Seven years in prison for zombie iPhones

Chengwen Guo, the Chinese national who represented a multinational criminal organization in Ireland, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for theft and money laundering in 2021 and 2022. 9,700 "zombie" iPhone scams have been identified. The main crime, the so-called "zombie" iPhone scam, involves importing seemingly genuine iPhones from China, which are actually filled with counterfeit components. These iPhones are then sent to Apple's after-sales service under the pretext of malfunction, so they can be replaced with new models under warranty. The scam worked for quite some time, as a genuine EMEI authentication number was assigned to each of these devices, which were naturally much cheaper than a legally sold model. The new iPhones thus obtained were then shipped to Hong Kong and resold outside of Europe. After more than 9,700 successful transactions, the criminal network was able to sell them for a total value of over 10 million euros.