Ace Breaking News – ‘Large criminal networks’ scamming Australians with fake, imported smartphones
In short:
Experts say vulnerable Australians are being ripped off by an “underground economy” of counterfeit phones, being sold on the private market.
Cheap phones imported from China are designed to look like premium smartphones, with inferior operating systems.
What’s next?
Scam experts say there are several precautions buyers can take to avoid buying fake phones.
Courtney Smith was excited to use her long service leave payout to buy a new phone last month.
The single mother hopped online where she found what she believed to be a reasonably-priced second-hand Samsung Galaxy for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
“It was new in the box, it was sealed and the story is that [the seller] bought it for his ex-girlfriend and they separated,” Ms Smith said.
“It was all pretty believable, I’m usually pretty switched on with this stuff.”
She said she spent $1,000 on what was meant to be a top-of-the-line Samsung.
Ms Smith only realised it was fake when she returned home and took the phone out of the box.
The screen quality, operating system, and camera all functioned like a smartphone made over a decade ago.
“I was completely gutted,” she said
“Unless you were buying a $70 phone, you wouldn’t find the kind of technology and slowness it has on it these days.”
Ms Smith was gutted when she found out her phone was a fake. (ABC Goulburn Murray: Jason Katsaras)normal
After being blocked online by the seller and speaking to other community members, Ms Smith realised she had fallen victim to a scam that had already impacted nine others in her home town of Albury.
“It makes it hard in this day and age to trust people,” she said.
“I’ve had to pay another $700 to get my old phone repaired since, so essentially I’m down nearly $2,000 from just a shit experience.”
Experts warn fake phones can be visually indistinguishable from the real thing. (ABC RN)normal
A national issue
Senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne in cyber security, Shanaan Cohney, said fake phones were being sold across Australia. To
In December last year, police in Brisbane noticed an increase in such scams and put a message out to Christmas shoppers to remain vigilant.
Dr Cohney said scammers would often insert Chinese-manufactured low-end Android phones within the body of a more expensive model, creating a cheap but impressive-looking knock-off.
He said the Chinese government had taken steps to police such scams and that elaborate criminal networks were selling the products.
“These are large criminal organisations that are typically building and then on-selling these devices before they eventually reach the consumer,” Dr Cohney said.
“By purchasing one of these, you end up supporting that ecosystem inadvertently.”
Dr Cohney said many people were involved in the “whole underground economy”.
“There’ll be one party manufacturing them, another that is wholesaling them, and eventually individual lower-level criminals will be the retailers scamming individual people out of their hard-earned money.”
Dr Cohney also said other contributing factors were the prevalence of online marketplaces and the low cost of producing such phones.
He said there were a number of things buyers could look out for online.
“If the profile looks fake, it’s probably fake,” he said.
“I would definitely encourage anyone purchasing electronics to actually try them live before completing a transaction.
“I actually have myself been similarly scammed … so once bitten, twice shy.”
A known scam
Kathy Sundstrom is the national outreach manager at the cyber support service ID Care.
Since May, she said the group had received an average of 18 calls a month from people reporting scams with premium phone sales.
“Not everyone even receives a dodgy phone, they may pay the money and end up with nothing,” she said.
“Even more concerning though is that many fake sellers are also harvesting driver licences from victims, and then recycling them to appear legitimate to future victims.
“People should never provide their driver’s license details when buying something on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree. It creates another world of pain when a person’s identity is compromised.”
Australia’s consumer watchdog, the ACCC, said consumer guarantees did not apply to private sales between individuals.
“Consumers should think carefully before purchasing from an individual on an online marketplace, and check things like reviews of the seller or how long their profile has existed for,” an ACCC spokesperson said.
“Most online marketplaces also have a function that allows consumers to report a seller… [people] may also wish to enquire with their bank about the potential to recover their funds.”
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