Throwaway account to be safe.
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While I did not deal with Apple specifically, I did however deal with another major mobile phone corporation — at that time — and i’m sure most of you have heard of them: Research In Motion, RIM, BlackBerry, etc.

This was during a time, my guess is 2008-2010, when forums, unreleased product leaks, and blogs were a very big business and leaks were lucrative to everybody. As a BlackBerry user myself, I found myself spending a lot of time in the old Crackberry.com forums, which happen to have a lot of RIM employees, insiders, and also black market dealers. I’ve soon found myself in contact with people who were passing me (!) information — just an anonymous forum poster.

After a while, I’ve gained the trust of some of my sources and things started to get a little different. Instead of just information, I was getting files of unreleased BlackBerry OS for products that weren’t even released at the time. [0]

Eventually I was given the opportunity to gain access to unreleased devices. Without mentioning any specifics, just in case, let’s just say these phones were like hot potatoes. If you were lucky, the device PIN hasn’t been blacklisted — meaning no BBM, service, your phone is now a brick — by RIM after they notice its missing. How long it’d continue working for was a mystery. Some would go for weeks, others would be dead by the time it arrived in the main. The one thing you wanted to look for? The “Property of Research in Motion Limited” sticker on the back. [1]

But to get back to it’s relevance, I would sometimes learn from the sellers how these phones got out of the building without being noticed and there were a few ways.

1. Metal detectors and x-ray machines: In some areas, employees would have their bags and body scanned by security and this was one of the easiest, yet terrifying option of getting products out of the building. Along side the x-ray machine, there would be a gap between that and the wall. When you walk up to put your stuff down on the belt, just slide the phone down the side and grab it on the other side. With this you’re only doing 1 phone at a time.

2. Windows: Some of them would open so all you had to do was open the window and .. drop the phone down into the bush below. Pick it up after work and nobody can check.

3. Retailers: As with anything, it’s not what you know but who you know. If you’re becoming friends with your manufactures rep, you can get easy access to some gems. Mind you this was all being done in Canada so these phones were being handed around like drugs.

4. Self smuggling: They would just stick phones, shells, etc. in their pants and try to walk out without alerting security and/or bypassing it.

Granted this all was before security tightened up and well before RIMs eventual downfall. While some of it may seem far fetched, let me tell you one thing: if you’re going to deal in unreleased phones, don’t use their phones built-in messaging system (BBM) to conduct business.. Because a nice fella from the security team at RIM will give you a call on your personal cell phone one late night and tell you that they know what you’re doing and to stop it.

So I stopped that night.

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[0]: RIM was notorious with changing product code ames and they also had multiple numbering schemes for GSM, CDMA, or international models (ie os v9.5 for 9200 would be the GSM version but v9.5 for a 9220 is the CDMA version).

[1]: https://recombu-content.imgix.net/app/uploads/13578-M11755-1...