Remember the $399 Escobar Fold 2? A Galaxy Fold-lookalike from Roberto Escobar, brother of the late drug-lord, Pablo Escobar? Well, as it turns out, the Escobar Fold 2 is just the Galaxy Fold with a gold colored sticker slapped to it.
YouTuber MKBHD has posted a video sharing his experience of ordering the original Escobar Fold 1 and being upgraded to the Escobar Fold 2. He never got the original Fold 1 since it went out of stock, but a few months and a tweet later, Escobar Inc. upgraded his order to the Fold 2. Thirty seconds after unboxing the device, it is clear to the YouTuber that this is just a Galaxy Fold with a gold sticker on it to hide the Samsung branding.
Now, the interesting thing is that the Galaxy Fold has a price tag of nearly $2,000 while the Escobar Fold 2 has a $399 price tag. Does that mean Escobar Inc. is selling the Fold 2 at a massive loss? Not really. The company is not shipping the Escobar Fold 2 orders despite taking money from customers. It is only shipping out orders of famous YouTubers and media journalists in hopes of getting the device covered by the media.
Other customers have simply not heard anything about their Fold 1 or Fold 2 orders despite paying upfront for it. In fact, one frustrated customer launched the Escobar Scam website chronicling his entire experience with them. He placed an order in early December with the company and waited months for his Fold 1 order to arrive. After multiple follow-ups, Escobar Inc. upgraded his order to the Fold 2 and eventually, the customer got a cheap book wrapped in a piece of plastic last month.
The marketing behind Escobar Fold 2 is another saga of its own. The site and marketing videos are filled with models wearing skimpy clothing. In one of the videos, models are shown smashing the Samsung Galaxy Fold with a 'ripsamsung.com' link overlay throughout the video. If one visits that URL, they are redirected to Escobar Fold's website. Escobar Inc. takes plenty of potshots at Samsung, and yet, ironically, they are selling the Samsung Galaxy Fold with their own stickers on top.
At $399, the Escobar Fold is a tempting deal for a foldable device, but if it sounds too good to be true then most likely is. Consider also how it got an endorsement from former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and make your mind up, but it is likely nothing more than a scam and you should stay far away from it.
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