Unlocked iPhone 3G Scam Leaves Buyers Fuming, iPhoneless

An online site in the Netherlands offering the Holy Grail of unlocked iPhone 3Gs fell off the web yesterday, with the company’s owner doing a runner with over €700,000 (£548,410) of hard scammed money.

The website iPhonehelpdesk.nl was set up in the early days of July, taking advantage of the increased excitement leading up to the phone’s launch. As the Dutch iPhone 3G is locked to T-Mobile and a 24 month contract, people were only too happy to stump up the cash in the hopes of getting a SIM unlocked handset as promised by the site’s owner Robert van Zanten.

However, despite their claims that they had a small initial order of iPhones, sales staff apologised about ‘a serious delay’ and stated many orders would not be processed. This was understandably met with outrage from disappointed shoppers, who got a lot more unhappy as things took a turn for the worst.

The website went offline, the phone and e-mail services went unanswered, and the iPhones were still nowhere to be seen. Some ‘lucky’ customers received the ultimate insult of first generation iPhones…locked to US carrier AT&T and therefore practically useless.

The co-workers left behind said the plan was to acquire the handsets from Italy which would have been genuinely unlocked, but his plan had seemed to fall through and he got a little bit scared about not fulfilling orders. Fair enough, but then why had the funds been systematically deposited in small amounts to numerous accounts, and then withdrawn from different locations just before his big disappearing act?

Sounds like some premeditated theivery, and the Dutch police seems to agree. They are following leads regarding van Zanten absconding to Russia with his girlfriend.

The investigation continues.