If someone approached you in a parking lot and offered an iPad at a discount rate, you would have every reason to expect a fake. But for one family shopping at a South Florida Walmart, the last thing they expected after buying an iPad at the full retail price of $480 was a worthless piece of plastic.
CBS Miami reports that Emilio Pereda and his father-in-law purchased the Apple tablet as a gift on Monday night at a Westchester Walmart. When they opened the package at home, they found that the "iPad" was nothing more than a piece of plastic with no ports or working buttons.
The family reportedly contacted Walmart's corporate office but received no response. When CBS Miami got in touch with the company, a representative said someone must have bought an iPad and then returned it with the fake, repackaging it so well that it look factory-sealed. Walmart has since promised Pereda's father-in-law a new iPad or his money back.
This isn't the first time a Walmart has been hit by an apparent "brick in the box" iPad scam. A Georgia man bought what he thought was an iPad at the store in 2011 only to find a worthless fake inside. In October, scammers allegedly hit a Texas Walmart replacing an iPad with a stack of notepads.
Other iPad scams are less polished.
Last year a South Carolina woman bought a creatively decorated piece of wood for $180 from scammers claiming to be selling iPads in a MacDonald's parking lot.
And just last week, a Texas man bought what he thought was an iPad at a gas station only to find out it was a mirror.