Foxconn has launched an investigation after a group of “management staff” were accused of a $43 million iPhone scam. The scam, which ran for three years, involved a Taiwanese businessman and staff at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou, which manufactures iPhones.
The alleged “crime ring” assembled iPhones out of rejected components, and then sold them on to customers.
Under normal circumstances, the components would have ben classified as defective and destroyed. Instead, they were kept and made into finished units. For all intents and purposes, these would have looked identical to genuine iPhones.
Foxconn has issued a statement to say that it will be addressing the issue. It has not made any direct comments on those involved.
Terry Gou, the Foxconn founder who stepped down earlier this year, said that “unreasonable things may happen to one or two workers” in a company with more than 1 million employees.
Is this one of the biggest iPhone scams in history?
Provided that it’s accurate, this story could be one of the biggest iPhone scams in history. There are frequently stories in the news about smaller scale scams. For instance, an ex-Oregon engineering student from China recently plead guilty to a scam involving counterfeit iPhones, which cost Apple $1.2 million.
Needless to say, $43 million is a whole lot more than that. Considering how many of those component costs likely came out of Apple’s pocket (not to mention the lost iPhone sales), Cupertino’s surely not going to be too happy about this.
The article does not say where the fraudulent iPhones were sold. However, China is well known for having a sizable black market for knockoff products, including iPhones.
Source: Taiwan News
