ebay: A1600 from Hongkong

[tolrtd]

xbot - you may have seen my "counterfeit vs. real" comparison threads (and photoset). I purchased my A1600 off of ebay as well, from HongKong. The seller listed it in Australian Dollars. After a few days of research, browsing this forum, and common sense, I discovered that this phone was fake. I reported the seller (I had his address from my Paypal account) to Motorola and Paypal, and after some deliberation, got my money refunded through Paypal. I had to send the fake back, but in the meantime I purchased a real phone, and took the comparison photos.

When I purchased the real phone, I spoke on the phone with a seller in Miami, FL, and using the official A1600 user manual, had him verify some functionality for me. That worked and I love the phone.

It is a fact that 20% of cell phones (and most other consumer electronics) sold out of Hong Kong are counterfeits. What happens is that someone in the manufacturing chain of the product leaks/sells the plans, someone reverse engineers it, and produces the fakes for a fraction of the cost- using cheaper components and completely ignoring safety restrictions. One of the most common sources of the leak is the printed circuit board manufacturer.

What upset me the most was the safety - if the fake battery exploded, I could have been seriously injured; if the charger caught fire, my house would have been burnt; if the phone emitted too much radiation, it may lead to cancer.

Anyways - I suggest reporting this to Motorola to try and track down the fakes.

[tymcat]

Hi there,
I have a similar issue to xbot. The downloaded MPT on my PC (well, it's a Mac...) doesn't recognise the A1600, claiming it is not supported. I will buy MPT myself and annoy Avanquests helpline. Hm, 0.19€ per minute, hope it won't take too many hours. I'll be back.

[xbot]

@tymcat
mine is recognized with an update it worked well so did u tried to put it in modem mode and tried AT commands on it.
If those AT commands doesn't work i dont think its a real A1600 also u cant put the fake in to the RED Flasching screen!
Also the menu is completely different, www008w doesn't show anything, search the forum there are also fake images check it up i got a real one now and it works great.


and i didn't got my money back yet so since 3 weeks paypal is checking it man that make me tired and angry fuckin fake but well we all search for cheaper things so it was a try. A bad one _(=_=)_ lol