Why Im so Interested in Cloned Nokia N95 handsets?

V888 - Cloned N95-2

Following recently being contacted by a BBC spokesperson, asking me the very same question, I thought I would post up publicly, why I am so interested in Nokia N95 clones specifically.

Being a forum member of www.N95Users.com for such a little time, and gaining a great deal of information on the N95 from the N95 team, and many of the very friendly members there, a Nokia handset, which is much more than just a mobile phone.  Being an award winning, Multimedia handheld computer, is one of the reasons I purchased my first N95-1, then went on and also invested in the N95-2 also, and still own both today.

During my time being active on the N95users forums, almost every other day, we would have new members registering, and  posting about their recent purchase, following some things not quite right with their newly prized possession.  Following the exchange of several questions, and photos, we find out that these newly joined members have indeed been sold a Cloned N95 as a Genuine.  I have now joined the Moderating team of N95Users, which is an honour.

This leads me to answer the title of this post Question. "Why I have an Interest in them?"

I want to help other people from falling into the trap of purchasing a clone, thinking they are buying a genuine Nokia handset.  After all, these handsets are not cheap.!  Some members who joined our N95users community had saved up their hard earned to purchase their N95, and when it turns out to be a clone, you can only imagine how they feel.

Being scammed myself many moons ago by an eBay seller, although in my instance, not related to buying a cloned handset, it was related to a mobile phone, where I, at the time, not knowing what I know now I may add, got stung by a seller using an hacked eBay account.  Anyway, learning from this, from what I had to do to make a claim to get my money back, through eBay's poor, and not very user friendly claim procedure, and Paypal's Safety Trust scheme, I now wish to help others should they also get stung.  In almost all cases, you will not get all your money back, but you will receive a percentage of it, based on initial outlay, and type of purchase.  Again, very poor setup from eBay.

Back to the N95 Clones.

My VOX Blog

http://gsi-r.vox.com/library/post/n95-clones-a-global-problem-i-think-so.html

Asking the question, Are these Cloned devices a Global problem.?  I think so.

There are now eight different N95 clones to date, all varying in difference levels of quality, from the poor end of the scale being the NOKLA N95, to the almost identical N95-2 clone, made in Korea, with WIFI, and GPS.  This latter clone, fools many as their is an N95-4, which is genuinely made in Korea.

Most of the latter clones now also show a result, when you key in *#0000#, which with the genuine Nokia device will show you the handsets current firmware version.  With the latter clones, this will also show you the clones firmware version, which at the moment, is quite easy to tell apart from the genuine firmware versions, however, some clones, now even show up a genuine Nokia firmware result from entering *#0000#.  See my VOX blog for details, and a photo of an N95-2, showing an old N95-1 firmware version.  Quite shocking.  These obviously are to fool the buyer, AND seller to believe they have a genuine handset.

Talking of sellers of these clones, as mentioned in my VOX blog, many Do know what they are selling, but many DO NOT, and this is because, clones are getting mixed in with genuine handsets, how?  Well, there could be a can of worms to be opened, who knows.! 

With many sellers, not being able to tell the difference from just looking at the sealed packaging of these clones, which again, are almost identical to the genuine boxes, and packaging, its easy to see why some sellers also fall prey to the counterfeiters.  The only sure way for them to find out what they actually have is to open up the sealed box, and do some simple checks, including putting the battery in the handset, and keying *#0000# to check its firmware, and cross referencing it to a genuine devices firmware, but as mentioned above, even this can fool the not so experienced eye, not to mention, many sellers either dont have the time to do this, or do not wish to open a brand new sealed box, as they then cannot advertise the handsets as "New, Sealed in the box".

You can start to see now how this is fast becoming a global problem, as in this case, we are only talking about the N95 clones, there are clones, of almost every other Nokia handset too, all varying from level of detail.  I have contacted Nokia several times regarding these clones, and to date, have showed little interest.  I, personally would like to assist Nokia, and any investigation they may already have into tracking down the sources of these clones, which again, could open a can of worms.  With rumours online about stolen Nokia parts being used in Fakes, and cloned Nokia's, the plot thickens, and i really want to get my teeth into a piece of the action, and take down these counterfeiters.  I know that just one man against such a global problem could never work, which is why im posting this post here.  How can Nokia not do anything?

Whats your thoughts on these Nokia clones?

Have you purchased a Cloned Nokia, under the impression you were buying a genuine Nokia?

Which model did you fall prey to?

Where did you buy your clone?

Im aware of several outlets other than eBay, all of which are either in China, or Asia.  I have been researching these for quite sometime now, and will be working together with the BBC, and Nokia, should they contact me regarding this issue.

Thanks for reading my post here, I have also posted this up on my Wordpress blog in the hope to get more global coverage.

Look forward to any comments.

Micky