stated in a press launch revealed at present.
Solar and Xue have been arrested by U.S. postal inspectors in December 2019 and have been each convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud in February.
Solar was sentenced to 57 months in jail and three years of supervised launch, whereas Xue obtained a 54-month jail sentence adopted by three years of supervised launch. The court docket additionally ordered them to pay Apple $1,072,200 and $397,800 in restitution, respectively.
