For 2 years, 16 people they purchased Apple products worth 1 million dollars from various American stores of the company. They used fake cards for their purchases, so Apple did not collect any money from the transactions made in the stores, but the thieves took out at least half of the respective amount by selling the products like new ones. After 2 and a half years of fraud, the individuals were arrested by the American police and the head of the criminal group was sentenced to a prison sentence of 4.5-9 years. His brothers also involved in the group received prison sentences of 1 to 3 years and respectively two to six years.
Shaheed Bilal, 29, was sentenced to 4 1/2 to 9 years behind bars for running a cybercrime ring that created counterfeit credit cards and used them in Apple stores across the country. The ring, which also included Bilal's brothers and girlfriend, purchased more than $1 million worth of iPads, iPhones and MacBooks over 2 1/2 years starting in 2008 and sold them to dealers in stolen goods in Brooklyn, NY They purchased credit card numbers online , probably from traffickers in Eastern Europe, according to a joint investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney and the United States Secret Service.
This is one of the biggest American frauds involving Apple stores and it is amazing that they managed to do it all for two and a half years without being caught earlier.
