Buying a phone online usually involves a certain amount of risk since there’s always a chance the handset getting sent to you is fake. A woman in China learnt this the hard way when she was allegedly sent a bogus iPhone with a pear logo on its back instead of an apple.
It’s common knowledge that fake iPhones are a dime-a-dozen in China. However, Zhou thought she was getting a real iPhone 6S for just 3400 Yuan (approx £360) which she thought was a steal when compared with the smartphone’s actual 5288 Yuan (roughly £565) cost in the country.
The fraud didn’t end there though, with the dealer, named ‘Hong Kong iPhone direct sale’, later messaging Zhou and asking her to pay an additional 5000 Yuan (£543), bringing the total cost to 8400 Yuan (about £899). The seller apparently convinced her to hand over the money by claiming that the iPhone 6S was stuck in Chinese customs and they would refund the money once the device passes through it.
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This should have probably alerted Zhou that there was something suspicious going on, but she forked over the money regardless, continuing to believe the dealer was legitimate. This proved to be her undoing. Expecting to get a rose gold iPhone 6S, she was instead sent a black phone with a pear logo on its rear surface.
Zhou immediately tried to get in touch with the seller in order to get her money back. Unfortunately, the swindler blacklisted her and was not contactable after that. The Chinese media claims that Wuxi city has been at the center of hundreds of such phony online shopping incidents involving iPhones since January this year.