Brothers swap fake iPhones for real ones – scamming Apple out of RM28.75mil, US feds say

The counterfeit Apple products imported into the US from China by the Liao brothers had ‘identification numbers that matched identification numbers on real iPhones and iPads that were under warranty and had been previously sold to customers in the United States and Canada’, prosecutors said. — AFP

Three brothers from San Diego caused Apple to lose US$6.1mil (RM28.75mil) with a widespread scheme in which more than 10,000 fake iPhones and iPads were swapped out for the real devices at hundreds of stores, according to US federal prosecutors.

Zhimin, Zhiting and Zhiwei Liao led the scam involving a slew of other co-conspirators from 2011 through 2019, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.