A user orders an iPhone 15 for 1,449 euros in the official store, but instead receives a real and deceptive fake product.

A user ordered a new iPhone 15 Pro Max, but received a fake model instead. What’s especially annoying is that he ordered the device from the official Apple store.

Incorrect goods and fake products are always annoying to the buyer. One user has now reported that something particularly bad happened to him: he bought a new iPhone 15 Pro Max and instead got a real, scammed-out fake model.

But the problem with this campaign is that the buyer cannot protect himself against this type of fraud.

It looks fake like an iPhone but is buggy and runs Android

What happened? One user explained On RedditHe ordered a new iPhone Pro Max from the official Apple store. For the device with the smallest memory (256 GB), you pay at least 1,449 euros.

But instead of an expensive iPhone, he got a version of an Android cell phone. At first glance, the device looks like an iPhone and is based on Android with an iOS interface. But when it comes to other “functions”, the difference is very noticeable:

• The fake model does not offer a real OLED screen, which can be seen through the lighting on the screen.
• The device comes pre-installed with some apps like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. There are no pre-installed apps on Apple devices.
• Moreover, the software is in very poor condition. As the user explains: “The OS is glitchy and bad, the camera is like a slideshow and crashes when you try to use any of the UI elements on the screen.”

How exactly did this happen? It is impossible to say with certainty what went wrong here. Some users on reddit and also colleagues from 9to5mac.com I suspect someone may have exchanged the package or its contents.

The user explained in the same post that he had ordered from a parcel service provider. But DPD assured him that the seals and shipping labels were intact at the warehouse, and the user said: “They assured me that the box was properly sealed and had never been opened or tampered with, so it couldn’t be him.”

Buyers have little protection against this type of fraud

Can you protect yourself from such fraud? It’s not the first time people have received wrong or fake goods. Some people also reported in a Reddit thread that they also received a fake iPhone. These scams also occur at other retailers: for example, one gamer bought a graphics card for €1,700 and received a fake product instead.

There’s not much you can do about exchanges in the warehouse or supply chain. Some users advise that if you unpack expensive devices such as mobile phones, graphics cards and the like, you should photograph them accordingly. This way you can later prove that you did not replace the devices and have evidence in your favor.

Others suggest buying expensive devices directly from the store, such as buying an iPhone directly from the official Apple store in the city center, even if of course it means making an extra effort.

A father from Great Britain recently showed how things can turn out in the worst-case scenario. He ordered a new graphics card for his son, but instead there was a counterfeit product, but Amazon didn’t want to refund any money:

Gamer buys a graphics card from Amazon, receives a counterfeit product – the retailer refuses to refund the money until the “real” item is returned.