Replies

This whole thing is very troubling.

On the one hand, the "unlocking to resell them for big profit" story makes perfect sense (see my posting history for some links -- they're right toward the top of my posting history page, maybe five posts from the top).

It's also the kind of "arbitrage" racket that would be a natural for middle-eastern "camel-trader" types. About 25 years ago I had a retail camera store. Bought and sold used equipment. College town, *lots* of middle-eastern types. You would not *believe* the kind of horse-trading these guys would do. They have the sharpest pencil in the world. Maddening, to an *American* who simply wants to write up the sale and get on to the *next* customer.

I found out that much of the stuff they were buying (used cameras and lenses) was going back to the middle east, to be sold on the black market. Apparently there was a killing to be made due to the exhorbitant prices in the "white" market (severe duties and import taxes, from what I gathered), so these guys would buy up stuff here, take it home with them, sell at a huge profit, and still be able to have "bargain" prices for their customers.

The ease with which they slipped into "camel-trader" mode made it pretty obvious to me that it was a cultural thing, something they'd been doing for years. (I can only imagine the hoops they'd put a used car dealer through! :)

So, it makes sense that they'd find an opportunity to "buy low, sell high" with these phones in a racket like this.

But on the other hand... The fact that the story makes perfect sense, *also* means that it would make a perfect *cover* story.

Maybe they *are* actually reselling them on the "gray" market. (This would also perhaps explain them tossing the "stock" wall-wart chargers -- they'd probably bundle them with drop-in rapid chargers, to make even more money. People forking out for a phone like that would probably *not* want one with an "overnight" wall-wart charger -- they'd want to be able to do a quick easy rapid-charge. And if the dealers sell *those* too, well, even more money in the bank for 'em.)

But, maybe they're only doing that with "some" of them, capesh? IF this is the "business model", they'd -- with all the thousands and thousands of phones going through their hands -- be able to "prove" that they really *are* selling them for resale. Of course, if "only" a few *hundred* phones "fell through the cracks" and *don't* show up in their sales records, how is any investigator going to find out about it? All they're going to see is a bunch of receipts for cash purchases of phones, and payment records from buyers, but there'd be *no* way to track individual phones.

Stuff to keep us up at night, worrying... (at least until Aug. 22 and the other likely target dates have passed).