8 ms·

Looks like it's designed for scammers who sell it to gullible people on the street, making them feel like it's a "once-in-a-lifetime" deal.

wruza 6y ago
Yes, tearing it out of heart for $100 because emergency. A tale as old as time.
colejohnson66 6y ago
It could also be for people who want the status symbol of owning an iPhone without shelling out for one. That’s very common in China.
- axaxs 6y ago
  Yeah, this is what I was thinking. I'm not so sure this phone is intended to scam gullible people, just to give people a plausible status symbol.
  - srtjstjsj 6y ago
    It's both. And even if the user knows what it is, the purpose is still to scam other gullible people (who may deserve it).
- reaperducer 6y ago
  It could also be for people who want the status symbol of owning an iPhone without shelling out for one. That’s very common in China. In the early part of this century, I used to travel in Asia quite a bit, and I started collecting knock-off Apple products as souvenirs. I had quite a collection of various look-alikes at one point. It was a cheap hobby because they were all very inexpensive, and if you were in the right country or situation, you could haggle the price down a little further. They were all in the one box that got lost (stolen?) when I moved out of Seattle. (Not Apple-related, but I still have a watch that plays videos [loaded with On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The Incredibles] that I picked up in Singapore for US$30 around 2005.)
  - Darkphibre 6y ago
    >They were all in the one box that got lost (stolen?) when I moved out of Seattle I'd like to imagine the karma involved in the thief thinking they'd made it... only to discover what they'd nicked. My condolences for losing the physical objects, but I'm glad you have those memories. Thanks for sharing!
- scns 6y ago
  It is quite common in europe, for people to knowingly buy knock off clothing or sunglasses when they go on vacation.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  Not just in China though, western culture also has a knack for having / showing off status symbols. Like clean / unworn sneakers, or vintage T-shirts, or early Magic / Pokemon cards, or mechanical / customized keyboards (to be used in photoshoots on minimalist and/or vaporwave-themed workspaces of course).
  - filmgirlcw 6y ago
    I would argue that “status” related to “stuff” is one of the strongest cultural exports the west has had on the rest of the world. Yes, status (which is often a stand-in for class, if we’re honest) existed before the west, but the value (and by extension, class stand-in) to consumer brands is something the west has very successfully exported to the rest of the world. It’s why nearly every major brand with “status” is a western brand. This has changed in some sectors (automobiles, though real “status” is still largely given to German or Italian or high-end British variants — there is some status around Asian car brands, significantly less around almost all American brands — and in some areas of electronics, Japanese brands became the status symbols in the 1980s and beyond, Sony is a prime example here), but by and large, the brands that exhibit “status” in non-western countries (and I’ll expand this to parts of Europe that came of age in the post Soviet era), in my experience, it’s the western brands that gain the most attention. Dubai, as an example, has a tremendous amount of wealth on display. It’s the height of nouveau riche, even though the money itself is very old, and as a westerner, I was floored by the near religious dedication to western culture and brands. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cara de Lavigne or Kendall Jenner’s face on as many billboards in my life. Seeing a Red Lobster in Dubai with a line even longer than the one in Times Square, largely by non-tourists from what I could tell, in a place where many of the people there have far more money than the average Red Lobster patron in the US, was incredibly fascinating.
xhkkffbf 6y ago
They should really raise the price if they want to suck in the gullible. Many more people will bite if the price is only 20-40% off the going rate.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- tluyben2 6y ago
  It needs to be a very quick deal: I saw quite a few walking at shanghai, bangkok and hk airport; they do not want you to think about it. A lot of business people do not care about $100, but 300-400 would make them pause and actually think. These phones you can get for a $25 or even less I guess, but I saw them for 25 in shops. Not worth as a phone even at that price though... Except that they look the part.
  - dehrmann 6y ago
    Just a friendly reminder that most scams involve creating a sense of urgency. There are phishing attack emails saying "the CEO urgently needs access to X." Back when my grandma would answer calls from unknown numbers, she got one saying "your grandson is in jail and needs bail money."
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  These are from the producer / "first" party; you can buy a dozen of these and palm them off to others for example. Not sure about ebay because they can have their money returned etc, but someone mentioned elsewhere that they bought it off the street somewhere.
atVelocet 6y ago
This is true: A friend of mine bought it on the street in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) from a shady guy that approached him and eventually sold it to him. He was totally excited and showed it to me. On first glance it looked like a real iPhone 5s/SE. But the mute button seemed strange. On inspecting the OS it became clear that he had bought a counterfeit. I knew cheap iPhone clones but this was the best one i ever came across.
gambiting 6y ago
Or, if you are like me from a country where a genuine iPhone 12 is worth about 3 months of average salary, this is an easy way to buy some status without actually spending quarter of your annual income on one. You could fool a lot of people with one of these. Same reason why fake anything exists - to sell to people who don't have means to buy the real thing(and yes, I suppose to also scam some who think they are getting the real deal, but that must be a tiny portion of the money involved in making this).
- throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
  > this is an easy way to buy some status This is going to sound weird but I've never found any relevance for symbols, nor any understanding of things like 'status'. What you say is like words from another language, or even concepts I don't have. So permit me: what does having status mean in practical terms, if any? Does the judgement of others matter if it's based on, to be blunt, ownership of trinkets? Not trolling, genuine question.
  - sfblah 6y ago
    Oh cmon. It means attracting women.
    - throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
      OK, now this I would get me on the same page! But most women don't seem to care much for an expensive X, whatever that may be. Some do sure, but many? IDK
      - kubanczyk 6y ago
        Yes, many. But not in an overt way. And a fake phone will be more of a huge risk than an asset.
    - NullPrefix 6y ago
      You're not fooling anyone with those green bubbles.
mobilio 6y ago
Well to be honest this X works. Somehow! Because this clone doesn't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63u6b-eHYzU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63u6b-eHYzU
mazatta 6y ago
A former coworker accidentally bought one of these on Craigslist thinking he was buying a legit one. The price was pretty close to retail (or maybe even higher, as it was close to the X launch). The seller even let him handle one that "had already been opened", which was likely a legit one and then what he ultimately bought was a sealed fake.

wruza 6y ago

Yes, tearing it out of heart for $100 because emergency. A tale as old as time.

colejohnson66 6y ago

It could also be for people who want the status symbol of owning an iPhone without shelling out for one. That’s very common in China.

axaxs 6y ago
Yeah, this is what I was thinking. I'm not so sure this phone is intended to scam gullible people, just to give people a plausible status symbol.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  It's both. And even if the user knows what it is, the purpose is still to scam other gullible people (who may deserve it).
reaperducer 6y ago
It could also be for people who want the status symbol of owning an iPhone without shelling out for one. That’s very common in China. In the early part of this century, I used to travel in Asia quite a bit, and I started collecting knock-off Apple products as souvenirs. I had quite a collection of various look-alikes at one point. It was a cheap hobby because they were all very inexpensive, and if you were in the right country or situation, you could haggle the price down a little further. They were all in the one box that got lost (stolen?) when I moved out of Seattle. (Not Apple-related, but I still have a watch that plays videos [loaded with On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The Incredibles] that I picked up in Singapore for US$30 around 2005.)
- Darkphibre 6y ago
  >They were all in the one box that got lost (stolen?) when I moved out of Seattle I'd like to imagine the karma involved in the thief thinking they'd made it... only to discover what they'd nicked. My condolences for losing the physical objects, but I'm glad you have those memories. Thanks for sharing!
scns 6y ago
It is quite common in europe, for people to knowingly buy knock off clothing or sunglasses when they go on vacation.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Not just in China though, western culture also has a knack for having / showing off status symbols. Like clean / unworn sneakers, or vintage T-shirts, or early Magic / Pokemon cards, or mechanical / customized keyboards (to be used in photoshoots on minimalist and/or vaporwave-themed workspaces of course).
- filmgirlcw 6y ago
  I would argue that “status” related to “stuff” is one of the strongest cultural exports the west has had on the rest of the world. Yes, status (which is often a stand-in for class, if we’re honest) existed before the west, but the value (and by extension, class stand-in) to consumer brands is something the west has very successfully exported to the rest of the world. It’s why nearly every major brand with “status” is a western brand. This has changed in some sectors (automobiles, though real “status” is still largely given to German or Italian or high-end British variants — there is some status around Asian car brands, significantly less around almost all American brands — and in some areas of electronics, Japanese brands became the status symbols in the 1980s and beyond, Sony is a prime example here), but by and large, the brands that exhibit “status” in non-western countries (and I’ll expand this to parts of Europe that came of age in the post Soviet era), in my experience, it’s the western brands that gain the most attention. Dubai, as an example, has a tremendous amount of wealth on display. It’s the height of nouveau riche, even though the money itself is very old, and as a westerner, I was floored by the near religious dedication to western culture and brands. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cara de Lavigne or Kendall Jenner’s face on as many billboards in my life. Seeing a Red Lobster in Dubai with a line even longer than the one in Times Square, largely by non-tourists from what I could tell, in a place where many of the people there have far more money than the average Red Lobster patron in the US, was incredibly fascinating.

xhkkffbf 6y ago

They should really raise the price if they want to suck in the gullible. Many more people will bite if the price is only 20-40% off the going rate.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
tluyben2 6y ago
It needs to be a very quick deal: I saw quite a few walking at shanghai, bangkok and hk airport; they do not want you to think about it. A lot of business people do not care about $100, but 300-400 would make them pause and actually think. These phones you can get for a $25 or even less I guess, but I saw them for 25 in shops. Not worth as a phone even at that price though... Except that they look the part.
- dehrmann 6y ago
  Just a friendly reminder that most scams involve creating a sense of urgency. There are phishing attack emails saying "the CEO urgently needs access to X." Back when my grandma would answer calls from unknown numbers, she got one saying "your grandson is in jail and needs bail money."
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
These are from the producer / "first" party; you can buy a dozen of these and palm them off to others for example. Not sure about ebay because they can have their money returned etc, but someone mentioned elsewhere that they bought it off the street somewhere.

atVelocet 6y ago

This is true: A friend of mine bought it on the street in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) from a shady guy that approached him and eventually sold it to him. He was totally excited and showed it to me. On first glance it looked like a real iPhone 5s/SE. But the mute button seemed strange. On inspecting the OS it became clear that he had bought a counterfeit. I knew cheap iPhone clones but this was the best one i ever came across.

gambiting 6y ago

Or, if you are like me from a country where a genuine iPhone 12 is worth about 3 months of average salary, this is an easy way to buy some status without actually spending quarter of your annual income on one. You could fool a lot of people with one of these. Same reason why fake anything exists - to sell to people who don't have means to buy the real thing(and yes, I suppose to also scam some who think they are getting the real deal, but that must be a tiny portion of the money involved in making this).

throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
> this is an easy way to buy some status This is going to sound weird but I've never found any relevance for symbols, nor any understanding of things like 'status'. What you say is like words from another language, or even concepts I don't have. So permit me: what does having status mean in practical terms, if any? Does the judgement of others matter if it's based on, to be blunt, ownership of trinkets? Not trolling, genuine question.
- sfblah 6y ago
  Oh cmon. It means attracting women.
  - throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
    OK, now this I would get me on the same page! But most women don't seem to care much for an expensive X, whatever that may be. Some do sure, but many? IDK
    - kubanczyk 6y ago
      Yes, many. But not in an overt way. And a fake phone will be more of a huge risk than an asset.
  - NullPrefix 6y ago
    You're not fooling anyone with those green bubbles.

mobilio 6y ago

Well to be honest this X works. Somehow! Because this clone doesn't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63u6b-eHYzU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63u6b-eHYzU

mazatta 6y ago

A former coworker accidentally bought one of these on Craigslist thinking he was buying a legit one. The price was pretty close to retail (or maybe even higher, as it was close to the X launch). The seller even let him handle one that "had already been opened", which was likely a legit one and then what he ultimately bought was a sealed fake.