Scam alert: iPhones loaded with 'Flappy Bird' on eBay aren't selling for thousands

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,253   +192
Staff member

True to his word, Flappy Bird developer Dong Nguyen pulled the hit mobile game from app stores yesterday. That means if you hadn’t already downloaded and installed the title for your phone or tablet, you’re out of luck… or are you?

Many are being led to believe that if you’re willing to spend some serious money, you can still get your hands on the addictive game over on eBay by simply purchasing an iPhone with the game preinstalled. The idea alone may sound silly but people appear to be shelling out a ridiculous amount of money for otherwise ordinary devices.

Or at least, that’s what someone wants you to think.

A quick check of eBay’s “sold” listings does reveal several phones with the game installed that appear to have been sold. Digging deeper, however, I discovered that every listing was won with either a single bid at an outrageous price or through Buy It Now. Furthermore, the accounts used to sell the phones are very questionable. Several have a feedback score of fewer than three while the majority are new accounts with zero feedback.

Or in other words, the whole thing sounds bogus at best. Buy why?

I can see one of two possibilities playing out here. Either someone or a couple of people are trying to scam others out of a quick buck with phony eBay ads or what’s more likely, someone is simply trying to drum up interest for the game / create a market for Flappy Bird-installed phones that doesn’t yet exist.

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When you get an iPhone or other smartphone device, you have to have an account for the appstore. It will ask you to verify your account and BAM...you don't have the password to that account and therefore you lose Flappy Birds. This is an alright idea, but it definitely wasn't well thought out.
 
Anyone with an Android phone can just simply download & install the .apk
 
Wow, things are messed up in the iOS side. I can easily sideload this game if I wanted to, on my android.
 
I don't get it... flappy bird is only cool because people are talking about it. I uninstalled it 3 mins after trying to play and failing miserably. I don't think I had a game last longer than 5 seconds in my first 10 tries and that was enough for me.
Seriously the creator of this app should be sharing the ad revenue with everyone who wasted their time with it.
 
Who is even dumb enough to pay $2000 for a phone just because it has a shitty free app installed? I know it's a scam, but people that made this scam probably though that someone would buy this...

These are humans we're talking about, right?
I see what your saying, but we cant forget that 99% of the people who care about flappy bird already have it installed.
 
I thought "flappy bird" refers to something that needs via***. on reading the article, I thank the heavens my assumption was wrong.
on "techies" who love flappy bird app, damn... I thought mad cow disease is only found in cows (and in humans in creutzfeldt-jakob disease variant)
 
Well there are some *****s out there that probably would buy them. Since majority of I users have $$$ to spare
 
Im sure alot were scams with shill bids. I saw the crazy bids and decided to give it a shot, I have 500+ sells on eBay, mine was legitimately up to $9k before eBay took it down. do I think it was worth that kind money? hell no. am I willing to make a quick buck off of stupidity? hell yea.

and the app would not be deleted after the new owner put in their apple id, any apps that I did not delete would still be accessible, but not upgradeable. so if ol guy comes back with an update for the game, the new owner would not be able to get it without my password. but the original install would still be playable
 
When u list a phone on eBay it has to be reset to factory defaults or eBay will remove it as they won't allow you to sell a phone with pre installed software on it so people are just bidding stupid money because eBay has to remove the item before the end of the listing
 
Theres always someone trying to tell the world "I use Android and its better" or vice versa. Seriously, nobody cares what phone you use. :)
 
Its interesting that Ebay has removed the listings as they say it violates apples terms BUT the app itself was free AND when you do a search at Apples website http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5661 it says that if you don't reset your device before you sell it "Ask the new owner to erase all content and settings as described above." ...so technically If you place this link in your ad to prove you are not violating Apples terms AND ask the new owner to reset it in your listing then it should be perfectly legal and no grounds for Ebay to cancel any listings.
 
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