An OLX listing for an iPhone 15 Pro proved counterfeit: IPS screen posing as OLED. Spot the signs—Dynamic Island quirks, display checks, and safer buying tips.
© A. Krivonosov
A near-sale on the popular marketplace OLX turned out to be a narrow escape: a counterfeit iPhone 15 Pro was about to change hands, its original OLED display swapped for a 60 Hz IPS panel. The deal was called off at the last moment thanks to the buyer’s friend, who sensed something was off.
As user @OutofGalaxyy recounted, the seller listed the phone for 2,400 Polish zloty—about $662. The price felt a touch high for a used device, though in Europe that kind of asking price isn’t unusual, which is why it didn’t immediately set off alarms.
While the prospective buyer was checking the phone, his friend noticed the Dynamic Island didn’t look right. After comparing it with his iPhone 17, he quickly realized the display wasn’t original. A conversation with the seller followed, and it emerged that the seller had also been misled: he had previously bought this “iPhone 15 Pro” as if it were genuine.
Fortunately, the sale never happened, and the buyer went for a new iPhone 15 instead. In different lighting—say, in the evening—this story might have ended another way, which says a lot about how easily a convincing fake can slip by.
The episode is a fresh reminder to inspect a smartphone not just by serial number but with a careful eye—especially on secondary marketplaces. Counterfeits are getting more sophisticated, and telling an IPS panel from an OLED display increasingly comes down to small visual cues that reward patient, attentive checking.