(CNN) -- If you're handing over cash for a heavily discounted iPad from some random guy in a McDonald's parking lot or at a gas station, then yes, you should consider your purchase a risk. But when you're like Suzanne Nassise and you buy Apple's popular tablet from a well-known retailer, you expect it to be legit. Nassise says she walked out of a Walmart in Brockton, Massachusetts, last month with what she believed was a new $499 iPad. When she got home and opened the box, she told CNN affiliate WCVB, she thought, "'Wow, it's a little on the light side -- Apple's an elegant product.'"
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A Massachusetts woman says an iPad she bought from Walmart was fake
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A rash of similar cases have been reported in the past six months
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Walmart is aware of the problem and is working to address it
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Advice: Open the box in the store and check the serial number on the box as well
Walmart
Walmart
Walmart
The majority of news reports on the problem have involved iPad purchases at @placeholder, although other retailers are not immune.
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Walmart
Walmart
@placeholder at first declined to offer Nassise, the Massachusetts woman, an exchange or refund because of a policy against returned merchandise that has been unwrapped.