In one of many weirdest supply scams we have seen thus far, a person who claims he ordered an iPhone 15 Professional straight from Apple’s web site acquired a regarding shock at his doorstep as a substitute — an Android-based copy of Apple’s newest flagship. 

The baffling story appeared on Reedit this week, courtesy of Ed from Surrey, England, who goes by the Reddit deal with theEdmard. He claims that after ordering the iPhone from Apple’s web site, he acquired all the same old supply affirmation emails from Apple and monitoring particulars from supply companion Dynamic Parcel Distribution (DPD).

Nevertheless, as soon as the bundle arrived, opening it revealed a number of purple flags that one thing wasn’t fairly proper. For starters, the telephone was lined in a display protector, which Apple would not embrace with its iPhones out of the field. 

“The subsequent factor I discover once I flip it on, the display isn’t proper, it lights up the black space in a approach that’s clearly not OLED, and the underside has a chin, which suggests this isn’t appropriate for the telephone,” Ed wrote. The design of Apple’s iPhone 15 sequence options uniform bezels round all 4 edges. 

As soon as the telephone was switched on, the alarm bells solely bought louder. A number of apps, together with Fb, YouTube, and TikTok got here preinstalled — one thing Apple by no means does — and Ed described a “very poor setup course of” whereby Android toasts (small operation-related popups) appeared. The OS was glitchy, the digicam was “like a slideshow and crashes in the event you attempt to use any UI aspect on display,” and, most regarding of all, the battery settings web page indicated that the machine had been used earlier than.

That is when Ed concluded that the machine was really an Android telephone working a software program pores and skin made to appear like Apple’s iOS consumer interface. 

“I instantly clocked that it was an Android machine in a pores and skin. It could have satisfied my grandad, however I might inform in a short time,” he wrote.

Ed, who’s the COO for cloud software program supplier AtWrk in response to Mashable, stated he is reached out to Apple and has an open ticket with Apple help. Chatting with the outlet, which reviewed the emailed order affirmation he acquired from Apple, he stated Apple has been “very accommodating” about the entire mess, however for now, the problem stays unresolved. Tom’s Information has contacted Apple as nicely to see what’s up.

Happily, after recognizing the pretend, Ed didn’t go browsing together with his Apple ID, and he’d managed to skip all of the setup screens to get into the telephone. If he had entered his Apple ID and password — or heaven forbid linked up his Apple Pockets — no matter scammers had been behind the machine might have entry to his private and monetary data.

Extra alarming nonetheless, it appears Ed is not the one goal hit by this explicit rip-off. Mashable highlighted a current TikTok describing an eerily an identical state of affairs the place an Android pretend got here within the mail as a substitute of a legitimately ordered Apple iPhone 15 Professional Max. 

For sure, it is a good reminder for us all to apply an abundance of warning in terms of our tech. Make sure you examine new telephone packages completely earlier than coming into any private data or signing off on shipments. And whilst you have safety in your thoughts, take a look at these seven essential safety measures to raised defend all of your Apple units.

Extra from Tom’s Information