“Major criminal networks” are scamming Australians with counterfeit, imported smartphones

Courtney Smith was looking forward to using her vacation payout to buy a new phone last month.

The single mother went online and found what she thought was a reasonably priced used Samsung Galaxy for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

“It was new in the box, it was sealed and the story is like that [the seller] “Bought it for his ex-girlfriend and they broke up,” Ms Smith said.

“It was all pretty believable, I’m usually pretty into that stuff.”

She said she spent $1,000 on a top-of-the-line Samsung device.

Ms Smith only realized it was fake when she got home and took the phone out of the box.

The screen quality, operating system and camera all performed like a smartphone made over a decade ago.

“If you didn’t buy a $70 phone, you wouldn’t find the kind of technology and slowness that it offers today.”

After being blocked online by the seller and speaking to other community members, Ms Smith realized she had fallen victim to a scam that had already affected nine others in her hometown of Albury.

“It’s hard to trust people these days,” she said.

“Since then, I’ve had to pay another $700 to get my old phone repaired, so I’m basically almost $2,000 off because I just had a crappy experience.”

A national issue

Shanaan Cohney, a lecturer in cybersecurity at the University of Melbourne, said counterfeit phones were being sold across Australia.

In December last year, police in Brisbane noticed an increase in such scams and urged Christmas shoppers to remain vigilant.

Mr Cohney said fraudsters often incorporated low-end Chinese-made Android phones into the casing of a more expensive model, creating a cheap but impressive-looking fake.

He said the Chinese government had taken steps to monitor such scams and that sophisticated criminal networks were selling the products.

“These are large criminal organizations that typically build these devices and then resell them before they finally reach the consumer,” Mr. Cohney said.

Mr Coheny said many people were involved in the “whole underground economy”.

“There will be one party that manufactures them, another that wholesales them, and finally, individual lower level criminals will be the retailers who cheat individuals out of their hard-earned money.”

Mr Cohney also said other contributing factors included the proliferation of online marketplaces and the low cost of producing such phones.

He said there were a number of things shoppers could look out for online.

“If the profile looks fake, it’s probably fake,” he said.

“I would definitely recommend anyone buying electronics to actually try them out live before completing a transaction.

A well-known scam

Kathy Sundstrom is the national outreach manager at cyber support service ID Care.

She said the group has received an average of 18 calls per month since May from people reporting fraud in the sale of premium phones.

“Not everyone gets a questionable phone at all, they may pay the money and end up with nothing,” she said.

“People should never provide their driving license details when buying something on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree. It creates another world of pain when a person’s identity is compromised.”

Australia’s consumer watchdog, the ACCC, said consumer guarantees do not apply to private sales between private individuals.

“Consumers should think carefully before purchasing from an individual on an online marketplace and check things such as reviews of the seller or how long their profile has existed,” an ACCC spokesperson said.

“Most online marketplaces also have a feature that allows consumers to report a seller… [people] You may also want to check with your bank about the possibility of getting your money back.