Apple has a new weapon in its fight against iPhone return fraud, and it works without anyone breaking a seal. The company has begun deploying a device in its retail stores that can examine an iPhone while it’s still shrink-wrapped in its box and run diagnostics to confirm the phone inside is intact.
The problem it targets is a familiar headache for retailers. Some customers have been returning iPhone boxes after quietly removing accessories, pulling components out of devices, or swapping out the phone entirely, then selling those parts through secondary markets. To catch this, store staff have resorted to opening even sealed packaging to check what’s inside. That creates its own issue, because a box that has been opened can no longer be treated as straightforward new stock and needs extra handling before it can go back on sale.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the inspection units started arriving at Apple Stores earlier this month and are now coming online. The hardware builds on Presto, the system Apple introduced in 2024 to update iPhones before customers take them home. Presto can power on a boxed iPhone, install the latest software wirelessly and switch it off again, sparing buyers that first lengthy update. Bloomberg has also reported that Apple is installing Presto machines tailored to the new iPhone Duo, which can personalise the first-boot greeting with the buyer’s name.
Repurposing that same contactless approach for verification is a logical step. If staff can confirm a returned iPhone is genuine and undamaged without cutting the wrap, legitimate returns from customers who simply changed their minds can move back into inventory more quickly, while suspicious ones can be flagged.
There are still significant unknowns. Apple hasn’t publicly explained what the tool actually checks, which faults or modifications it can identify, or how reliably it can spot a convincingly resealed box. It’s also unclear whether it can detect swapped internal parts or only confirm that a functioning iPhone is present. Without those details, it’s impossible to judge how much of the fraud problem it really solves.
The timing makes sense, though. The iPhone Duo is Apple’s most expensive phone yet and supply remains tight, which raises both the value of each unit and the incentive for scams around returns.
For now, the rollout appears limited to Apple’s own stores. Whether the company extends similar checks to carriers and third-party retailers, where much of the iPhone’s sales volume flows, or applies the technology to iPads and other boxed products, will show how seriously Apple views the scale of the problem.
