WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Apple iPhones are hot all right. So hot they're becoming the principal players in a number of scams and organized theft rings around the country, according to ConsumerAffairs.com. And the victims? They find little help from Apple or anyone else, the consumer news site reports.
In San Francisco, a consumer named Patrick told the Web site of being approached by a stranger who asked if he would like to make $100 "real easy."
Sure, he replied, and Patrick soon found himself in a nearby Apple store with the stranger, who bought five iPhones and put them in Patrick's name, using Patrick's driver's license and Social Security number.
The stranger then gave Patrick $100 and drove off with the phones.
"Yesterday I got a bill in the mail for $450 from AT&T," Patrick told us. "I thought I was just helping them to purchase the phones. I mistakenly assumed that they would be billed for the service."
Not long afterwards, Patrick was hanging around another Apple store, he said, when another stranger approached him with the same offer. Patrick said he sought out the store manager and told him what was happening.
Tough, said the manager, who said the practice is legal because the victim of the scam is willingly supplying his information.
"This is a scam and Apple is in on it," declared Patrick. "The ones getting screwed are AT&T, Verizon and the person who will get a ding on their credit report."
Store personnel are also implicated in a series of arrests in the Washington, D.C. area. The FBI recently busted three men who worked at local shopping mall cell phone kiosks in Virginia and accused them of purchasing stolen iPhones and reselling them at a profit.
The arrests were the result of an investigation into the theft of a large number of Apple products from riders on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's buses and trains, the FBI said.
The full report is available at http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2011/08/apple-enthusiasts-beware-iphones-attract-scam-artists-and-crooks.html