A man going by the alias of Mike Teevee in Kalamazoo Michagan, scammed Apple out of 9,000+ iPod Shuffles between March of 2006 and October of 2007.
The man’s real name is Nicholas Arthur Woodhams. He was sued by Apple over this debacle in June of 2008, and prosecutors are just now getting around to pressing federal charges of fraud and money laundering against him.
How did the scheme work? Woodhams figures out the sequencing of valid, serial numbers of iPod shuffles that were under warranty, claim they were defective, and have Apple send him replacement products. Then those would be sold for $49.
There was one glich standing in Woohams way, Apple’s return policy. Apple requires that defective units be returned within a certain period of time. To get around this he used prepaid VISA gift cards and a UPS store mailbox. So, instead of having Apple charge him for the replacement iPods, these VISA cards would reject that charge.





Today was a big patent day for Apple. They won 6 new patents published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark office.
While flying to Norway last month, I noticed an ad of an unusual iPod shuffle in the flight magazine. It was an iPod shuffle encrusted in 430 diamonds! And let me tell you… it does not come cheap. You can pick one up for $41,000 USD!
Brazilian ice-cream company Kibon is taking popsicle promotions to a new level. They’ve done away with the old prize printed on the popsicle stick… Instead, for this unique givaway they are putting an iPod shuffle right in the popsicle!
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