Woman duped into spending £2,000 on two new iPhones made of clay
‘I’d never seen anything like it in my life... My husband and I were baffled by the creativity of the crime.’
A duped woman was left shocked when two iPhones she bought from an online seller turned out to be made of clay.
The 36-year-old businesswoman spotted the pair of iPhone 15 Pro Max’s for sale on a social media marketplace and contacted the seller, who arranged to meet in person to complete the transaction.
She told local media the seller seemed trustworthy, and gave her his home address
‘He was constantly posting his face all over the internet, so to me, it was very clear that everything was genuine’, she said.
The woman and her husband went to his home in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and chatted normally for a short while, but things suddenly turned ugly when she tried to open iPhone boxes and see what was inside.
She recalled: ‘He said, “You’re not going to open it, the gun is at my waist. No need to be suspicious, everything’s fine, the phones are there.”
‘I couldn’t see what was in his waist, but I wasn’t going to pay to find out.’
She immediately transferred him 13,000 BRL (£2,000) as he demanded and he then left the scene by car.
When she and her husband opened the boxes, they found the fake clay phones.
The suspect later contacted her again and threatened her and her family.
She recalled: ‘I called the police, the bank. I tried to cancel the transaction, but it didn’t work because he had already withdrawn the money from the account.’
So she was relieved when she heard he’d been arrested in Belo Horizonte on Thursday (25 Apr).
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According to the police, the perpetrator is a 31-year-old influencer with nearly 300,000 social media followers.
He is denying guilt, but the police say there’s evidence he committed extortion aggravated by the use of a firearm.
The woman said: ‘I’d never seen anything like it in my life. The box was impeccable, brand new, sealed.
‘I was frozen, in shock, at that moment. My husband and I were baffled by the creativity of the crime.’
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