Fake 'Sent from my iPhone' messages latest fad in China

Published February 28, 2012 6:06pm

Owning an iPhone —or even just the appearance of owning one— is such a status symbol that Chinese counterfeiters have actually started making fake iPhone messages.

Here's something many Apple fans in China who cannot afford an iPhone turn to: an imitation "Sent from my iPhone" message.

The fake message is the latest Apple imitation in China, where users of China-based social network QQ, tech site Penn-Olson.com reported.

Penn-Olson.com said some QQ users pay hackers up to 8 RMB ($1.25) a month to have their status messages appear with the fake "Sent from my iPhone" - or "Sent from iPhone QQ" tagline.

Adding insult to injury for Apple is that the service is available only users of devices running Google's Android OS, a close rival of Apple's iOS.

The report said the racket uses a modified version of the QQ for Android app that will transmit that fake tagline on one's QQ IM profile. Brisk sales

It added the most popular such hack seller has sold this 329 times in the past month.

"The iPhone is too expensive and we do not want to spend all that money just to impress friends," it quoted one vendor's sales pitch for the fake message.

One then gives the seller/hacker QQ login credentials so they can change the avatar to have the little iPhone logo in it and alter some of the settings.

They will then give the buyer a modified version of QQ for Android for one's regular phone that will always display a "iPhone QQ Online" or some such customized vanity tagline.

"And so, to your online buddies, you’ll look like you’re on an iPhone each time you use QQ on your Android phone," it said. Android vs Apple

Penn-Olson.com noted Android is twice as popular as Apple’s iOS in China, "but it seems that some folks still view the iPhone and the iPad as the ultimate gadget status symbols."

A separate article on The Next Web noted China is known for being the home of many of Apple’s key supply-chain partners, but it also has a healthy reputation for its burgeoning black market.

In this black market, Apple fakes and copies are sold to consumers who cannot afford the real thing.

"Demand for Apple products is high in China, as demonstrated when the iPhone 4S went on sale in the country and the Cupertino-based technology giant was forced to suspend sales following reports of pandemonium at some locations due to high demand," it noted. — TJD, GMA News

Tags: apple, appleiphone, google, googleandroid, china