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Entire fake Apple Store in China nearly has us fooled

Photos have popped up online of an entire fake Apple Store in China. Although having nothing to do with Apple, the shop looks incredibly convincing, right down to the blue-shirted Genius staff.

Luke Westaway Senior editor
Luke Westaway is a senior editor at CNET and writer/ presenter of Adventures in Tech, a thrilling gadget show produced in our London office. Luke's focus is on keeping you in the loop with a mix of video, features, expert opinion and analysis.
Luke Westaway
2 min read

Some fraudsters are satisfied to produce a dodgy knock-off iPhone 4 and be done with it. But some enterprising fakesters in China have gone the extra mile to deceive tech fans, opening an entire fake Apple Store. It appears genuine to the untrained eye -- right down to the trademark blue T-shirts on members of staff.

The photos popped up on a blog called BirdAbroad, and show an amazing level of dedication in crafting the faux Apple Store, located in Kunming in south-west China. We recommend checking out the original post to see all the snaps in their full glory.

The glossy wooden benches, sparse aesthetic, liberal use of chrome and winding staircase all feel very Apple-esque, while the advertising on the walls and arrangement of the products themselves could fool us into thinking we were in the Apple Store in Covent Garden.

The deception appears to go deeper than you'd assume, however. The author of the blog post says they spoke with some of the salespeople working in the store, "who, hand to God, all genuinely think they work for Apple." Best of all, apparently there are two similar fake stores not 10 minutes walk away.

We can at least admire the dedication in crafting the devious facade, but there are a few slip-ups. There are no names on the employee name tags, and genuine Apple Stores don't have 'Apple Store' written on the sign under the logo, because, y'know, that's just a little too obvious for Jobs and co. 9to5Mac also notes that the pink iPod poster on the wall is severely outdated.

What are your thoughts? Spotted any similarly ambitious knock-offs recently? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook wall.

Photo credit: BirdAbroad