An E-commerce Delivery Executive in Gurugram Replaced iPhones and AirPods with Counterfeit Replicas

A delivery executive working for an online shopping company in Gurugram was accused of stealing 10 iPhones by swapping them with fake ones during his delivery route to a customer on Thursday.

The complaint was filed by the station head of Matrix Finance Solution, which handles Amazon's parcel delivery. He said that on March 27, they gave a customer's parcel containing 10 iPhones and an AirPods to delivery executive Lalit.

Delivery Executive Replaced Original Items With Counterfeits

However, Lalit did not deliver the original items. Instead, he sent back counterfeit copies of them through his brother Manoj, claiming that he could not reach the customer.

The delivery company noticed signs of tampering with the package and opened it to find the fake phones. The customer then canceled the order after not receiving the original parcel.

Lalit has been booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 408 (criminal breach of trust by the employee) of the Indian Penal Code at Bilaspur police station, and the police are trying to catch him.

Apple Leads Refurbished Smartphone Sales

Meanwhile, in 2022, Apple dominated the global market for refurbished smartphones, with iPhones accounting for nearly half of all refurbished models sold. Despite this, India overtook China as the leading market for secondary smartphones, with sales increasing by 19% year over year.

The secondary smartphone market worldwide grew by 5% year over year in 2022, despite China's underperformance. The market growth would have been even higher if China hadn't seen a 17% drop in sales.

Last year, the sale of refurbished iPhones rose by 16 percent YoY, and Apple claimed nearly half of the global secondary smartphone market, as per a report by analysis firm Counterpoint Research.

The report attributes Apple's success to its significant role in the refurbished smartphone market. Meanwhile, its rival Samsung saw a decline in market share, dropping from 28 percent in 2021 to 26 percent in 2022.

According to the report, this drop in market share was due to a small percentage shift of Android users switching to iOS last year. Counterpoint Research predicts that this trend will likely continue in 2023 as well.