2 Men Tricked Apple Into Sending iPhones Worth $2.5 Million. Here's How

Two men were sentenced this week for orchestrating a sophisticated scheme, tricking Apple into shipping thousands of iPhones and defrauding the tech giant of $2.5 million. Haotian Sun, 33, a Chinese national living in Baltimore, received a 57-month prison sentence, reported the US Justice Department. His accomplice Pengfei Xue, also 33, who lived in Germantown, Maryland, was sentenced to 54 months.

Both men were ordered to pay restitution to Apple, with Sun responsible for over $1 million and Xue required to repay $397,800. The scheme, which ran between 2017 and 2019, involved shipping approximately 6,000 counterfeit iPhones to Apple, falsely claiming they needed repairs. The Justice Department described their operation as “sophisticated,” relying on fake serial numbers and bogus warranty claims. 

According to the affidavit from postal inspector Stephen Cohen, the fraudulent activities came to light after an Apple employee tipped off law enforcement. Investigators managed to intercept packages and confirm that counterfeit phones were being sent from China to various Apple retail locations and licensed service providers.

Apple's standard one-year warranty for iPhones created a loophole for the scam. Sun and Xue shipped devices that either were out of warranty or contained counterfeit parts, leading Apple to mistakenly accept these fraudulent returns. Cohen said that Apple “wrongly” processed dozens of these bogus phones in single shipments.

To cover their tracks, the two men used multiple aliases and opened various mailboxes to conceal their identification. Federal agents carefully documented the serial numbers of intercepted packages, allowing the shipments to reach their intended recipients before making arrests. The investigation involved surveillance, with police examining trash outside men's homes and tracking them when they returned intercepted packages to Apple Stores.

Haotian Sun submitted over 1,000 repair requests using several email accounts, some linked to his real identity.