Stolen Belgian iPhones Starting To Appear on Russian Black Market

By Leander Kahney (2:20 pm, Nov 28 2009)

iPhones stolen from Belgium are appearing on the Russian blackmarket, reports iPhones.ru. Image from Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Bluetooth-Handgun-Handset-for-your-iPhone-iGiveUp/

Batches of stolen iPhones snagged during the “Great iPhone Heist” in Belgium earlier this month are showing up on the Russian black market.

Two weeks ago, thieves made off with 3,000-4,000 iPhone 3GS from a Belgian warehouse belonging to wireless carrier Mobistar. The haul was valued at $3 million. Now the stolen iPhones are being offered to cell-phone vendors in Russia.

The stolen iPhones, known as “Europeans,” are being offered in batches of 100 at knockdown prices. There are no installment plans or credit deals — cash only.

The Russian website, iPhones.ru, (Google translation), reports:

“Today, several vendors with a forum reported that they call the unknown people and offer at knockdown prices to buy officially unlocked “Europeans”. The minimum party is from 100 units in one-time payment without there installments or implementations. The owner of a shop at Gorbushka, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the windows of the market has already started to appear Belgian phones.”

The iPhone is not officially on sale in Russia, although there is a healthy trade in unlocked iPhones from other countries. I personally sold a pair of original iPhones to a guy who resells them in Ukraine for a hefty profit.

Russian vendors are wary of the knockoff iPhones, however. The case involves Interpol, the international police agency, which has all the serial numbers and can easily confiscate stock during inspections.

Vendors are also worried that Interpol may also ask local wireless carriers to block the phones based on their International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI) numbers. They don’t want to deal with irate customers whose iPhones suddenly stop working.

However, not everyone is wise to the situation, says iPhones.ru. “But those wholesalers who are not aware of news, enjoy and spread coin.”

The site advises Russian customers to check their iPhone carefully to make sure it’s not a “European.”

“… go to Settings -> General -> About your device and see what is recorded in a graph model. If the last two characters of NF, before you mobistarovsky ayfon. Ask him to be replaced by another, so as not to sit in the New Year off with a pipe.”

15 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in iPhone, News, Top stories |

Johan
The iPhone has been officially on sale in Russia for more than a year (since September 2008, proof: http://www.apple.com/iphone/countries/) but has seen low demand due to the fact that 99% of phones in Russia are sold without contracts, so the price tag is relatively high, and it is not yet known whether 3GS will be sold at all. iPhones from other countries have been widely available since long ago, but due to stability issues (e.g. not picking a call, being always unavailable) many of grey iphone owners have already changed them for something else.
Also, “so as not to sit in the New Year off with a pipe” is actually “not to celebrate the New Year with your phone turned off”.
Best Regars,
Johan, Moscow
Steven
That’s just too funny. What else can you say?
Optical
How about asking someone for an accurate russian-English translation rather than relying on some automated engrish?
Brandon Hubbard
What’s with the terrible automated translation? Is it just in there as a poor attempt at humor?
ged
picture is revolting, as someone who was holdup at gun point
poor CoM….
Igo
IPhone has been officially on the russian market for some time already. Please correct your statement. Thank you.
bjorntech@squee.org
Russia. Still the Promised Land of thieves, thugs and mobsters. Some things never change.
http://Applebashing Gazoobee
iPhones are not doing well in Russia, but it’s not due to the price. It’s due to the rampant corruption everywhere and the thriving black market. The main reason those guys pulled the heist is that they knew there was a black market for the phones. If Russia was actually, you know, *civilised*, maybe iPhone heists wouldn’t be happening.
bjorntech@squee.org
Question: isn’t Apple capable of tracking the exact serial numbers of the stolen iPhones, and then somehow shutting them down? Maybe rendering them useless and “shut down” via firmware, right after they download a future update, or maybe via connection to the App Store?
chris
please see http://idiotswithguns.blogspot.com/
rvf
Apple states that they don’t have the ability to track down phones with serial numbers – try and get assistance if one gets stolen. Apple employees maintain that they cannot find phones by serial, and aren’t willing to keep a list of known stolen phones/iPods, in case they come into a store to be looked at.
http://www.fafo.biz/ Baju
I like the picture…. lol
fafo.biz
http://www.instructables.com Lebowski
Hey, iPhones.ru is using our image from this Instructable.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bluetooth-Handgun-Handset-for-your-iPhone-iGiveUp/

http://cultofmac.com Leander Kahney
it ok for us to use the image if we fix the attribution, or you want it pulled?

http://www.instructables.com Lebowski
It’s no problem at all, you don’t have to change anything. I was just amused that they were using the image. Viewing the Instructable gives a better context to the image, so I thought I would post the link.