If you surf eBay or Craigslist frequently on the search for that one great deal, you might want to keep an eye out especially when it comes to iPhones that are priced a little too good to be true. The folks over at How To Arena have put together a little “tutorial” on how scammers go about piecing old and possibly broken iPhones together and selling them as new. The process is a lot more easier than you would think, making this scam a lot more scarier than we had initially thought.
Unless the iPhone has been run over by a truck and is completely destroyed, chances are “broken” iPhones could refer to a broken home button, a cracked display, chips and scratches on the body or something minor whereby the parts can be easily replaced. All the scammers would have to do is take out the non-working parts, throw in new and working parts, put it in a new body, clean it up and they’re good to go. While this could be essentially thought of as a refurbished device, the fact that it could be advertised as new is pretty deceiving.
In any case this is a pretty good eye-opener and you should head on over to How To Arena to check out the whole process. In the mean time we suggest that if you’re looking to get yourself a new iPhone or a refurbished one, getting it from the official channels is probably your safest bet.
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