fake cellphones

[blue23mkti]

hello peeps!

i will be buying a 6610 tomorrow.
For those who live here in the phils. i am eyeing
on buying at greenhills, where it is the haven
for cellfone enthusiasts.

however, some friend of mine told me that
there are fake celfones in that area.

like they sometimes change the original battery
with some cheapos.

other stories like they change the LCD screen,
or the original casing.

they have verified this because when they compare
their bought celfones with those who has:
say 8210. they have noticed the LCD screen
looks different, or the casing seems brittle- not the original one.

any insights on this?

1. what can i do to check if the phone i will be buying (6610)
is a fake or genuine? ( most celfones bought her are made in china)

2. i forgot about those codes presssed in keypad to show you the manufacturing date and the software version.
could someone post them here? i would appreciate that.

thanks

[yjagota]

Ya, this can happen. Even here in India, sellers at grey markets do such fradulent acts to maximise their profits. Try buying the phone from a authorised Nokia dealer. It will gurantee you a new and original, untampered phone. And the prices too are not too high then grey markets.

The keypresses are:
*#06# to show the IMEI.
*#0000# to show the software version.

[ceanth]

i guess the only way would be to have a mess about with the phone you might be thinking of buying. Take a look at the battery, most fakes dont go into detail, so look out for those nokia logos on battery and facias and anywhere else it should be. The general feel of the phone should give a good indication of how real it is, you can always take another phone (which u know to be real) and compair it to the potentional buy.

Hope this helps

ceanth

[blue23mkti]

hello peeps.

thanks for the responses.
i bought nokia 3650 instead. because of its capability to have a memory expansion..

yeah, i did compare it with another cellfone.
but anyway, the store owner even shown me the variations
in the batteries they're selling.

they were honest enough to show me what battery is the original and what is second class, third class battery..

they weren't really selling fake peripherals, just substandard parts.

[yjagota]

Good. You have brought yourself one of the best between Nokia Stables. Enjoy.