Be determined to buy a fake iPhone knowing that it is fake, it comes to you and it turns out to be indeed fake. It seems absurd, but you could call it “social experience” or simply curiosity. This was done by Víctor Caballero, a Mexican content creator who posted a video on his YouTube channel explaining his experience.
Beyond curiosity, the truth is that it leaves several lessons on how not to make counterfeits and how Falling for a scam like this is not that difficult. According to the portal where it is sold, Aliexpress, which is a recognized store. Also taking into account a price which, far from smelling like a scam, is not cheap at all.
An attractive price, although far from a bargain
At the beginning of his video, and for obvious reasons, Víctor Caballero does not show a purchase link for the product, which is an iPhone 15 Pro Max. It shows several screenshots showing the sale of this alleged iPhone 15 Pro Max on Aliexpress at a price around 15,800 Mexican pesos (around 900 dollars to change).
The original model in Apple stores in Mexico costs 28,999 pesos base. Finding it for almost half the price as in this case is something that we are not going to classify as common either, but There is no evidence that this is a scam.because for almost 16,000 pesos, we are not really getting a good deal because it is not something extremely accessible to all budgets.
First clues of something strange: the packaging
If you have ever received an Apple product, even if it does not come directly from its store, but from an authorized seller, you will know that it is always very well packaged in a box larger than that of the iPhone itself -even and with lots of protection. In the package that Víctor Caballero received, we barely see a simple and basic quilting with classic protective bubbles.
The worst happened when he opened it. Not only did he discover that it didn’t even come in an original Apple box, but the scammer hadn’t even bothered to include an imitation or any box. Absolutely nothing. Well yes, minimal plastic packaging is a euphemism for tacky.
But be careful, because the surprise doesn’t stop there. Gentleman did not receive an iPhone 15 Pro Max… I received two iPhone 15 Pro Max! Well, for 16,000 pesos, we can even forgive that the packaging is terrible. Even if that means we don’t have a charging cable or any other user guides. Overall, we already know how an iPhone works and we have plenty of cables around the house. No?
Hey, maybe they’re not original. Maybe
I admit to having written and deleted these lines several times. I tried to write descriptively and comically what happens when Víctor Caballero takes the two iPhones out of their plastic packaging, but honestly I think it’s better to see the previous image taken from that moment and let yourself be judged. Even if you’ve never seen an iPhone 15 Pro Max, you’ll spot where the (many) drawbacks are.
Everything is bad. Absolutely everything. Maybe I could say at the start that the iPhone form factor and triple rear camera are suitable for a true iPhone 15 Pro Max, but neither. Apart from a discolored paint, with graffiti done with a marker, different weights, a material very far from the original titanium, what we see is that it is broken into several parts such as the back, the screen or the cameras (quite a surprise given the ultra-secure packaging in which they arrived).
So what’s going on? Well, it’s not that they’re broken original iPhones, which might be bad in itself, but they’re not even iPhones. The YouTuber slightly disassembles some parts and shows how it’s made of cheap materials that aren’t even put together well. So yes, we already confirm 100% that this is a scam (although probably no one who saw the video or read this had any doubts).
Inside it’s not bad, even if it’s still a copy
I must say that with all these precedents and knowing as I do iPhone counterfeits, I did not expect things to improve at all. And he did it. One of Caballero’s two iPhone 15 Pro Max models finally turned out to be “well” made when it comes to the front. an aesthetic difficult to distinguish from an original. Especially since they generally tend to have much more pronounced bezels or low-quality elements like the Dynamic Island.
The full interface is not shown later, but it looks like There are elements attributed to iOS that work perfectly. For example, the camera, control center or battery icons. If we see a still image, we can perfectly think that it is a real iPhone.
It is obvious (and the content creator emphasizes this) that camera quality is not good. And it’s not because of the resolution itself or the unfortunate fact that one of the lenses is broken, it’s that sometimes you don’t even notice that there are different types of lenses because they don’t change when you zoom or switch to lens. large angular lens. There’s also some jerkiness, but as much as possible and remembering what we’ve seen previously, it’s surprising that it at least feels like iOS.
Beyond the joke lies a major scam
Obviously, we take this as a joke because, fortunately, the person who got scammed is a person who did it knowing that this possibility existed and with the specific aim of proving it. However, what we see Is fraud in every rule. Beyond the materials used and whatever the quality of the interface, there is ultimately nothing of iOS, but rather often optimized versions of Android.
No matter how many Apple fans we are, it would be ugly to say that the most serious thing is that it’s Android. No, that’s not the case at all. It’s a great operating system and, even with a layer that makes it almost unrecognizable, it can run very well. The problem is that it is sold as something authentic and comes with hardware that is also far from what was expected.. If someone knowingly wants an Android and tunes it to their liking to look like iOS, we attest that there are many options for 900 dollars that are infinitely better in terms of functionality (and for less money) .
I was also going to say that cheap is expensive, just as a warning. And the truth is that it doesn’t apply to this case. The almost 900 dollars in exchange that it costs to buy one of these copies shows that it is not even a cheap copy. Whether it’s worth it or not will depend on the individual. Of course, as long as it is identified that it is a copy upon purchase and there are no cases like these in which it appears to be an original iPhone.
Just this week we learned of the dismantling of a gang in Northern Ireland dedicated to selling, among other things, counterfeit apples. This is becoming more and more common and that is why we never tire of recommending it. always buy from reliable stores. Wanting to save on the purchase of a device like this that costs around 1,500 dollars is something legal and even logical, but doing it without being sure of the reliability of the site only exposes us to danger.
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