Scam artists target high-end buyers through online marketplace

As companies reveal their latest electronic goods, so do the copycats, at cheaper prices. “I went out and bought one last night and came to apple store today and found that it was a counterfeit,” the victim said. One Coachella Valley consumer who wanted to remain anonymous said he found a deal for an iPhone 7 plus using Facebook Marketplace that would save him more than $100 than if he were to buy it in store. He said after seeing the ad, he made contact with the seller asking to meet. “They just said it’s a brand new phone don’t worry about it we have a ton of them, showed me a stack of them like 300 phones they had in their trunk,” the victim said. After spending $650 and driving to the Apple Store, Apple employees confirmed the iPhone was a fake. The victim said it looks real with the Apple logo and software, but after a closer inspection, Apple found it was an Android operating system disguised as iPhone software. “It’s buyer beware. Only buy from a trusted source on an item that’s reasonable and if it’s too good to be true it probably is,” Indio Police Department’s public information officer Dan Marshall said. Police said purchasing high end items from someone a buyer doesn’t know could put them in a bad position. “It’s not right that they do this right before Christmas you know a lot of these are possibly sitting under a tree waiting for Christmas Day to be opened up and they’re going to find out they don’t work,” the victim said. The victim hopes his misfortune warns others to make sure they know what a fake iPhone looks like before making a purchase.