Spotting the signs of a fake Apple Lightning cable

By Anthony Bouchard on Apr 8, 2016

Whenever you buy a new iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, it’ll come with a Lightning to USB cable that you will use to charge and sync your device. On the other hand, you have to be careful when you buy these cables separately, especially online, because you could end up with a counterfeit cable.

A counterfeit is a cable that tries to look just like Apple’s OEM Lightning to USB cable, even though it isn’t. Using these cables could have an adverse effect on your device, so we’ll show you how to spot the differences between a counterfeit and genuine Lightning to USB cable in this piece. Read More

 

Make sure to stay away from these fake unlock and jailbreak sites

By Cody Lee on Sep 9, 2013

Perhaps one of the biggest problems in the jailbreak community today, apart from piracy, is the growing amount of scammers. These are sites or services that promise to provide users with jailbreak and unlock solutions, in return for money or other malicious intent.

And what’s worse is, often times these services are very misleading, claiming to do things such as “jailbreak iOS 6.1.4” or “downgrade from iOS 6 to iOS 5″—which we all know aren’t possible yet. So we’re highlighting some of these sites in order to warn users to avoid them… Read More

 

OtterBox wins $2 million court victory against counterfeiters

By Cody Lee on Aug 20, 2013

Counterfeiting is a major problem that all brand-name manufacturers have to deal with—whether they make clothes, jewelry, bags or, as Apple could certainly attest to, electronics. It’s a tough issue to fight, too, and companies rarely get restitution.

But that’s not the case this time. Popular Apple accessory-maker OtterBox has just won a major victory against a New-York-based company. Not only did a US District Court judge issue a permanent injunction, but it awarded $2 million in damages… Read More

 

Chinese iPhone dealers scam Apple with fake parts

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 15, 2013

Five iPhone distributors in China are under arrest after Apple told local police it was the victim of an unusual scam. The plot involved sending fake iPhone 4S parts to Apple for replacement and receiving real components worth more than $64,000, according to Monday reports.

The alleged fraudsters went so far as to accompany the fake components with the serial numbers of more than a hundred real iPhone handsets, police said. Read More

 

As expected, the Dream JB is a fake – updated

By Jeff Benjamin on Dec 12, 2012

Okay, I’ll bite. Again.

Yesterday I called out the developer of “Dream JB” for promising to bring a jailbreak to the iPhone 5 when he knew good and well that he couldn’t fulfill that promise.

Understandably, a lot of readers were miffed that I had the audacity to dash their hopes for a jailbreak. We’ve waited a long time for a jailbreak for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5, so it didn’t really surprise me when I was labeled a pessimist, although I was surprised a bit that my journalistic integrity was questioned. Fair enough, I was pretty positive that in due time this “jailbreak” would be exposed for what it really was.

Due time came today.

As I stated, I too wish for a jailbreak, it’s in my best interest to have one…but I and many others saw through this for what it was — a fake. Now the developer has released a video showcasing his fake work. And although it’s a pretty ambitious job of fakery, at the end of the day it’s still fake. Read More

 

Reports of an iPhone 5 jailbreak releasing on December 22nd are probably fake – updated

By Jeff Benjamin on Dec 11, 2012

Over the last few weeks there’s been a slight buzz about a so-called iPhone 5 jailbreak from some unknown and unproven entity. So as not to draw attention to the folks behind what is almost assuredly a hoax, we’ll refrain from linking or name dropping.

The bottom line is this, if you don’t see word from a respectable member of the community, a member from proven teams like the Chronic Dev Team or the iPhone Dev Team, then it’s almost always fake. Please don’t get hyped up over something that isn’t real, only to be highly disappointed in a few weeks… Read More

 

Fake Activator app pops up in the App Store

By Cody Lee on Jun 24, 2012

There appears to be a new trend developing in the App Store: create a crappy application, name it after a popular jailbreak app, and hope folks mistakenly buy it for $0.99.

Last week we saw a fake Cydia app make its way into Apple’s digital download hub. And now we’ve come across a similar Activator impostor… Read More

 

Cydia makes its way to the App Store, but it’s not what you think

By Sébastien Page on Jun 16, 2012

The App Store hasn’t had any shortage of knockoff apps since its creation a few years ago. When popular games such as Angry Birds or Cut the Rope make their way up the charts, you can expect a few unscrupulous developers to rush and try to get their copycat app approved and available in the App Store in order to make a quick buck.

Surfing on the popularity of Cydia, the App Store for jailbreak apps and tweaks, one shady developer thought that releasing an app called Cydia and making it available to over 300 million iDevices (no jailbreak required, mind you) would be a good idea…

Read More

 

As it turns out, Tim Cook didn’t visit Valve’s headquarters

By Cody Lee on Apr 20, 2012

Last week, a report made its way around the blogosphere claiming that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook was spotted at Valve’s headquarters. This sparked all kinds of speculation regarding the nature of Cook’s visit, and the company’s future plans in the gaming space.

But alas, the story has been proven to be false. Valve head Gabe Newell debunked the rumor himself during an interview on the weekly Seven Day Cooldown podcast yesterday. And apparently, tech sites weren’t the only ones fooled by the report… Read More

 

Service adds ‘sent from my iPhone’ to your messages for $1 a month

By Cody Lee on Feb 24, 2012

I’ve heard the expression, “fake it ’til you make it” but this is a bit ridiculous. The Financial Times is reporting that a new trend is starting to catch among China’s mobile users — fake iPhone signatures.

I know, an Apple-related knock off in China, big surprise. But this might actually be taking things too far. Apparently users are willing to pay money for services to auto-add ‘sent from my iPhone’ to all of their messages… Read More

 

Apple Pulls Several Misleading Applications From the App Store

By Cody Lee on Feb 4, 2012

Even with Apple’s notoriously strict approval process, misleading applications constantly make their way into the App Store. We’ve covered a number of these titles on iDB — most recently Craft-Build Terrain, a fake MineCraft game.

These fraudulent applications have been making some serious waves in the developer community over the last few weeks. Developers believe these apps give their titles, and the App Store in general, a bad name. And Apple has responded… Read More

 

iPhone 4S Battery Improvement Tweak Proven Fake

By Cody Lee on Jan 25, 2012

Over the past week or so, there has been a lot talk regarding a recently-released iPhone 4S jailbreak tweak that supposedly fixes the handset’s battery problem. We’ve neglected to mention the utility here on iDB for a couple reasons.

One, the tweak has only been available on the insanelyi repo — a Cydia repository known for hosting pirated applications. And two, it simply sounded too good to be true… Read More

 

Beware! Fake Apple Billing Information Emails Circulating

By Oliver Haslam on Dec 28, 2011

When you are as big as Apple, bad guys will always seek to use you as a means to take people’s money, and unfortunately there is a new scam making the rounds.

According to The Mac Security Blog, the latest method of stealing people’s money comes courtesy of fake emails which purport to be from the iPhone maker, claiming that the user’s billing information is out of date. Obviously, the “helpful” email offers a link that gives the lucky recipient an easy way to make things right.

Of course, that link doesn’t take you to Apple’s billing pages, but rather a third party who wishes to steal your information… Read More

 

Stay Away from This Fake MineCraft App, It’s a Scam

By Cody Lee on Dec 14, 2011

Although Apple has done a great job keeping malicious software out of the App Store, it hasn’t quite figured out how to keep the scammers at bay. It seems like we’ve seen several misleading apps surface in the App Store over the past few months.

What happens is, Apple will approve an application that doesn’t appear to be harmful. But for some reason, they fail to notice that the app’s description doesn’t have anything to do with what it actually does. And we’ve just come across another one… Read More

 

Create Your Own Fake Siri Conversations with iFakeSiri

By Oliver Haslam on Nov 26, 2011

Since Siri is turning into the biggest thing to hit the internet since cats playing pianos, it was probably inevitable that someone would get around to making an easy way to fake Siri screenshots, and it has finally happened.

By offering a simple interface, the iFakeSiri web app allows self-professed comedians to enter their imaginary Siri conversations and have a fake screenshot created. This is perfect for, say, anyone that needs to write blog posts about Apple’s fancy assistant technology! Read More

 

Apple Pulls Fake Jailbreak App From the App Store

By Alex Heath on Nov 14, 2011

A few days ago a $9.99 jailbreak app surfaced in the App Store. The app was clearly a fake, and we quickly told you that the app had nothing to do with jailbreaking anything — it was a crappy, 2D scrolling game.

Apple has now pulled the app from the App Store, so people will be unable to get duped by the app’s false description. The real question is this: How did Apple let an app called “Jailbreak” in the App Store in the first place? Read More

 

Siri Mind Control Hack Proven to be Fake

By Alex Heath on Nov 14, 2011

We recently told you about Project Black Mirror, a seemingly-ambitious attempt to control the iPhone’s Siri technology with only mind waves. When we watched the original video of the project demonstration, we all — including the rest of the internet — got excited about the possibility of futuristic mind control.

It appears that the “hackers” behind Project Black Mirror were only controlling all of our minds, not Siri’s. Several sites are now reporting that the project is fake… Read More

 

How Did this “Ninja Turtles” Game Make it Into the App Store?

By Cody Lee on Oct 2, 2011

Everyone knows that Apple’s app approval process is one of the most stringent in the business. The Cupertino company has denied software for several different reasons, which has frequently sparked controversy in the iOS community.

But their strict approval methods have insured that its mobile platform has remained safe from malware and other malicious software. However, the process still can’t seem to filter out the scammers… Read More

 

One of the Better (Fake) iPhone 4S Videos We’ve Seen

By Cody Lee on Sep 30, 2011

Even though the evidence keeps stacking in favor of an iPhone 4S-only event next Tuesday, we’re still holding out hope for a second model. After 15 months of waiting, it’d be nice to see something that would completely blow us away.

But would an iPhone 4S really be that bad? I mean, it is supposed to have a faster processor (the A5) and a better camera. And there have been rumors of a larger, edge-to-edge display. But what would it all look like? Perhaps something like this… Read More

 

Fake iPhone Ring Busted in China

By Sébastien Page on Sep 29, 2011

We knew China was the land of knockoffs and copycats. You can easily find an HiPhone 5, and the iPhone 5 hasn’t even come out yet. It now appears that you can also find lots of fake iPhone 4’s.

The Chinese police busted a gang responsible for a “sophisticated” counterfeit iPhone ring. They came across a group of individuals who purchased various parts in China, and assembled the fake iPhones in their apartment… Read More

 
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