Sites free ads reigns an unprecedented boom in anticipation of the announcement of the new iPhone they sell a lot of Apple technology. Unfortunately, not all buyers and sellers fair: due to the hot season intensified not only law-abiding citizens, but scammers.
Ways of obtaining money varying degrees of dishonesty, there are many, the experts of “Kaspersky Lab” told about how to protect yourself from the most common.
Method 1. Low price and prepayment
The first thing that should alert the buyer, too low a price and prepayment is required. To explain the discount can (the remains of the warehouse store gave an extra device that you urgently need money, and so on), but in real life, freebies, alas, is rare — the probability of fraud is very high. The most important rule of safety: transfer money only after verifying the device. No Deposit required!
Method 2. Models and faulty equipment
Many scammers sell the new iPhone and iPad in a sealed package and do not allow the buyer to test it (they have good command of practical psychology and persuasive). In the box then you can find anything: a plastic replica (are put up in shop Windows) with taped coins for weight, the faulty gadget and so on.
We also include unscrupulous sellers hiding defects in equipment. Method of struggle is only one: before paying, it is necessary to check the efficiency of the device, even if the courier is an online store brings you like a new product. Non-obvious defects, the layman can hardly find, but you can look for online articles on common problems of the selected model and try to find the corresponding symptoms in the instance that you will bring.
Method 3. Chinese iPhone
Chinese replica of the iPhone, running Android, or even something more ancient, it is easy to find in online stores. Scammers sometimes give them Apple products — benefit in the market, there are fakes of very high quality that move can not be distinguished from the original. Everything is simple — just turn on and watch carefully what is happening on the screen. How to forge all the nuances of iOS, the Chinese can not yet, although we are moving in this direction.
Method 4. Selling stolen equipment
To distinguish stolen device on appearance is impossible. It remains to look at indirect signs: neat owners of Apple technology, as a rule, keep your receipt and box until the device is sold. On the box indicated the model code, serial number and IMEI which you can verify with the corresponding numbers on the device, looking in the settings information about the device.
Method 5. Locked or hacked devices
Purchased abroad contract gadgets are cheaper devices on the network of any cellular operator. They are usually hacked and sold under the guise of other at a higher price. To test it you can reset all settings of the gadget (the procedure of cracking will have to be repeated), insert their own SIM card to activate and connect to the iTunes Store.
Method 6. Restored device
To restore the device Apple. In this case everything is done carefully enough: the case replaced, defective parts, packaging and accessories. You can buy such gadgets with a decent discount, but in Russia “REFs” (refurbished and restored) is officially not available, because domestic buyer about this phenomenon of nature little is known. Unscrupulous sellers can sell them under the guise of new devices — this sin even some relatively respectable Internet shopping.
Even worse, if the gadget was renovated in primitive conditions or in the Chinese plant, not associated with Apple. The artisanal quality of restoration leaves much to be desired — the buyer will be lucky if the smartphone normally will last a couple of months. To identify such a gadget without expertise can be difficult — except that found traces of disassembly or the apparent discrepancy between the serial numbers on the packaging enclosure and the device settings.
Method 7. Remote lock and blackmail
The attacker can sell the victim an activated device enabled Find my iPhone (iOS 8 and 9, the hackers have learned to bypass it) and then remotely to lock it. Then begins the blackmail — criminals usually require them to return the “stolen” device, threatening to call the police. Method of protection is simple: need before you purchase to check the settings of the system. And it is better to return the gadget to factory settings and reactivate it to transfer money. Activation can be done without Apple ID account.
Method 8. The goods mail
Sentences with the possibility of sending purchases by mail enough, and fraudulent schemes there are many — until the opening of the online stores, “almost like real”. Better to look for options in your city if you do not receive the product or send a faulty gadget to get the money back would be nearly impossible. In an extreme case, refer to the audited and a well-known online stores with good reputation. If the remote you purchase may be affected, and the seller — scammers defraud credit card information supposedly to transfer money.
Method 9. Robbery
Criminals are not averse to the banal robbery — in this case, try to appoint a meeting in deserted places or at home. From GOP-stop, you may hurt both the buyer and the seller: the person with a large sum of cash or an expensive gadget can wait for a couple of them. Tip one: in no case do not agree to meet in the apartment (even their own) or in a deserted place. It is best to hold it in any busy café with video surveillance and free Wi-Fi along with device health check.
The way 10. Fake money, calculation, substitution
Finally we left as old as trade itself is fraudulent tricks: you can pay fake money to slip the so-called “doll” or carefully to hide a bill or two in the sleeve in the conversion. Also the phone can replace the layout after checking. These ways of cheating in our high-tech age seem old-fashioned, but effective they are not from this lose. And even Vice versa.
Watch out for hands throughout the entire process of the transaction, do not hesitate to count the money and check the equipment several times. Of course, the specifics of the Apple only that the brilliance of Apple attracts a greater number of dishonest buyers and sellers. But in General, in the case of a purchase or sale of other equipment almost all of the written above will also be relevant.
