If you’re still one of those people pish-toshing the idea that buying counterfeit or unapproved electronics and accessories can be dangerous, you should learn something from a recent tragedy in Australia. A 28-year-old woman was killed there while talking on a phone that she’d plugged into a faulty USB charger, prompting authorities to warn consumers everywhere against using such devices.

The woman was found dead while wearing headphones inside her home, according to Fair Trading New South Wales, the group that oversees consumer issues such as this, after it’s believed that the $4.95 faulty charger sent high voltage through her body.

Officials with Fair Trading NSW said the phone had been charged into a wall outlet while she was talking, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

“The voltage seems to travel up through the faulty charger into her phone and she was wearing earplugs and also operating a laptop which was also plugged into a power point,” a spokeswoman said. “So the (electricity) traveled back down through the earphones to the laptop and into the power point.”

“Two-hundred-and-forty volts (then) travelled up into the phone which obviously the phone isn’t designed to handle.

The Fair Trading Commissioner says the business that sold her the non-compliant charger could now face fines up to $875,000 and a two-year sentence. It’s been shut down, with hundreds of allegedly faulty USB chargers seized by officials.

“We will certainly be further investigating an outlet which we have detected have supplied theses types of non-compliant articles [chargers] with a view to prosecution,” he said.

He added that there were a a lot of cheap chargers available for sale, something authorities weren’t really aware of until busting the mobile accessory business.

“This is the first time we’ve been aware of them in large numbers,” he said, urging the public to not buy these kinds of unauthorized or unapproved products.

Faulty USB phone charger blamed for woman’s death [Sydney Morning Herald]

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