Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have seized and destroyed nearly 5,000 used mobile phones which were passed to customers as brand new.

The UAE’s Department of Economic Development (DED) said the haul worth $1.9 million was seized from mobile phone stores that were cheating customers by claiming they were new when in reality they were used.

Store owners were swindling customers by repackaging the phones, it said.

They were confiscated from 18 shops in only one area of the UAE, raising fears that many more could be confiscated as there are hundreds of stores that sell mobile phones in the Persian Gulf state.

Ebrahim Behzad at the Commercial Compliance and the Consumer Protection Division said the trading establishment would modify the phones and erase its databanks before putting them up for sale at competitive prices.

Shops would wrap up the old phones and put them up for sale at prices up to Dh2,000 ($544.51) after repairing and restoring them and adding fake headsets and chargers.

“This is considered commercial fraud; so these establishments have been fined. The management of intellectual property has carried out a campaign to crack down on a number of shops that sell mobile phones,” said Behzad.

Counterfeits are a big business in the UAE. Last month, it was reported that authorities had seized 55,000 counterfeit HP cartridges worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that were set to be sold in the emirate.

HDS/HB