Apple crimes

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on Apple crimes:

Pair faces 20 years in jail over iPhone fraud scheme

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Fake iPhone fraud scheme
Take note: Trying to trade in 5,000 fake iPhones for real ones might not work.
Photo: Photo: Donald Tong/Pexels CC

A federal jury found two Chinese men living in Maryland guilty Tuesday in a fake iPhone fraud scheme. They attempted to defraud Apple in a $3 million scheme to replace fake iPhones with real ones, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said.

Haotian Sun and Pengfei Xue’s mail fraud convictions carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Elon Musk vs. Apple: Tech battle for the ages! [The CultCast]

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Elon Musk versus Apple on The CultCast podcast: Well, that escalated quickly!
Well, that escalated quickly!
Image: Steve Jurvetson/Flickr CC/Modified by Cult of Mac

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: After new Twitter CEO Elon Musk began publicly questioning some of Apple’s policies, he went mano-a-mano with Tim Cook. Maybe Musk’s meme-y declaration of war was a bit premature …

Also on The CultCast:

  • The sad state of iCloud storage.
  • A Twitter phone? Really?!?
  • 2023 MacBook Pro benchmarks reveal a big fat surprise.
  • A totally weird tale about the dangers of walking the streets of New York City with hundreds of iPhones.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

Apple’s security chief accused of offering bribe for concealed weapons licenses

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Apple bribe included iPads for concealed weapon carry licenses.
The Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office was accused of wanting iPads as a kickback to grant Apple’s security chief concealed weapons licenses.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The Santa Clara County District Attorney accused Thomas Moyer, the head of global security for Apple, of bribery. Two officials at the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office were also indicted and accused of soliciting the bribe.

The county employees supposedly wanted 200 iPads donated to the Sheriff’s Office in exchange for four licenses to carry concealed firearms.

Find My iPhone helps catch another smartphone thief

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Find My iPhone
Thief tried to sell stolen iPhone to a used phone shop.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Police arrested an alleged iPhone thief after the device’s rightful owner used the Find My app to track down the missing handset.

A 21-year-old Madison, Wisconsin, resident left a bar on Sunday, only to notice that her debit card, driver’s license and iPhone X were missing, according to WKOW. When her card was used later, she visited the location of the purchase — and managed to get surveillance footage of the suspected thief.

Police hunt men who robbed 2 Apple Stores within 30 minutes of each other

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A security camera image from the Mayfair Apple Store in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, shows alleged thieves in action.
A security camera image from the Mayfair Apple Store in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, shows alleged thieves in action.
Screenshot: CBS 58

Wisconsin police are on the hunt for three thieves who stole $17,000 of merchandise from Apple Stores.

Two robberies took place January 30, within half an hour of each other, at Apple Stores in Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa and Bayshore Town Center in Glendale. Those locations are approximately 20 minutes’ drive from one another.

Thieves smash into Texas Apple store with a truck

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Apple Highland Village
Apple Highland Village before the smash-and-go robbery.
Photo: Apple

A gang of thieves used a stolen pickup truck to crash through the glass doors of an Apple Store in Houston last night.

What the bungling burglars hadn’t counted on was the deputy sheriff working as a night watchman in the Texas store.

Fraudsters steal whopping $19 million worth of iPhones

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Fraudster steals $16k from victim posing as Apple tech support
A wide-ranging criminal enterprise devoted to stealing new iPhones has been broken up by police.
Photo: Donald Tong/Pexels CC

Criminals allegedly used identity theft to steal thousands of iPhones from across the United States over several years. Their scheme involved assuming stolen identities and going to stores run by wireless carriers to pose as customers looking for upgrades to new models.

California Apple Store is robbed twice in less than 24 hours

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Apple adds 5 new vice presidents to its executive lineup
Maybe time to hire some extra security!
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac

The Apple Store crime spree continues in California.

While another Apple Store robbery in the state may not be a shock, the number of times this particular store has been robbed certainly is. Monday’s robbery of the Apple Store in Roseville marked the fourth time in 20 days that the outlet has been burglarized — and the second in just 24 hours!

Police union president knows how to stop Apple Store thefts

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Apple Store
A photo released by police shows a recent robbery.
Photo: Roseville Police Department

The six San Francisco Bay Area Apple Stores targeted by thieves in the past several weeks have one thing in common (besides the iPhones, iPads and Macs on display). They don’t have uniformed police officers on site.

Speaking about the crime spree, San Francisco Police Officers Association President Tony Montoya noted that neither the Marina or Union Square Apple Stores in San Francisco have so far been targeted by thieves. His theory about why they’ve escaped the Apple crime spree? Because both have uniformed officers stationed there.

Thieves snatch $600,000 of iPhones from a moving truck

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iPhone 7
Some folks will go to crazy lengths to get their hands on an iPhone!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Five men from Romania have been arrested after stealing $600,000 of iPhones from a moving truck in an astonishingly risky late-night raid that ultimately didn’t pay off for them.

Who needs the Fast and the Furious movies when you’ve got real life?

The weirdest Apple stories of 2016

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Wierdest Stories 2016
It's been a weird year. And Apple's no exception.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

2016 Year in Review Cult of Mac Covering Cupertino is more than just statistics and rumors about upcoming products. There’s plenty of weird Apple news, whether it be a Chinese billionaire buying iPhones for his pet dog or the revelation that, in some alternate universe, Tim Cook could become vice president of the United States.

With that in mind, here are the weirdest Apple news stories of 2016.