Buying High & Selling Low iPhones Suspected of Deposit Fraud

 iphones

By buying iPhones at market price and selling them at a low price, two millennials collected huge amount of deposits by buying high and selling low. They used some of the money to fill the gaps of their orders, but consumed most of it. Their behaviors caused 36 victims of 38 million Yuan in total that cannot be cashed or recovered. Recently, the suspects Tang and Wang were deported from the police to Jiangsu Suzhou Wujin District Procuratorate for the prosecution of contract fraud.

The Wu’s are in the business of phone wholesaling in Shanghai. Mr. Wu was introduced to an iPhone supply channel by his business partner in early December 2018. His partner claimed that the phones were all genuine products distributed in China, and the price of each was 300 to 500 Yuan lower than the market wholesale price. Wu was excited about the discount, and immediately contacted the suppliers Wang and Tang who were located in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. After discussion, Mr. Wu continuously pre-ordered 40 iPhones from the suspects and signed a purchase and sale contract. He paid the deposit of 325 thousand Yuan in advance and they agreed on delivering the phones on December 18, 2018.

However, Mr. Wu didn’t receive the iPhones on December 18 and started to expedite. However, the suspects always made excuses for late delivery or refused to meet in person to discuss . With no other options, Mr. Wu pretended to agree on the initiative proposal made by the suspects that he will sign another contract to order more iPhones, and the previously ordered iPhones would be dispatched as soon as possible. By doing so, Mr. Wu finally set a personal appointment with Wang. During their meeting, Mr. Wu insisted that he must either receive the pre-ordered iPhones or get refunded according to the contract. After a 3-hour negotiation, Wang suggested Mr. Wu order another bunch of iPhones. Once the advance payment was paid, the former goods would be delivered with the newly ordered ones altogether. Mr. Wu disagreed on such agreement and called the police after.

They were taken to the police station for economic dispute mediation. However, during the investigation, the police found out that Wang and Tang were frequently mentioned in multiple previous dispute cases about iPhone pre-orders since 2018. The police suspected that the case might not be a simple economic dispute, but instead a contract fraud case made by the means of signing a contract that sells iPhones at a low price to steal from others illegally..By investigation and evidence chain of transaction details,,it was proved that there were 36 victims defrauded of 38 million Yuan in total by Wang and Tang for pre-ordering iPhones at low prices.

June 4, 2019

Source: Zhongjian Press

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