Apple hired away employees from Pfizer to fight counterfeiting of the iPod and Iphone in China in 2008, according to a US diplomatic cable leaked by whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Accordng to an AFP report, the September 2008 cable from the US embassy in Beijing said that Apple got people who led a crackdown on pirate Viagra for the drug company.
The document said that the company security team was "targeting retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and online vendors to take a bite out of China’s counterfeit iPod and iPhone production."
The document also said that it was amazing that Apple did not have a security team before it realised the size of the fake market in China in 2008.
"Early evidence suggests nearly 100 percent of Apple products in unauthorized mainland markets are knock-offs, while factories in Guangdong province are exporting enough counterfeits to single-handedly supply the world with fake Apple products," it said.
"What appear to be real iPods with 80 gigabytes of storage, but that in fact have only a very inexpensive 1GB hard drive inside," it added.
