Do you know the difference between a tablet and a tile? If so, then there’s a good chance that you wouldn’t be the target of a scammer in Victorville, California, who this week duped an unsuspecting woman out of $80 by selling her what she thought to be an iPad mini 3.
In the worst plot twist this side of a modern M. Night Shyamalan movie, the “iPad” turned out not to be an iPad at all, but rather a piece of tile in an iPad box.
The seller was reportedly a “nicely dressed Hispanic man,” approximately 35-years-old. He initially offered victim Tamara Cortez the supposed iPad mini 3 for $200, but she was able to negotiate him down to $80 — only to discover the truth after he had left.
She subsequently filed a police report.
This is far from the first time scammers have tried something similar. This week, a U.K. citizen was fleeced out of $750 in return for what they thought was an iPhone 6s, but turned out to be a bag of sugar.
Earlier this year, a Detroit business was also cheated when he bought several “iPhones” from a group of Detroit teenagers — only to discover that they were iPhone boxes filled with Play-Doh bricks instead of smartphones.
This is why Apple Stores exist, people!
Source: Consumerist
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
10 responses to “Surprise! $80 iPad lacks key features (like, all of them)”
if the deal seems to good to be true….
then take it!
No, do some due diligence before you hand over the $$.
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oh wow…oh wow..oh wow
:/
Some functioning brain cells would work. How about the lost art of looking at the actual device *first* before paying? An iCloud locked iPad is just as bad as this and people get conned all too easily.
Due sympathy, of course, goes to a true victim of an expert swindler.
That said, the one reason that comes to mind why the buyer appears to have failed to inspect an item they are buying from an unknown person is because they both understand that it is a shady deal. The exchange would need to happen in a flash, they would agree. If that is the case, anyone in a state of mind of ‘knowing receipt’ has no leg to stand on if swindled in the process.
The other thing I would consider in this is that, even if it did turn out to be a genuine iPad/iPhone/iWhatever, if some random guy is selling it suspiciously in a parking lot, it’s more than likely to be stolen. Even before the days of Find my iPhone, I wouldn’t be comfortable buying that. I feel for anyone swindled out of money — but I’m frankly amazed that anyone falls for this.
you have no idea what people can fall far….my parents wanted to by $50 macbooks (which they bargained down from $500)