Apple's Anti-Counterfeit Team Has Targeted Over 1 Million Listings on Instagram and Other Marketplaces in the Past Year - MacRumors
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Apple's Anti-Counterfeit Team Has Targeted Over 1 Million Listings on Instagram and Other Marketplaces in the Past Year

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Apple has a dedicated team of experts that focus solely on ferreting out counterfeit products and stopping them from being sold. Apple shared the tidbit in a statement to Bloomberg on a piece about counterfeit iPhone chargers.

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The safety of our customers is our first priority, and the risks associated with counterfeit products can be very serious. We have a dedicated team of experts 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 last year we have sought the removal of over 1 million listings for counterfeit and fake Apple products from online marketplaces, including Facebook and Instagram.

Apple in the last year had more than a million listings for fake Apple products removed from various online marketplaces like Facebook and Instagram.

Bloomberg's piece delves into fake chargers that have sometimes caused harm to users, with many of those chargers investigated sold on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media sites.

Chinese factories and illicit vendors sell knockoff Apple accessories at cheap prices, and those products are difficult to tell apart from real products. They're outwardly identical to the real thing in every way, but don't have the same safety standards.

Andrea Stroppa, a security researcher who accidentally used a counterfeit product borrowed from a friend, launched an investigation with his colleagues from Ghost Data Team. Their study from February 8 to March 8 uncovered 163 wholesale sellers of counterfeit Apple products on Instagram, ranging from fake $25 AirPods Pro to a fake $5 MagSafe Charger.

When purchasing an Apple accessory, it's important to make sure you buy from a reputable retailer or from Apple's own site to avoid fakes, and accessories should never be purchased on sites like Instagram.

Top Rated Comments

Apple_Robert Avatar
Apple_Robert
66 months ago
Thank you for looking out for us, Apple.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
sw1tcher
66 months ago

Thank you for looking out for us, Apple.
Apple's looking out for their bottom line. That consumers benefit from this is a side benefit.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1
1258186
66 months ago
I wouldn’t buy anything from Facebook or Instagram. Too many scams on there.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adrianlondon Avatar
adrianlondon
66 months ago
There's really no point in spending $10 on a dodgy cable from Instagram, when you can get the same dodgy cable for $2 from aliexpress :)
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
Apple_Robert
66 months ago

There's really no point in spending $10 on a dodgy cable from Instagram, when you can get the same dodgy cable for $2 from aliexpress :)
A lot of people here will spend $1K on a phone and then go to places like Aiexpress for cables and chargers. That is not wise, in my opinion.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
ComRadMac
66 months ago
"They're identical to the real thing in every way, but don't have the same safety standards."

It sure seems like this would mean that they aren't identical in every way.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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