Scalpers are a normal problem at Apple Stores worldwide, especially during major launches. But in China, the scalpers have a new tactic to take advantage of Apple Stores and their customers — and it’s very sneaky.

Customers have been complaining about being unable to book any Genius Bar appointments, and according to a report from the Beijing Morning News, this is because scalpers have now turned to booking every available appointment for the Genius Bar. This forces regular customers to purchase the appointments from the scalpers online for a few bucks. When a customer sends their payment, they’re given the login details so they can change the schedule and details of the appointment.

The scalpers then get a pure profit out of this little scheme since it doesn’t cost anything and anyone with an email address can book appointments.

Because of the way things are currently set up, there isn’t really any reason for them to stop. And like previous issues with scalpers in China that Apple has tried to fix, they always seem to find their way around it. One possible solution would be to require the serial number of your device for booking an appointment, and limiting the amount of appointments you can book at a time to one.

It’s definitely an inconvenience and there will definitely be ways around it, but it’s got to be better than the way it is now.

[via iDownloadBlog]