Imgur Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/YwMa3hU
On saturday I took delivery of this package - the order was done directly through Apple’s UK website and the tracking was all legit. I got confirmation emails from apple and tracking details through DPD, everything as you would expect.
Once my package arrived, as you can see in my Imgur Gallery, I immediately knew it wasn’t right.
I opened the box and the first thing I notice is the screen protector, first thoughts were, had I been sent a return?
The next thing I notice when I turn it on, the screen isnt right, it lights up the black area in a way that is clearly not OLED and the bottom has a ‘Chin’ which suggests this is not correct for the phone.
Once I turned it on I was greeted with a very poor setup process and I immediately clocked that it was an android device in a skin. It may have convinced my Grandad but I could tell very quickly (especially when I saw actual android toasts popping up in some cases)
I managed to skip all the setup screens and get into the phone. It has facebook, youtube and tiktok installed already, the OS is glitchy and horrible, the camera is like a slideshow and crashes if you try to use any UI element on screen.
My main worry with this is that there are many people out there getting these phones and some may think it’s legit and then login to them using their apple IDs, facebook accounts, google etc etc. The phone is a match to the spec I ordered, Pro Max in natural titanium. Why go to the effort of matching my order is my question. Are they hoping to get on my wifi network or get login details for things? What if I tried to setup apple wallet? The app is there on the home screen when I open it.
Before anyone asks, yes I have a ticket open with Apple support and they will be getting back to me soon. I can update in comments if anyone is interested in the resolution to this issue.
Mainly I wanted to try and get this out there as a warning. If you do recieve anything like this, dont let it on your wifi network and dont login to it on anything, god knows what it could be hooked up to do.
Anyone got any ideas as to how this was achieved? I’ve been speculating with friends already. At first I thought DPD did the switch but they assure me that the box was sealed properly and so it was never opened or tampered with so couldnt of been them… Then I thought it might be at the supplier end? What’s crazy to me is that the whole delivery was trackable through the apple website and the tracking number on the box and everything matched so the process wasn’t broken at all from apple’s side either. Very interesting.
Anyways TLDR: I got an Android phone dressed as an iPhone that I ordered brand new direct from apple. It could be a scam to get my data - beware with your new phone purchases!
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Organized crime has re-infiltrated several shippers. Fun fact: UPS was started as liquor-smuggling front by Al Capone.
I hope you didn’t put any person information into this device 😬
Do the serial number and IMEI of the device match the numbers on the box?
Where are you based? I got the same phone (model, config) delivered by DPD on the same day.
Oh boy. Contact Apple, they will be all over it, 100%. If there is something Tim Apple hates, it is someone messing with his distribution chain.
Do you have picture of the brown box it was delivered in?
Yes but I wont be posting that, cba to go through and redact info in photoshop. There was no evidence of tampering with the brown box it came in and the label looks legit too.
and i thought ordering a phone from amazon was safe
Similar experience. Sent an iPhone 14 Pro Max in for replacement about three weeks after I bought it. Apple denied the claim stating “phone not returned.”
Long story short, when I mailed my phone in using their pre-posted packaging, someone at FedEx intercepted it and replaced with weights. Only saving grace is the thief (assuming a FedEx employee) didn’t replace with an exact weight, so they were able to determine that the contents were tampered with after I initially dropped off.
The fix: I only pickup from an Apple Store now.
Similar thing happened with me at FedEx.
I sent in my 14PM after I got my replacement from Apple. Apple never got the phone I sent and they charged me the full price. I contacted them, and thankfully I had the receipt showing that I had dropped it off, then they refunded me the amount. He said they were able to figure out what happened but couldn’t share the details.
I’ve personally seen two iPhone trade-ins vanish in shipping, and one new phone vanish. My spouse’s and two friends. In all cases Apple gave them the trade-in credit or sent another phone and opened an investigation with UPS/FedEx.
Apparently this happens a lot. Best to do in-store trade-in, but if you do, make sure you have the new phone and manually do an eSIM transfer before they take the old one. Otherwise, you will be heading across the mall to your carrier’s store.
Same thing happened with my trade in. Arrived with an empty box. Luckily they still gave me full value, said it’s happening all the time though.
Yep never buying a device like this from Amazon or any other seller that does not vet their inventory.
also seems likely someone did a “closed-box” return but swapped the device, was placed in inventory/sold to you.
had a situation at my store a few years ago where we received multiple returns, but the box was filled with cement to match the weight of the actual product. always something different every year ]:
The EMID on the box doesn’t match the EMID on the screen and I suspect the serial number doesn’t either. Was the box shrink-wrapped and had seals on the sides? Re-shrink wrapping isn’t hard, but the box will usually show damage if the seals are removed. As others have said, this looks more like someone tampered with it in shipping.
This is why you record your unboxing.
Crazy. Every package I’ve gotten from Apple has been in such a nondescript box that there was no way of knowing it came from Apple. Even the return addresses don’t give any indication. Definitely happened early in the chain of shipping.
In the US there’s definitely a distinctive standardized cardboard box Apple ships their devices in. There’s usually a perforated tear away cardboard tab to open the envelope style box.
Also in the US it’s required to put a combustible battery warning label on the box. It’s pretty obvious there’s some sort of electronic device inside.
the person who was shipping it might have done a sneaky switch
Same thing happened to me except there was no phone in the box. Now I will only purchase in-store.