For whatever reason, Apple's iPod
ends up in the middle of quite a few crimes. The latest story, however, is even more extreme than usual. Nicholas Arthur Woodhams, a 23 year old from Kalamazoo, Michigan, was recently slapped upside the gord with federal charges of fraud and money laundering after he managed to con Apple into shipping him around 9,000
iPod shuffles. As the story goes, he managed to somehow correctly guess thousands of valid shuffle serial numbers and have replacements shipped to him; once they arrived, he sold them for less than MSRP to excited buyers, all while giving Apple a prepaid VISA number that would reject the charges after he failed to send back the nonexistent "original" shuffle. It's rather amazing to us that he was able to pull this off for so long without being noticed, but even if it works for awhile, we've learned yet again that crime doesn't pay. In fact, the feds have already seized a half million bucks from one brokerage account, some real estate and a trio of vehicles. Tragic, yeah?
[Via
Macworld, thanks Steve]
posted Mar 22nd 2009 3:36AM
A B C D E F G H "i" got an iPod in Kalamazoo!
Don’t want to boast but I know its the toast of Kalamazoo
(Zoo, zoo, zoo, zoo, zoo)
You'd think they'd have wised up after the first 8000 or so. :P
Your comment is strange to me. I'm just a simple caveman.
LOL apple got pwnt!
And crime DOES pay, you just don't hear about it
it seems like i've seen 9000 apple stories on engadget lately!
Over 9000?!
Primus FTW!! Great, now that song is stuck in my head.
at least apple doesnt have to worry about the new shuffle being stolen.
no one in there right mind would want one.
If he goes to Western Michigan University, I think I've seen that guy before on campus.
Of course they wouldntve caught it! THey cant count past the amount on the fingers since their lack of numerical pads.
You'd think the guy would have gotten an offshore account, like all the bank execs.
@neal.lucas
"at least apple doesnt have to worry about the new shuffle being stolen.
no one in there right mind would want one."
That is why I carry my shuffle when I am out of home. :)
Anyone else baffled as to how the original post was submitted two days before the article was published. o.0
"iGoon#2 @ Mar 20th 2009 10:48PM"
"I'VE GOT A GAL IN KALAMAZOO
(Mack Gordon / Harry Warren)
Glenn Miller - 1942
Also recorded by: The Andrews Sisters; Lous Armstrong; BBC Big Band;
Tex Beneke; Big Band; Boston Pops Orch.; Tony Orchestra Burgos;
Chas & Dave; The Clark Sisters; Xavier Cugat; Graham Dalby;
DMP Big Band; Tommy Dorsey & His Orch.; Billy Eckstine;
Benny Goodman & His Orch.; Ondrej Havelka; Dick Haymes; Ted Heath;
Hollywood All Stars; Marion Hutton; Johnny Keating; The King Sisters;
Steve Lawrence; Art Lund; Garrett Miller; ..... and many others.
(lengthy instrumental interlude)
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H
I got a gal in Kalamazoo
Don’t want to boast but I know she’s the toast of Kalamazoo
(Zoo, zoo, zoo, zoo, zoo)"
http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/i/ivegotagalinkalamazoo.shtml
ok, but whats with the Juicy Fruit? that shit is nasty anyways
if he had anything to do with that string of terribly bad / funny guitar smashing commercials, then he's gonna get what's coming to him
juicy fruit has a chip inside the gum that makes it taste horrible.
Only because you're not "made for Juicy Fruit".
What kind of shitty taste buds you got? JF is fuckin' good as hell.
This reminds me of "Juicy" by B.I.G now, lol.
Which samples Mtume - Juicy Fruit from 1983...
god damn the mid west is so goofy
His punishment would be to listen to Ballmer's speeches for 9,000 hours straight.
Haha oh god I'd kill ballmer then myself
DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS YAAA!
Or be forced to use a Zune
Ha ha ha.
Some people get all the luck, until they're caught out.
What's most amazing to me is that he had any money left in his brokerage account!
Mmm all the glorious proprietary headphones one could ask for.
More Gimme MORE Apple news Engadget, whats wrong with your lack of apple news lately
why does Engadget never report on Apple stuff? totally starved of Apple news
WHAT, 9,000?!?
OVER 9,000!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!
DAMNIT NICK u seriously beat me by like 20 secs.
"DAMNIT NICK u seriously beat me by like 20 secs."
ooo damit nick, chase me, ive got some toffee's
THERE'S NO WAY THAT CAN BE RIGHT, CAN IT??!
I did the math, how could 9,000 shuffles at a marked down from MSRP turn into $500,000 in a brokerage account, some real estate and a trio of vehicles?
math is never the strong suit of those filing suit.
lawl i just thought the same thing, he must have been doing some other dodgy shit then...
Sony just called they want to talk to this bastard about their Q4 loss.
Lets see:
MSRP of 1 Ipod shuffle=$79?
Marked down $20 off each: $79-$20=$59
9000x$59=$531,000
$531,000
=500,000+ stuff?
Beside, 9000 units could rounded up by, taking anything between 8500-9499 actual units.
@coolant
3 vehicles AND real estate for 30 grand? then it would have to be land in the middle of nowhere and some pretty shitty cars lol
Who said it was all paid off. 30,000 could get you 3 cars and a house...
And some monthly payments.
@cal well it IS Kalamazoo Michigan...
Over 9000!!!!!!!!
Lol, I feel sorry for CL. The first few were high ranked, and I guess you had the bad luck of the joke getting old haha.
Tragic? No This is pure magic and genius! He seems to enjoy doing biz with anything that has a fruit logo on it...preferably the apple kinds... :D
If he survives this, the kid will grow up to be a Wallstreet banker.
Wall Street Banker nothing...try our next president...at the very least, he should run for congress.
grow up? hes 23 lol. he already grown.
Because there are no shortages of dumbs$$e$ to vote fir him, much less suggest it or condone stealing.... Lazy ass should rot in jail...
or Madoff.
Now we have an upper-bound on how many times we can do that. Must 'freeplace' no more than 8999 iPods. 0
Wow, epic, he should of quit while he was ahead
If you click the macworld link
Here's how the scheme worked: Between March 2006 and October 2007,
So he had quit... He still got busted :)
by "quit", he means "moved out of the country to somewhere unlikely to extradite"
However enticing it may seem - crime does not pay!
But, if you want to be a scam artist, you have to do it right ; )
go away
If you want to be a real scam artist, just apply for bailout money.
Just tell em you're too big to fail!
roflmao..that just made my day...apple just seriously got owned!
took em long enough to catch him though
he was doing us all a service by selling them under msrp
Unfortunately, this is under nine thousand.
No, it's... exactly 9000?
OVER TEH 9000 FOR EPIC LULZ BLEND CRYSIS AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
What's really amazing is that they've managed to sell 9,000 shuffles!
You really think that?
Did he successfully tried this to order Wii ?
Do wii's have the same serial numbers as apple shuffles? I never knew that.
You need to successfully try to learn English.
I suddenly realise there are no more 'first/thats-what-she-said' posts anymore, how is engadget managing that? Amazing stuff.
Thats what she First said!
Why is this even gadget news ? Some guy stole some shuffles ...so ..... someone stole an iPod from somebodys car in my street last week, want me to type it up (I'll add a few grammar and spelling mistakes just to keep it real) then you can post it and get a quote from Steve Jobs.
YAWN
the difference is someone stole 1 from some guy on your street. This guy stole 9000 and with a clever tactic. see the difference?
The theft of one iPod is a tragedy, the theft of around 9,000 is a story on Engadget...
Dumb ass! Crime pays just fine if you're smart enough to leave the country and live where there are no extradition agreements. Idiot should've moved to the Philippines or Thailand instead of buying those nice rides He could have lived like a king, and he could have kept the scam going for years under various aliases and proxies out of Mexico where the Federalizes would have looked the other way for a few hundred dollars a month. Amazing the lack of foresight.
i've just read philippines, thailand, and mexico, what are the similarities?
He used to work for AIG, but he made money for them, so they fired him.
I'm wondering how he figured out the valid serials... Did he figure out what algorithm they used to generate it then just use it to generate valid serial numbers? How did he avoid generating valid ones that hadn't been sold yet?
Apple's replacement website may not be so slick. Or perhaps it just gives an unreported error for a bad serial, allowing him to just iterate through until a serial was accepted.
Bernie Madoff is his hero.
If Apple was stupid enough to send 9,000 iPods, then they deserve it!
Good Job to the criminal! It shows how dumb companies really are... Are the first, second or third attempts, something should ring a bell... Wasn't it only one address or a few and not 9,000 addresses! DUH!?
wow, you're ripping into Apple for having erred on the side of generosity? I don't like the company but seriously, that's gotta be the dumbest thing to mock I've seen in a long, long time.
Apple =/= security.
yeah. generous customer service sucks. those jerks.
Sending 9000 is not generous... it's plain stupid.
Generous? I believe they charged his credit card each time he didn't send them. Although his card declined, they tried to take his money. If they sent them and didn't charge his card, that would be GENEROUS!
This makes Apple look dumb and this points out the loop in their system. Gotta love it when a company looks stupid eh?
Try better next time Apple.
I am sure this hit 2% of their bottom line on their over priced products!
per the guy's facebook: "I am the elusive Nick Woodhams. I'm like finding the position of an electron."
lol, evidently the feds are good at that.
The 'other stuff' was probably purchased with credit, such as a home mortgage. Also, there is is probably some Fed law that allows the Fed to take everything that the thief has in his/her possession, in cases like these.
omfg 9000 shuffles ftw
Wish they could catch all the scammers, even the bad ones--deathly ill grandma from nigeria man, escaping from political unrest man, etc. Man I hate scammers.
he sold them less then retail?...Guess he he what they are truly worth...
haha, the context sensitive ads are great... "After I got laid off, I found a easy way to make $7k a month online..."
What ads? Firefox w/Adblock is your friend.
LOL Apple Got Pwned
Anti-Apple
Go Windows
I want a juicy fruit case...
Engadget reported:
"was recently slapped upside the gord with federal charges...we've learned yet again that crime doesn't pay."
Yes, but have you learned it's "gourd" and not "gord"?
I'm from Michigan and have a lot of friends in K-Zoo, so I figured I'd look this guy up on Facebook. I found the name in Kalamazoo, MI and sent him this article asking if this was him.... it was... man the internet is cool.
wow why do they throw these technical minds in jail with murderers and idiots when they could be helping companies like that out. It's going to be an ongoing cycle because the government is so stupid.
Why do they throw idiots like this in jail with idiots? I can't imagine.
Seriously, there's not much technical-mindedness involved, and there's plenty of idiocy involved in sticking around waiting to get busted. No matter how little merit your argument may have, it doesn't even apply here.
iPhones suck.
This guy looks like that creepy Simpsons character. I can't put a name to the character, help?
Way to represent Kalamazoo and get it in the news, moron!