Apple's Anti-Counterfeit Team Has Targeted Over 1 Million Listings on Instagram and Other Marketplaces in the Past Year

Apple has a dedicated team of experts that focus solely on ferreting out counterfeit products and stopping them from being sold. Apple shared the tidbit in a statement to Bloomberg on a piece about counterfeit iPhone chargers.

magsafe1

The safety of our customers is our first priority, and the risks associated with counterfeit products can be very serious. We have a dedicated team of experts constantly working with law enforcement, merchants, social media companies and e-commerce sites around the world to remove counterfeit products from the market. In the last year we have sought the removal of over 1 million listings for counterfeit and fake Apple products from online marketplaces, including Facebook and Instagram.

Apple in the last year had more than a million listings for fake Apple products removed from various online marketplaces like Facebook and Instagram.

Bloomberg's piece delves into fake chargers that have sometimes caused harm to users, with many of those chargers investigated sold on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media sites.

Chinese factories and illicit vendors sell knockoff Apple accessories at cheap prices, and those products are difficult to tell apart from real products. They're outwardly identical to the real thing in every way, but don't have the same safety standards.

Andrea Stroppa, a security researcher who accidentally used a counterfeit product borrowed from a friend, launched an investigation with his colleagues from Ghost Data Team. Their study from February 8 to March 8 uncovered 163 wholesale sellers of counterfeit Apple products on Instagram, ranging from fake $25 AirPods Pro to a fake $5 MagSafe Charger.

When purchasing an Apple accessory, it's important to make sure you buy from a reputable retailer or from Apple's own site to avoid fakes, and accessories should never be purchased on sites like Instagram.

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
apple power beats pro 2

Powerbeats Pro 2 Coming Soon: Apple to Announce Them 'Imminently'

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:25 am PST by
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon. Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...
mail categories macos

Apple's Redesigned Mail App is Expanding to the Mac — Here's When

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:02 am PST by
Apple plans to expand the iPhone's redesigned Mail app to the Mac starting with macOS 15.4, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The first macOS 15.4 beta should be made available in the coming weeks, and Apple has previously suggested that the iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4 series of software updates will be released to the public in April. The revamped Mail app debuted on all...

Top Rated Comments

Apple_Robert Avatar
50 months ago
Thank you for looking out for us, Apple.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
50 months ago

Thank you for looking out for us, Apple.
Apple's looking out for their bottom line. That consumers benefit from this is a side benefit.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1258186 Avatar
50 months ago
I wouldn’t buy anything from Facebook or Instagram. Too many scams on there.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adrianlondon Avatar
50 months ago
There's really no point in spending $10 on a dodgy cable from Instagram, when you can get the same dodgy cable for $2 from aliexpress :)
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
50 months ago

There's really no point in spending $10 on a dodgy cable from Instagram, when you can get the same dodgy cable for $2 from aliexpress :)
A lot of people here will spend $1K on a phone and then go to places like Aiexpress for cables and chargers. That is not wise, in my opinion.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ComRadMac Avatar
50 months ago
"They're identical to the real thing in every way, but don't have the same safety standards."

It sure seems like this would mean that they aren't identical in every way.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)