In a grift for the ages, two engineering students in the US allegedly scammed Apple out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s hard to say if the students were very clever or if Apple is just really bad at preventing this kind of thing.
Yangyang Zhou and Quan Jiang, two engineering students in Oregon, allegedly brought thousands of fake iPhones into the US, filed warranty complaints with Apple that they wouldn’t turn on, and then received real smartphones as replacements. The students then sent the genuine phones back to friends and relatives overseas to flip for profit, of which they collected a percentage.
Fun tidbit: The filing against Jiang alleges that an “associate” paid Jiang’s mother, who then deposited his cut into his bank account. Both Zhou and Jiang are Chinese nationals with valid F-1 student visas.
Prosecutors claim that 3069 iPhones were submitted to Apple under warranty claims, of which 1493 resulted in Apple providing replacement phones. Given that Apple calculates its loss for this type of fraud at a standard rate of $US600 ($842) per iPhone, that results in a whopping $US895,800 ($1.26 million) loss.
The rest of the 1576 claims were rejected for tampering, and Apple reportedly sent back the counterfeit phones along with letters explaining why the warranty claims had been declined.
That sort of puts a dent in both students’ defence that, allegedly, neither knew the phones in question were counterfeits. Federal agents began investigating this particular counterfeit scam in 2017, and US Customs and Border Protection have seized more than five shipments of counterfeit from China addressed to Zhou and Jiang.
Additionally, the documents show that law enforcement found over 300 fake iPhones, shipping records and warranty submission records at Jiang’s residence.
Officials also found at least four different mailboxes associated with Zhou, one of which was found with a package containing 25 fake iPhones. Investigators also cited Apple’s own records, which detailed 16 warranty returns addressed to Zhou, with his mailing address. Oops.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Jiang’s attorneys declined to comment. Zhou’s attorneys replied to Gizmodo with the following statement:
“Our only comment is that, with respect to Mr Zhou, the government has the case completely wrong. Mr Zhou had no knowledge of any alleged counterfeiting scheme, and when the actual facts come out, we are confident he will be vindicated.”
Jiang is facing charges of trafficking in counterfeit goods and wire fraud. That means he could face fines of up to $US2 million ($2.8 million) or 10 years in prison, or both, on the counterfeit charge. He could also face an unspecified fine and additional 20 years for wire fraud.
Meanwhile, Zhou is being charged with “submitting false or misleading information on export declaration”. That also comes with a fine of up to $US10,000 ($14,033), or five years in prison, or both.
One does have to appreciate the chutzpah required for a grift on this scale. Perhaps both Zhou and Jiang should’ve switched majors toward a law degree. At least then, court experience might’ve counted for some credits.