More than $600,000 worth of counterfeit Lighting cables were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a routine customs search in Anchorage, Alaska (via 9to5Mac). The cables had arrived from China via plane and were designed to look like Apple's $19 Lightning to USB cables, complete with fake Apple logos and UL icons.
But the knock-off logos weren't enough of a disguise. The items stood out as counterfeits, Frank Falcon, CBP spokesman said. They were packaged for retail sale in cardboard blister packs that were sub-standard compared to Apple's trademark white packaging.
Falcon said a manufacturer in China is responsible for the shipment. He noted that while it is “difficult to deal with a manufacturer in another country,” the bust will “bring more scrutiny” to future shipments from the company.
This is a large bust for such products. As one can imagine, over $600,000 in cables and adaptors means there was “quite a bit of stuff” seized, Falcon said.
Apple products are frequently counterfeited, and even Apple's retail stores are sometimes knocked off.
Top Rated Comments
Agree, just make a good $5 cable and leave the apple logo off!
I'd bet you think you're underpaid, also...
These counterfeits aren't exact copies. They generally are much cheaper quality and fall apart quickly. Many of them will fit in either way but only charge with the adaptor pointed in 1 way unlike the real Apple cables.
Also, I have yet to see a single 3rd party cable (other than Apple authorized ones) that will do video. All of them so far will only charge and do sync (many only charge and don't even sync).
On top of that it's obvious that you don't understand the costs of development and other things that go into creating a product.
So you could develop a omnidirectional, waterproof, usb 2/3 (future) compatible connector with the same connection quality, cable build quality for less than Apple?
Go for it. I hear the MicroUSB 3 guys could do with some help in that department looking at this monstrosity: