Apple Sued by Man Who Was Falsely Accused of Apple Theft, Claims He's a Victim of Impersonation

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 30 May 2021, 05:05 am

Apple is being sued by a man because of repeated accusations that the man was behind numerous thefts at Apple Stores across the eastern seaboard of the United States; attempted thefts that were conducted by others who were impersonating the complainant.

Apple Lawsuit Over False Accusation

The lawsuit, which was filed on May 28 in the U.S District Court for the District of Massachusetts, is suing Apple and Security Industry Specialists, a contractor working for Apple on store security.

The lawsuit claimed that the plaintiff, Ousmane Bah, was falsely accused of performing a number of Apple Store thefts, which then led to his arrest in New York in November 2018, accoring to Apple Insider.

The lawsuit appeared to be a continuation of another legal action by Bah against Apple and SIS, which was launched in April 2019. It seems that the claims are the same as in that lawsuit, but specifically takes aim at the activities in the Massachusetts Apple Stores.

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According to the lawsuit, Bah received a learner's permit for driving in the New York State in March 2018, which took the form of a printout that has details of his height, weight, date of birth, and eye color, but not his photograph.

Bah lost his temporary permit within the following two months, but had received a permanent plastic version with his photograph.

The missing temporary permit is alleged to have been used by someone else as identification for an Apple Store theft in Greenwich, Connecticut in April 2018.

The man is said to have not resembled Bah, and is taller than him too, the Washington Post reported.

Bah stated that Apple and SIS created a record for Bah as the thief in the video, and published the information to both SIS agents and Apple Store in the Northeast US.

The Series of Robberies

In May 2018, an SIS agent apprehended the imposter who attempted theft from a store in New Jersey. While the imposter was arrested by police, they were interrogated and the learner's permit provided as identification, which then led to SIS circulating a "Be on the lookout" notice for Bah as a known shoplifter with the wrong photograph to Apple Stores.

A third robbery on May 31 had Apple identifying the thief as Bah from their records, and informed the Boston Police Department that Bah was behind it, despite it really being the imposter again.

Apple intended to press charges against Bah for the thefts.

Part of the issue is that Apple's alleged use of facial recognition, which it and SIS used to identify Bah as the perpetrator of the thefts less than 10 minutes after they took place.

The record of the fake Bah is not reliable as the lawsuit insisted Apple and SIS knew its use of facial recognition was unreliable in this case, as noted by the BBC.

In June 2018, Bah appeared in Boston Municipal Court and requested video evidence to prove that he was not behind the crimes, but Apple advised the video had been deleted.