The "magic" smartphone resale scam

Welcome to the Sarthe. A few days ago, a young girl, accompanied by her mother, travelled many miles by car to buy an iPhone 7 at the unbeatable price of €300. So far, nothing special in the process of reselling smartphones.

The appointment

First of all, the appointment, arranged online via the Leboncoin website, took place in the middle of the afternoon in a busy neighbourhood.

The buyer takes the time to test the phone, checking that it meets her expectations, because it's important to pay attention to the good condition of the product, and proceeds to pay cash for the smartphone in order to obtain the precious apple product. And that's where the story takes a much less pleasant turn.

The technique

The apparently friendly salesman offered to buy her a case to protect her brand new phone. What more could you ask for than a great deal and a little extra gift? So she accepted without hesitation, and handed the phone back to the salesman for a few seconds so that he could fit the case. A few seconds in which to perform a real illusionist's trick.

A sleight of hand

After returning the phone, the salesman went on his way and mother and daughter returned to their car to drive home to Aleçon. It seems that it was only once they were in the car that the young girl realised the deception: it was not the same phone as the one previously tested that was in the protective shell, but a broken iPhone. They try to find it, but to no avail - the seller is already long gone.

Fortunately, the mother contacted the authorities, who eventually tracked down the 'magician', who was still carrying the phone in good condition, as well as the cash. The victim was reimbursed and the story had a happy ending, but she was lucky.

Secure your payments, even in person

To avoid any problems, we recommend that you use a secure payment solution to avoid this type of scam, which is very common according to the authorities. On this point, Obvy is the only payment solution capable of securing all your transactions between private individuals with hand-delivery or delivery. This kind of scam is not reserved for technological products, and a pretext for taking the item away from you and replacing it with another in a matter of seconds is no problem for even the most seasoned crook.