Do you want fries with that?
If you buy your iPad from someone in the car park at McDonalds, don't be surprised if it doesn't live up to expectations.
A young woman in South Carolina, Ashley McDowell, fell victim to an iPod version of a common street selling scam. Two men showed her an iPad (normal retail price $599), and told her that they had bought pads in bulk and were selling them for just $300 each. She claims she didn't think there was anything suspicious in that. Neither did she think there was anything suspicious when she said she only had $180 in her purse and they quickly reduced their price to match. If someone offered to sell you a $600 machine for $180, wouldn't you think that it might just be stolen goods?
Having agreed the price, the men then handed her one of several taped-up Fedex boxes from the boot of their car. When the woman got home and opened the box, she discovered it contained a slab of wood the same size as an iPad, painted black, and in a surprisingly artistic touch for detail, they'd taken to trouble to paint the Apple logo on it too.
Ms McDowell reported the incident to the police, and described the fraudsters as "two black men, one had a gold tooth". It has been reported that South Carolina's CSI team has dusted the slab for fingerprints, but are not close to making an arrest.
27th September 2011