TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Local repair shops say they're seeing more people losing out after buying fake smartphones from third party sites online.
"There's a lot of fake iPhones going around on these secondhand sites like Craigslist and eBay and things like that," said Computer Repair Doctor Regional Manager Collin Fitzsimmons. "You could potentially lose out on hundreds of dollars while purchasing one of these phones that are basically worth about $50."
More and more people have come to repair shops like Computer Repair Doctor who have purchased an iPhone from online forums. Tech experts have discovered some of these phones are fake.
"In reality they are pretty much worthless because you get this phone and their's nothing you can do with it," said Fitzsimmons. "You can't really make calls. You can't really activate it with your Apple ID or anything like that. It's just a phone to resemble an iPhone but doesn't function correctly as an iPhone."
While shopping online it can be difficult to tell which iPhones are real and which ones are fake. Fitzsimmons recommends using trusted sites and test different apps and features on your device.
"That's the one thing, they do a really good job of immolating what the iPhone is supposed to do," said Fitzsimmons. "If you look over the phone for about five or ten minutes and bring it to someone that knows about them, they're going find out very quickly that it's not an actual iPhone."
Tech experts say it isn't just iPhones, you should watch out for fake Androids as well.
