Canadian retailer Future Shop, part of the Best Buy empire, is investigating a scam where some iPad 2 devices purchased in its Vancouver stores turned out to be fake. It appears that scammers bought as many as ten iPad 2s and swapped them for modelling clay.

Future Shop said scam artists bought Apple’s popular tablet computers with cash, replaced the devices with bags of model clay, resealed the boxes and returned them. The returned fakes were then put back on the shelf and sold to unsuspecting customers. It really saddens Future Shop that people stoop to be this opportunistic and make money is this kind of organized way.

One customer gave his wife one of the iPad 2s for Christmas; she was very shocked to receive an iPad 2 box with just a lump of modelling clay inside. To make matters worse, when he returned the iPad 2, he was apparently treated like a criminal by the store’s manager. Thankfully Future Shop has now refunded the cost of the iPad 2 and given the customer a free iPad 2 as compensation for the mix up.

Source: CTV News

Police in Shanghai, China have discovered a group of five people assembling and selling fake versions of the iPhone. Those arrested are thought to be part of an organised gang that were buying in parts from Guangdong in southern China and assembling them in rented apartments in Shanghai. Some of the parts being used are even thought to be genuine components used in the assembly of the actual iPhone 4. About 200 fake iPhones were found during the raid on the apartments.

The cost to make one fake iPhone, which used some genuine parts, was around 2,000 yuan ($313). It was sold on unauthorised markets and on the Internet for around 4,000 yuan, only a few hundred yuan cheaper than the real iPhone, the newspaper said. The fake iPhones had the same functions as the genuine ones but had a shorter battery life, it quoted the police as saying.

Source: Reuters, China Daily

After the discovery of a fake Apple Store in the Chinese city of Kunming last month, Chinese authorities have now discovered that there are a total of 22 unauthorized Apple retailers operating in the same area.

China’s Administration for Industry and Commerce in the Yunnan provincial capital said the stores have been ordered to stop using Apple’s logo after Apple China accused them of unfair competition and violating its registered trademark, state media said on Thursday.

[Reuters]

The iPhone 5 hasn’t been launched yet, we don’t have any real idea what it will look like either. That hasn’t stopped the Chinese market for fake handsets to get one out the door already! Are we surprised? Not at all.

If we imagine for a moment, that the knockoff shown above, or in the video after the break, is based on some inside information on the iPhone 5 design, what do you think? It looks like a softened iPhone 4 design with a few more curves and an iPhone 3GS type curved rear.

Gizmodo‘s Jesus Diaz is so sure this design is accurate, he’s staked all his body hair and future meat consumption on it…

[Cult of Mac, Gizmodo, @jesusdiaz]

What do you do if you’re a maker of fake iPhones in China and the police are battering your door in? Throw them out of your window that’s what! Not really the best idea if you happen to be on the eighteenth floor though…

This is what happened recently at a Shenzhen shop, when four fake iPhone dealers took the decision to dump their inventory to avoid prosecution. They tried to throw nearly one thousand cloned smartphones out of the eighteenth story window. Some of the phones were even said to be labelled as the yet to be announced iPhone 5! The police finally caught them burning transaction records but managed to recover a customer database.

Luckily no one in the street below was hurt but several cars and fences were damaged when it started raining fake phones!

[Cult of Mac]

There’s fake, there’s really fake, then there’s fakety fake fake and while no one outside Apple can ever be certain, one look at the almost-certainly-not 128GB iPod touch 5 shots above and about all we’re left to ask is how many points of fake fakery can you spot?

[CrunchGear]

There seems to be a fake jailbreak tool circulating at the moment that is being called “greenpois0n” that is claiming to be using the SHAtter exploit. Now this would all be fine and dandy except for the simple fact that the SHAtter jailbreak exploit has yet to be released by the Chronic Development Team. According to security researcher Costin Raiu at the Kapersey Labs, all that greenpois0n is doing is stealing users passwords.

We’ve seen scams similar to this before and we will more than likely see them again in the future so please remember if you see any website or program that claims to be capable of jailbreaking a iOS device running 4.0.2 or above, it is highly likely a scam or something much more damaging unless of course if it were to be released by Dev Team or Chronic Development Team themselves.

For more jailbreaking information be sure to visit our jailbreak and unlock forum.

[Ars Technica]

UDPATE: Engadget initially updated their story on the iPhone G4 (not iPhone 4G!) to include the information below, then removed the update, their editor-in-chief stating on Twitter that a “major update is coming”. So, we’ll file this under “developing” for now…

ORIGINAL: Those pictures we linked to last night of an iPhone 4G/iPhone HD turn out to be what most of our readers claimed it to be in the comments – just a knock-off.

According to Applesfera, the phone in the pictures never came from Apple or Cupertino at all, but is simply a cheap Chinese clone. One of their readers posted a picture (above) of the same identical phone that they recently purchased in Japan.

So whether you were excited or not so excited, move along as there is nothing to see here.

[Via Macrumors via Applefera]

Chad and Phil spotted this in the wee hours, and it being no more believable than many of the so-called analyst predictions about the when’s and how-muches involving Apple’s still unannounced iTablet, we figured it might be a fun, fakety fake fake sort way to start off the real weekend.

And if Apple by chance does make something close-ish to this, would you want?

[No Where Else via Gizmodo]

September was the last time we saw some malicious attacks on MobileMe subscribers. Well the scammers are at it again, trying to take advantage of Apple’s MobileMe subscribers. A Gizmodo reader claims to have gotten the email shown above.

If you then click the fake “Login” button you will be directed to a website the scammers have set up — to look like Apple’s web site — asking for your credit card information. It is safe to say, delete this email if you happen to find it in your inbox.

[Via Gizmodo]

Blurry off-angle photo? Check. Recycled tag line? Check. Recycled hero artwork? Check. Photoshop? Check.

Yes, folks, Jon4Lakers appears to have iPhone Nano fakes just in time for Macworld? And could it be from the same fine folks who brought us the fake Mac Mini poster?

Sure, case makers have made iPhone Nano rumors all the rage again, but just shrinking down the screen’s physical size making capacitive targets difficult for beefy fingers to hit doesn’t make much sense, does it?

With Apple, anything can happen, so the only question is, what’s more likely? Phil Schiller whipping out an iPhone nano at Macworld, or tons more fakes before he ultimately doesn’t?

(Thanks to Kurt Lyon for the tip!)

Here and TiPb we like to protect our readers from all that is evil. Well today we have a little warning from the Dev Team regarding the fake QuickPwn sites on the internet.

We would just like to point out that that there are lots of fake sites using the QuickPwn name, these muppets don’t know anything special, and they don’t have anything unique. They are vultures that sit on the domain names and plagiarize content and information in the hope that you donate to them, or click the google ads.

As we’ve mentioned before we don’t accept donations and we certainly don’t allow ads on our site, anyone who asks for donations in our name is lying, end of story.

There have been a few readers lately inquiring about unlocking of the iPhone 3G. Lets put all these rumors to rest right now. There is currently NO software unlock for the iPhone 3G. The only way possible (which I would not recommend even to my worst enemy), is a SIM unlock. For more information regarding the dangers of those please head to our forums.

If it’s not on the Dev Teams official web site, please think twice about downloading it and using it.

[Via iPhone.-dev.org]

Those Nike+ Pictures we reported a few days back? There’s some rumblings that they may be fake. Yes, Apple and Nike are still in cahoots and plan on releasing Nike+ for the iPhone, but the pictures floating around the web are not a production of Apple or Nike but rather some enterprising photoshop expert.

Who knows when we’ll get some solid info on Nike+ for iPhone. Hopefully, Apple and Nike are working on creating a great program that includes some of the features we saw in the screenshots like the ability to map out a running route. There currently is no timetable for Nike+ to be released on the iPhone.

Read

There’s a memo being circulated everywhere from TiPb’s comments to some of the biggest sites on the blogsphere, that purports to contain leaked information on Rogers — the GSM monopoly with de-facto exclusive iPhone 3G rights in Canada — rate plans, including data rates, which have historically been a HUGE issue for Canadians.

The information in this memo gives the impression that Canadians, at long last, might just get the same data rates as AT&T. In fact, the memo seems nearly identical in almost every find-and-replace way to the AT&T memo that leaked a while back. This has led many, myself included, to believe it’s just another hoax, another way to toy with the battered-consumer syndrome sufferers north of the border.

(Of course, none of this would be possible if Rogers would just release their own plan info — like almost every real carrier has already done!)

UPDATE: There’s a second theory circulating which suggests that the memo may be both legit, and also an almost find-and-replace match for the AT&T memo, reason given Apple influence/wording or just similar contract terms agreed to with Apple.

I’m still not sure. This would be such a radically good departure towards fairness and competitiveness that I just can’t bring myself to believe Rogers would do it. Please, PLEASE, prove me wrong! $30 unlimited for data, even given the more-evil 3 year term, would be industry-shifting good.