This article is more than 1 year old

iPhone con man knifed to death in knock-off mobile brawl

Fraudster got more than he bargained for

A bloke was arrested after a brawl over a counterfeit Apple mobile led to the fatal stabbing of a con man.

The fight kicked off in Zhengzhou, northern China, according to Henan province newspaper The Dahe Daily [Chinese], which published grisly CCTV footage capturing the moment of the stabbing.

A 29-year-old cook surnamed Feng was out bargain hunting in a shopping district of the city when a man offered to sell him a brand new iPhone for only 2,000 yuan (£200). Realising too late that he’d been had and that the mobile was a knock-off, it is alleged that Feng returned to the area on a daily basis armed with a large knife in an attempt to find the con man.

In the end he didn’t find the miscreant who conned him, but happened upon a group of fraudsters who were trying to trick a young boy in the same way. Feng brandished his chopper and they dispersed, it is claimed.

A few days later Feng came across the same gang and, it is alleged, a scuffle broke out, during which he stabbed one of the crooks in the chest and severed a major artery in the right leg of another. The second victim died a day later due to excessive blood loss.

The market in shanzhai - China's counterfeit products - has reached astounding proportions, with the highly sought-after iPhone providing knock-off merchants with a good source of income.

In the end, it’s unlikely that this case will keep shanzhai pedlars off the streets, but it may teach a few consumers not to buy electrical kit from dodgy-looking chaps in anoraks. Cops are investigating the death after Feng told them he could not remember what happened during the chaos of the brawl. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like