An Australian IT company has been unwittingly roped into an iPhone scam, after the company’s name was used as a front for selling the device at discounted prices.
Brisbane-based Cellnet says its name was used in a scam on the Melbourne.gumtree.com.au site by a user who identified themselves as “Sarah Reed”.
The scammer claimed that Cellnet was selling the 16 gigabyte iPhone for $581. This is a substantial discount, given the 16GB iPhone retails for $899 with a pre-paid plan from Optus.
Cellnet chief executive Stuart Smith says the matter was outrageous, as the company doesn’t even sell official Apple products.
“It came to our attention via one of our staff members being sent an email with a link to the gumtree website,” he says.
“Basically, there was a person reporting to be from Cellnet, and they were obviously not from here, and were fraudulently claiming we were selling iPhones at discounted prices. They have used their own name, and they have used the company’s name.
“It has been handed over to the police and the computer crimes unit, and we’re waiting for some action from them now.”
One person wrote on the forums at consumer site Whirlpool claiming that they were out of pocket after purchasing an iPhone from the site.
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Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
