AirPods Max fakes look TOTALLY real to iOS including Warranty coverage!!

[f1vespeed]

I got scammed today on Craigslist on a pair of APMs that had my iPhone running iOS 18 completely fooled. They showed up as having a WARRANTY!

BE CAREFUL BUYING USED APMs on CL/FBM.

- They popped up as AirPods Max, with the REAL white square AirPods dialog.
- Under Settings, they show up as AirPods Max, all the settings are there
- They actually have a WARRANTY displayed in Settings.

Since iOS says they're real and have a warranty, and the packaging and hardware dupe was totally convincing, I paid the guy and left, despite the suspiciously low price ($240). I thought, black friday, market must be flooded, kid needs cash. Stupid of me obviously.

Indications they were fake later on:
- Distortion at higher volumes
- Bit of friction in the digital crown
- Earcups are plastic if you tap on them but hard to tell at first, and are rounded off a bit around crown and button.
- Clamping force uncomfortable
- Smart cover has a seam in the foldover part that shouldn't be there
- Won't fit back in smart case with the paper earcup packaging

I am amazed that they are spoofing not only the H1 chip but also convincing iOS that these are legit serials under warranty. It kind of makes me mad at Apple that they can detect non OEM parts in repairs, but not this.

 

[Bigwaff]

Have you tried Apple Store or Apple Support to verify APM are counterfeit?

 

[rasg]

I wouldn't buy anything Apple product from anywhere but Apple or maybe Amazon.

 

[dotzero123]

If you look on EBay they have tons of “deals.” Some of them will actually come out and tell you they are dupes. Others will put a story on there like “got these from my GrandMom as a gift.” When you dig deeper, they have 15 pairs on sale with the same line. Tons of fakes out there and they look pretty good. Decided to get on BestBuy - on sale for 380 to 400. After reading about it, didn’t even want open box. Sad that you got scammed - to the seller Kharma is coming. Nasty business these counterfeits. Apple should do more to combat this.

 

[russell_314]

The best way to spot a scam is “If it’s too good to be true it probably is”. Ask yourself why would the seller do this. It you can’t come up with a good answer then walk away.

 

[aaronito]

Question is since it comes up with a warranty....will Apple accept it like apple care or no?

 

[CharlesShaw]

Sorry this happened. Thanks for the heads-up/reminder of how complex the fake stuff ecosystem has become.

I'll read about a guy smuggling 100 baby snakes in his pants on a plane, and think some people sure will do a lot for money, but the production of fake AirPods Max (or similar) requires a lot of resources, and it's depressing to ponder for many reasons, including the circumstances that make it worth it to them.

 

[CharlesShaw]

Question is since it comes up with a warranty....will Apple accept it like apple care or no?

Describe your issue: The ear cups on my AirPods Max have transformed from aluminum into plastic. Can this be repaired in-store or do I need to send them in?

 

[f1vespeed]

The best way to spot a scam is “If it’s too good to be true it probably is”. Ask yourself why would the seller do this. It you can’t come up with a good answer then walk away.

Lesson learned. I just had complete overconfidence that if iOS thinks they're real, they must be real.

 

[GMShadow]

Clamping force uncomfortable

Just a minor note - this is often a complaint about genuine ones when they're new. The recommended 'fix' if it doesn't wear in as quickly as someone would like is putting them on something round and larger than your head for some period of time (I've seen soccer/basketballs used).

 

[f1vespeed]

Just a minor note - this is often a complaint about genuine ones when they're new. The recommended 'fix' if it doesn't wear in as quickly as someone would like is putting them on something round and larger than your head for some period of time (I've seen soccer/basketballs used).

Good to know! Now that I'll be cutting my losses and getting from BestBuy.

I wish these were in fact real but now I also find that the "hold both buttons 15sec" reset doesn't work.

What's amazing is these fake airpods actually have fully functional Find My support. I'm beyond impressed.

 

[Mactech20]

Yeah Never ever buy used AirPods. Most other apple products its easy to detect a phony but the AirPods they create really convincing fake ones.

 

[jlc1978]

Good to know! Now that I'll be cutting my losses and getting from BestBuy.

I wish these were in fact real but now I also find that the "hold both buttons 15sec" reset doesn't work.

What's amazing is these fake airpods actually have fully functional Find My support. I'm beyond impressed.

The effort that goes into fakes is often impressive; and no doubt they could make an actual decent product at a good price point if they wanted.

 

[russell_314]

Good to know! Now that I'll be cutting my losses and getting from BestBuy.

I wish these were in fact real but now I also find that the "hold both buttons 15sec" reset doesn't work.

What's amazing is these fake airpods actually have fully functional Find My support. I'm beyond impressed.

Maybe use them as your gym headphones or something like that. If they get stolen it’s not as bad.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

I got scammed today on Craigslist on a pair of APMs that had my iPhone running iOS 18 completely fooled. They showed up as having a WARRANTY!

BE CAREFUL BUYING USED APMs on CL/FBM.

- They popped up as AirPods Max, with the REAL white square AirPods dialog.
- Under Settings, they show up as AirPods Max, all the settings are there
- They actually have a WARRANTY displayed in Settings.

Since iOS says they're real and have a warranty, and the packaging and hardware dupe was totally convincing, I paid the guy and left, despite the suspiciously low price ($240). I thought, black friday, market must be flooded, kid needs cash. Stupid of me obviously.

Indications they were fake later on:
- Distortion at higher volumes
- Bit of friction in the digital crown
- Earcups are plastic if you tap on them but hard to tell at first, and are rounded off a bit around crown and button.
- Clamping force uncomfortable
- Smart cover has a seam in the foldover part that shouldn't be there
- Won't fit back in smart case with the paper earcup packaging

I am amazed that they are spoofing not only the H1 chip but also convincing iOS that these are legit serials under warranty. It kind of makes me mad at Apple that they can detect non OEM parts in repairs, but not this.

Like I've said here and on Reddit, I don't give much for these stories when the price is over half off the suggested retail price:

I'm not shaming anyone for not having the money or wanting to buy new at $549. That's not for me to judge. And we all like discounts.

But knowing how there's thousands of people all over the World posting "Are these legit AirPods" questions to various social media sites every month, you should know better than to buy $549 AirPods Max off Craigslist and then expect to get the real deal for $240.

Nobody with brand new or lightly used legitimate AirPods Max would have to or want to go that low unless they were stolen, broken, used for a long time, or something similar.

You might be able to get a bargain like that for a number of things. But not something this high in demand. I hope you've learned that by now.

 

[TechnoMonk]

OP we all make mistakes, chalk it up to lesson learned and move on. Hope you find some genuine AirPod max deal in the future. There is a good deal on Bose QC going on at Costco with $150 off. You can grab a good one, though not AirPod max for 160.

 

[Shirasaki]

Lesson learned. I just had complete overconfidence that if iOS thinks they're real, they must be real.

Good to know! Now that I'll be cutting my losses and getting from BestBuy.

I wish these were in fact real but now I also find that the "hold both buttons 15sec" reset doesn't work.

What's amazing is these fake airpods actually have fully functional Find My support. I'm beyond impressed.

Since most apple products are manufactured in China, smart and greedy people out there can farm certain chips and install them on fake devices. So, when average joes try to follow the online guide on how to determine if it is fake or not, they will encounter challenges like you did. As for serial number, they could just grab the one they salvaged from and store it in fake devices. It’s insane to think these kinds of trickery are working but they are. Not real deal but close enough and that’s all that matters to scammers.
As for “find my” support, if you have the energy and time you can test it out and see how real it is compared to real apple devices. I suspect they farmed those too. Or even better, they probably got the logic board intact, and only need to fake the exterior and such.
I saw one day that there were a hacking device that can practically brick any iOS device by emitting Bluetooth pairing requests to nearby iOS devices, and since that prompt can’t be dismissed permanently, user nearby would not be able to use their devices unless they leave that area far enough. Dunno if that still works today but that’s also scary.

 

[spunkystrawberries]

I bought a pair from Amazon several years ago. They were marked as new. I don’t recall there being shrink wrap (I think this was before Apple moved to the pull strips on everything). I pulled them out of the box, put them near my phone and it came up with “Do you want to pair with Rachel’s AirPods?” 😬 (Obviously, I’m not Rachel. lol) 😂

I sent them straight back and now only trust Apple unless I’m specifically shopping for refurbished.

 

[ninjastyle]

Just a minor note - this is often a complaint about genuine ones when they're new. The recommended 'fix' if it doesn't wear in as quickly as someone would like is putting them on something round and larger than your head for some period of time (I've seen soccer/basketballs used).

So in my case it was actually super stretching them for 20-30 seconds a few times that did the trick. A bit scary, but so many people confirmed it worked and nobody had issues doing it and the good news is results are within minutes instead of days waiting on them to stretch much less on a ball or something else big.

See the well written process this guy went through here and all the people that confirmed it worked for them (I'm one of them):

https://www.reddit.com/r/airpods/comments/mpjwp8/finally_solved_the_airpods_max_clamping_force

 

[weather34]

a classic when the price is to good to be true ... living here in Istanbul i can buy these and any replica not just electronics just walking down the street from numerous small business run stores only difference they generally wont sell it has original ! or tell you its original there is an enormous market here for replica/fake products some are good some are terrible ... look at this one marketed by a reputable sports brand ...its all clearly stated Android OS and not branded apple so getting ripped off is basically at your discretion or ignorance..that said there is always the risk some scrupulous miserable ol git will try and sell these as original on flee bay type websites but majority of the time the price is the giveaway and should raise concerns.

 

[jlc1978]

I saw one day that there were a hacking device that can practically brick any iOS device by emitting Bluetooth pairing requests to nearby iOS devices, and since that prompt can’t be dismissed permanently, user nearby would not be able to use their devices unless they leave that area far enough. Dunno if that still works today but that’s also scary.

Turning Bluetooth off should fix that issue and allow you to keep using the device otherwise.

ts all clearly stated Android OS and not branded apple so getting ripped off is basically at your discretion or ignorance

I wouldn't call that getting ripped off, it's no different from all the Rolex lookalikes you can buy. Apple may have an issue with someone copying their design, but that is an IP issue.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I wouldn't buy anything Apple product from anywhere but Apple or maybe Amazon.

Besides Apple, I include MR on the list of safe buys (with established members.

 

[Wando64]

Lesson learned. I just had complete overconfidence that if iOS thinks they're real, they must be real.

Yes but… someone else has asked this already, did you get in touch with Apple support to confirm whether they are indeed ‘fake’?
If iOS tells you that they are ‘real’, than a call to Apple is the least you should be doing.

 

[jlc1978]

Yes but… someone else has asked this already, did you get in touch with Apple support to confirm whether they are indeed ‘fake’?
If iOS tells you that they are ‘real’, than a call to Apple is the least you should be doing.

Depending on the serial number, it could show up as real but when sent in for service get flagged as fake.

 

[CharlesShaw]

Yes but… someone else has asked this already, did you get in touch with Apple support to confirm whether they are indeed ‘fake’?
If iOS tells you that they are ‘real’, than a call to Apple is the least you should be doing.

In that universe, Apple "quietly" decided to release some AirPods Max made with plastic ear cups instead of aluminum, but nobody on the internet felt that was worth discussing.