Mix-ups and misplacements are known to happen when it comes to online product delivery. More often than not, people end up receiving different items instead of the things they ordered. In a similar instance, a man in the UK has claimed that he received a fake Android phone after he ordered an iPhone 15 Pro Max from the Apple website.
The disappointed customer took to Reddit and shared his ordeal in a lengthy post on the r/apple subreddit. The user, who goes by the Reddit handle theEdmard, says he placed an order for the iPhone 15 Pro directly through the Apple UK website, with legitimate tracking all the way, and confirmation emails from both Apple and DPD. However, when he unboxed the product, he knew something was wrong. Upon inspection, it was clear that it was a fake phone that looked like an iPhone but actually ran on Android.
He also posted pictures of the phone on his Imgur gallery, pointing out details like a screen protector and a screen that did not exhibit typical OLED characteristics
''I opened the box and the first thing I notice is the screen protector, first thoughts were, had I been sent a return? The next thing I notice when I turn it on, the screen isn't right, it lights up the black area in a way that is clearly not OLED and the bottom has a 'Chin' which suggests this is not correct for the phone.Once I turned it on I was greeted with a very poor setup process and I immediately clocked that it was an android device in a skin,'' he wrote.
See the post here:
I got a fake iPhone 15 Pro from Apple - PSA
byu/theEdmard inapple
He further noticed that the phone came with apps like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok already installed, which Apple doesn't do. The battery settings page also made it clear the phone had been used before.
According to Mashable, the Reddit user's name is Ed, who is the Chief Operating Officer for AtWrk, a cloud software provider. After the discovery, he immediately contacted Apple to address the issue but has yet to receive a response from them.
In his post, he talked of the possibility of a scam and feared that people not as tech-savvy as him might get easily fooled.
''My main worry with this is that there are many people out there getting these phones and some may think it's legit and then login to them using their apple IDs, facebook accounts, google etc etc. The phone is a match to the spec I ordered, Pro Max in natural titanium. Why go to the effort of matching my order is my question. Are they hoping to get on my wifi network or get login details for things? What if I tried to setup apple wallet? The app is there on the home screen when I open it,'' he further wrote.
Reacting to his post, one user wrote, ''I would bet that someone in the chain has a scheme to swap actual iPhones to this thing you received.'' Another commented, ''Your device was swapped out for a fake en route to you. Apple doesn't send out fake iPhones. Contact Apple, your shipper, and law enforcement.''
