Robert Escobar claiming to sell 'gold-plated' iPhone 11 Pro at $499

Robert Escobar, the brother of the slain narcotrafficker Pablo Escobar, gets a high out of nibbling at Apples. In the past few months, his firm, Escobar Inc., has attempted to sell foldable smartphones, at a fraction of the cost established players like Samsung and Motorola are charging for devices with the same technology. A few tech reviewers pointed out that the Colombian company was merely repackaging the Samsung Galaxy Fold, and that most orders that were placed for Escobar Inc.’s folding phone were never delivered.
Escobar might be trying to step out of his infamous brother’s shadow, but the tactics he is deploying are eerily similar: by tweaking an in-demand product and marketing it at a lower price point. Escobar Inc. has trained its guns on a new target: Apple. His new offering, a gold-plated refurbished version of the iPhone 11 Pro (256GB) , will cost $499, less than half of what it costs to buy the device from the original seller. The original device retails for $1,149.

Robert Escobar has made no bones of his intention to become the “overstock king-pin.” In an announcement, the company said it was selling a limited number of “formerly damaged” iPhone 11 Pro phones that have been repaired and “gold-pated.” The foldable phone sold by Escobar Inc. also made similar claims, but reviewers who got access to the device testified that the gold-plating was a con job, attained by sticking a gold-tinted aluminium foil.

The iPhone 11 Pros sold by the company will reportedly ship with original accessories including earpods and the charging cable. The golden back face of the phone will have the Escobar Inc. branding embossed on it. It remains to be seen if those placing orders online will actually receive the product. If they do, it will likely be in a “luxury wooden box.”

The Cupertino-based company has also been slapped a lawsuit by Escobar for $2.6 billion over claims that his iPhone X was hacked through the company’s FaceTime app, and that a man named Diego sent him a threatening letter after learning of his address and other sensitive information through a technical flaw in the video calling app.

"This is my way of fighting Apple, I sell their phones at a lower price and mine are gold-plated with nice girls showing them off. Apple can never do that," Roberto Escobar said in a statement. Escobar Inc.’s YouTube channel has videos of women in lingerie flaunting and performing illogical acts with the company’s refurbished smartphones, including smashing them deliberately to prove their ruggedness.

What it all really comes down to is this: “Our goal is to uphold Mr. Escobar's dreams of becoming the overstock king-pin and this is one step towards that direction," said Escobar Inc. CEO Olof Gustafsson.