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When the Iranian government banned Apple's iPhone 14 and 15 in the Islamic Republic in 2023, the ban spurred a parallel economy for older phones. But hundreds of cases ended in scams, according to authorities.
American luxury products have been heavily criticized on several occasions by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, amid years of tensions with the West. However, many Iranians were looking to invest their depreciated rials in any physical product.
“Excessive imports are a dangerous thing,” Khamenei said in August 2023, according to a transcript published on his official website. “Sometimes this import is a luxury product, so it is not necessary. I have heard that around $500 million was spent to import a type of American luxury mobile phone.”
In mid-2023 and after decades of Western sanctions, the Islamic Republic banned the sale of the most recent iPhone models in its territory, which skyrocketed the prices of previous models.
Imports of Apple's flagship product have long been a contentious point: government statistics suggest that around a third of Iran's entire mobile phone import market, valued at $4.4 billion, consisted of iPhones before the prohibition.
pyramid scheme
In stores in Iran, prices for the iPhone 13 range from $330 to $1,020 for those still in the box, even if it is not the coveted iPhone 15, now available in other parts of the world.
Even someone who brings an iPhone 14 or 15 into the country will be at risk of it stopping working on the mobile phone networks controlled by the State of Iran, in a period of approximately one month.
As a result of the situation, with eye-catching celebrity advertisements and promises of great discounts, a store in the capital of Iran had offered consumers in the Islamic Republic the popular product, according to the Police.
But instead of taking their phones in exchange for $400, they were involved in a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme through the company Kourosh, or “Son of the Sun,” with around 1,500 victims.
Trader Ali Hosseini explained that “the company first offered its iPhones at that price, many promoted it and said good things about it. At first it handed over the phones to build trust among people and did so for two or three months. That “It caused more people to order. First they proved effective and then suddenly they disappeared.”
Masoud Setayeshi, spokesman for Iran's judiciary, added that “the CEO of this company left the country five months ago across official borders. “This occurred before officials began to address the problem.”
Beyond the ban, the rules for importing iPhones into Iran have always been strict. The phones could only be carried individually by travelers, who would then register them at the point of entry into the country, declaring that the iPhone was for personal use.
With AP
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