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.
