p2pnet news view | Crime:- Michigan’s Nicholas Woodhams, 23, is the world’s ultimate iPoder.

He faked iPod serial numbers to get replacements under Apple’s warranty program.

Then he resold them online.

Says a Western District of Michigan DAWestern District of MichiganAWestern District of Michigan DA press statement »»»

Through trial and error, Woodhams was able to guess the serial numbers of iPods still under warranty. He then repeatedly entered these serial numbers into Apple`s web-based warranty return program, pretending each time to be a customer with a broken iPod. Between March 2006 and October 2007, Woodhams caused Apple to ship more than 9,000 replacement units to a post office box through this deception. Woodhams then advertised and sold the units through a website for $49 apiece, a fraction of their retail value.

In addition to this mail fraud scheme, Woodhams violated federal money laundering laws by wiring $200,000 of his criminally-derived proceeds from a financial institution in Michigan to a brokerage account in Missouri.

Lessee, 9,000 at $49 per (takes off socks to aid calculation) …

Anyhow, Woodhams was this week sentenced to jail for 13 months, and ordered to pay restitution, says Ars Technica, adding:

“In addition to all of the above, Woodhams was also forced to forfeit about $750,000 worth of ill-gotten gains, including a house in Michigan, an Audi S4, an Ariel Atom 2, a Honda motorcycle, and more than half a million dollars in cold, hard cash. For those keeping track, that’s a grand total of about $1,406,634.85 (or so).”

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Ars Technica -  iPod repair scammer hit with restitution, jail time, August 26, 2009

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 10:11 am and is filed under Crime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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