An Interview With The Ballsy Teen Who Sold Authentic White iPhone Parts [Apple]

17-year-old Fei ” Phil” Lam, the ballsy teen who sold authentic white iPhone 4 conversion kits , recently took a moment to talk to Fast Company about his business, Apple, Foxconn, and legal woes. Here’s his story.

On Tuesday, The recent York Observer reported that 17-year-old Fei ” Phil” Lam has made a killing selling white iPhone 4 conversion kits, parts he imported factory-direct from China even before Apple. Now, in an exclusive interview with Fast Company, Lam – a self-professed computer geek from Queens – says business is booming.

” I made $8,000 up to now today,” he says, attributing the skyrocketing sales on WhiteiPhone4Now.com to the inside track that he’s already sold $130,000 worth of parts. Since the story went viral this week, his site has been overloaded with new customers: It received more than 130,000 views today alone. While Lam wouldn’t confirm exact figures, he did say his revenue was between $60,000 and $130,000. And profits? Thus far, $30,000 to $40,000.

Not bad for a high school senior.

But the media buzz is a gift and a curse. Several days ago, Lam received a letter from an individual investigator, which claimed that Lam is the point of interest of an investigation concerning the sale of stolen Apple white iPhone parts. The PI works for an anti-counterfeit and trademark protection firm, and the letter threatened a likely criminal investigation if Lam failed to call.

” Nothing is stolen-that’s why I was confused when the PI said I was selling stolen parts,” says Lam, before launching into a description of his supplier. The main points are a bit hazy, but consistent with Lam, who is fluent in Chinese, he first came in touch with ” his guy” after receiving a spam message hawking Apple replacement parts. He decided to reply to the message on a whim, and soon began talking together with his future supplier in regards to the parts.

Months later, Lam says, he learned his contact used to work at Foxconn, and still has friends there, although Lam is obvious that only ” some parts are from Foxconn” and that ” nothing illegal was done backstage.”

When I asked Lam why he would trust someone he met through a spam message and why he would ever comply with send that person money, Lam could only say his contact seemed ” really nice.” Lam also stresses that his contact could’ve ” booked it” and took his money, but he never did.

That’s not to assert Lam isn’t worried about potential consequences of importing the parts. ” Obviously I’m stressed in regards to the legal issues-I actually have contacted a lawyer,” he says. ” I’ve not told my family.”

But inside the meantime, as Lam says, ” business [is] still in operation.” He says he started the location to generate profits for school, and to eventually fund a startup he’s been planning.

And possibly someday work for Apple?

” I’m an enormous huge Apple fan,” he says. ” Maybe – who knows?”

Fast Company empowers innovators to challenge convention and create the longer term of commercial.

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This post is tagged: conversion kits, criminal investigation, point of interest, replacement parts, trademark protection, york observer