The Daily Mail has published an article claiming professional gangs of traders are buying up vast quantaties of the UK's iPhone 4 stock and shipping it abroad.
The tabloid claims this is "depriving ordinary customers of getting their hands on them."
Apparently, these hoards of 'runners' are paid around £70 for each un-contracted device they get their hands on, which they pay between £499 and £599 for.
It's tough to see how anyone is making much money on such a scheme by the time the devices are shipped to Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia – but The Mail claims international shortages will mean customers will pay £400 over the retail price.
Directly asserting that this supposed practice has caused the iPhone 4 shortage, the Mail goes on to explain the chaos as 'genuine' customers become frustrated they cannot buy one.
"Fights have been known to break out and some stores open much earlier than their advertised time of 9am in an attempt to reduce any crowd trouble."
Unsurprisingly, Apple declined to comment when approached.
Advertisement
Related Stories
- The Apple iPhone 5 rumour mill May 25th 2012 at 2:50PM
- Developer fined £50,000 over fake Angry Birds app May 25th 2012 at 12:28PM
- Yahoo unveils innovative search software for Apple May 24th 2012 at 2:27PM
- Apple tells Siri complainers to get a different phone May 18th 2012 at 12:13PM
- iPhone 5 'bigger screen' rumours gather pace May 17th 2012 at 2:13PM
- Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 released May 9th 2012 at 10:28PM
- iOS update fixes bugs and security flaws May 8th 2012 at 5:45AM
