The reason for that scam is that Apple doesn't make it easy to get genuine parts, so they have to be harvested from existing devices.

I am sure that if the parts were available to anyone from Apple at a reasonable price (like Fairphone or Framework), these scammers would be out of business soon enough. Who would insist on genuine parts and yet choose a shady supplier if it was easy to buy from the manufacturer directly?

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kube-system 6 days ago | parent [-]

Fairphone and Framework don't have this issue because they're low volume and not really profitable targets for secondhand market shenanigans.

A lot of popular android phones have been plagued by secondhand market garbage. People will take broken phones slap some new crappy parts on them that don't even meet original specs, and try to pass them off as something other than what they really are: repaired used phones. Doesn't matter if you can get original parts for them. If you can pass off a phone with crappy parts, you can make more money.

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GuB-42 6 days ago | parent [-]

But then, why not just sell straight out fakes? Why bother with all the business of acquiring genuine parts and harvesting them. Just make it all fake and don't bother with harvesting. Harvesting is only worth it if genuine parts are difficult to obtain legitimately.

Also realize that we are not just talking about an iPhone refusing to work with fake parts. We are talking about genuine parts from iPhone A not working with iPhone B of the exact same model.

	▲	kube-system 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		> But then, why not just sell straight out fakes? Because the price, availability, demand, and expertise required to source and/or manufacturer the different components of a phone are different, depending on the part. Third-party refurbishers derive their margin from exploiting these differences. That's why this market exists. For example, manufacturing the mainboard for a phone is quite expensive and requires components that only a few companies in the world can manufacture. A third-party refurbisher can source mainboards for phones much more cheaply and easily by buying phones that people have dropped and broken. It's the same reason junkyards exist for cars. The capital require required to manufacture an engine or transmission is quite high. However, removing one from a discarded vehicle is extremely easy and cheap. > Harvesting is only worth it if genuine parts are difficult to obtain legitimately. That doesn't make any sense. New and genuine parts are the most expensive components that can be used to repair phones. Third-party and used parts are almost universally cheaper than new original parts. If a refurbisher uses these parts, they can make more money, which is why they do it. > Also realize that we are not just talking about an iPhone refusing to work with fake parts. We are talking about genuine parts from iPhone A not working with iPhone B of the exact same model. Yeah, that's the second problem. Even cheaper than low quality third-party parts, are used genuine parts from stolen phones. That market has problems for two group groups. The people buying the phones are still getting Frankenstein phones consisting of used parts, and the people who bought the actual new phones from the manufacturer are now targeted by thieves.