Accessories manufactured by Apple are not exactly cheap, but there are several third-party manufacturers that offer great products for cheaper prices. However, there is also a whole market of counterfeit accessories – and Apple is now doing everything to take down these products.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple is aware that there are several vendors that use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to sell counterfeit accessories from Apple. The most popular are Chinese copies of products such as AirPods, Lightning cables, iPhone batteries and power adapters.
Although these accessories look attractive to customers, as they cost up to ten times less than what Apple sells, counterfeit products can endanger the user. This is what happened recently to Andrea Stroppa, a cyber security researcher. Stroppa borrowed an iPhone charger from a friend, but then the unexpected happened: the charger exploded while connected to the power supply. Of course it was a counterfeit charger.
Stories like those told by Stroppa are far from uncommon when it comes to accessories purchased online through unknown sites. The report points out that the counterfeit accessories business amounts to millions of dollars in the US and Europe. While Facebook says that selling counterfeit products on its social networks violates the company’s policy, researchers argue that Facebook does not ban these sellers.
“Our study aims to expose Instagram’s problems, or unwillingness, to the long-standing counterfeit market and also to highlight the many dangers of such illegal business for Apple as well as consumers,” the researchers said. Facebook is “guilty of not adequately investing and protecting US businesses and citizens around the world who use the platform.”
A research by Ghost Data Team obtained by Bloomberg monitored 163 sellers of counterfeit Apple accessories on Instagram in the past month. The top-selling product from these sellers was AirPods Pro replicas, followed by MagSafe Chargers. While these products cost $ 249 and $ 39 at Apple, respectively, a store on Instagram sold the counterfeit versions for $ 25 and $ 5.50.
The Instagram accounts in the study uploaded 50,000 sales posts in the past year, which received about 600,000 likes and comments. The report contains accounts posted by suppliers of counterfeit merchandise, including one seller who earned $ 140,000 in a single day from online sales through his HSBC personal bank account, Ghost Data reports.
Not everyone knows that they are buying a counterfeit product or understanding the risks involved. An Apple spokesman said Bloomberg that the company is concerned about the risk that these accessories may pose to users. The company has confirmed that it has a team that identifies and takes down these sellers and e-commerce sites around the world that sell counterfeit Apple accessories.
‘We have a dedicated team of experts who are constantly working with law enforcement, merchants, social media companies and e-commerce sites around the world to remove counterfeit products from the market. In the past year, we’ve tried to remove more than 1 million offers for counterfeit and counterfeit Apple products from online markets, including Facebook and Instagram. ”
The full report can be found at Bloomberg’s website, and it’s definitely worth reading.
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