Sale of substandard mobile phones has become a flourishing business in most popular markets and handset sales outlet in the country, LAWSON OVIH reports.

COUNTERFEITING means copying an original item, especially consumer products, with the intent of deceiving or defrauding the buyers. Unfortunately, counterfeiting has become so pervasive in Nigeria that it involves every consumer product in the market place, ranging from household items to automobile spare parts, telecommunication devices, household items, among others.
The ill of counterfeiting is sometimes perceived by society as a victimless crime with fakes simply constituting a cheap alternative purchase. At other times, consumers are constrained by ignorance, poverty, inability to detect counterfeit products. They simply go ahead to purchase fake products that may be rather harmful to them.
Incidentally, the case of consumers and buyers of mobile phones and their accessories is not different, as many consumers opt for substandard or counterfeit mobile phones because they are cheap and looks like the originals. All these are informed mainly by the advancement and sophistication of counterfeits in recent times and compounded by the lack of zeal of producers to partner with regulators in the education of consumers and removal of fake products from the market.
In-spite of the efforts made by government agencies like the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (Son) to combat counterfeiting in Nigeria, the business appears to have taken a foothold to the detriment of consumers, manufacturers and government alike.
The result of a recent research carried out by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the International Data Corporation (IDC) disclosed that Nigeria lost more than N19.8 million to software counterfeiting in 2009, and also recently, Microsoft, the global giant in software development, stated that consumers and companies spend millions of dollars each year on counterfeit copies, financing scammers who threaten the integrity of the software industry.
 
Popular Fake Models
World renowned mobile phone manufacturers including Nokia has identified Asia as one of the main origin of fake phones. In China , they are locally known as “shanzai” or black market cell phones, and  ‘Shanzai’ is a local term used to mean copied of faked products.
The ever growing ‘shanzai’ market has responded quickly to the needs of the mobile users by quickly manufacturing fake version of all the new models. The top models, which have been faked, include Nokia E86, Nokia N95, Nokia 8800, Nokia E91, Nokia E69 and also Nokia N87. Like the originals, they come meticulously packed with a charger, headphones and an instruction manual.
The only and the major difference is that these phones come without a warranty, cluttered and clunky software difficult to operate and low quality batteries which may explode anytime. The fake versions do not adhere to any safety standards of the industry. The global brands have been warning mobile users about the dangers of buying a fake model. In China, recently a 45 year old man was severely injured as his fake mobile phone exploded violently causing serious burns.
Many users have been fooled by retailers into buying fake phones. This is why it is always good to check the spelling of the brand name. The name is often deliberately misspelled in the fake phones using the same font but a wrong spelling. ‘Nokia’ may be written as ‘Nckia’- where ‘o’ and ‘c’ look very similar
UK market has been flooded with these fake mobiles. As a measure to prevent the customers from using these mobile phones, countries like UK , USA and Australia are devising ways to de-link these fake phones from connecting to the country’s existing mobile network.

The Hazards 
In the telecom market, apart from the loss of valuable income through the purchase of substandard mobile phones and their frequent replacement by consumers, there is a growing concern that the result of highly hazardous emissions from fake mobile phones may soon begin to manifest.
Counterfeit mobile phones are low in quality and do not meet safety standards, and in some situation, the radiation from them is beyond the permissible limits and can cause serious damage to the health of consumers. Scientific study on the levels of radio frequency emissions from mobile devices indicated that several sophisticated looking fake and cheap phones in the market emit high levels of radiation, far higher than what is globally accepted as safe.
Apart from the health hazards that consumers of counterfeit products are exposed to, they are usually not subjected to any regulatory authority and thereby not made in conformity to relevant standards and specifications. The country where those phones are sold also looses a lot of revenue since they would evade legitimate sources of government revenues like duties and taxes. Also employment opportunities are lost as genuine producers and employers of labour are hindered from attaining economies of scale and as a result forced to shut down on many occasions. This goes with the concern in the world that terrorists get their funding from illegal activities like counterfeiting, smuggling, bunkering, etc.
 
Government Action
Mrs. Ify Umenyi, director-general, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), at a roundtable conference on counterfeit products organized by Nokia in Lagos recently, highlighted that products counterfeiting has become so prevalent that on a daily basis, the lives of consumers are threatened and the national economy and security are jeopardised due to the prevailing activities.
Umenyi said in the view of the foregoing, the influx of fake and substandard products has been a source of concern to the federal government and as the apex consumer protection agency, the issue has compelled it to come up with an interventionist programme like the establishment of a joint task force, in conjunction with the Son and Alaba Market Association.
She added that CPC is also focusing its different enlightenment programmes and enforcement activities on the elimination of fake and substandard products from the Nigerian market. “We have also partnered with some genuine manufacturers to raid some known black spots, with a view to ridding them of counterfeit products. In the last one year, the council has carried out more than three different raids in the various markets around the country in order to remove different counterfeit and other unwholesome products from the Nigerian market,” she said.
Mr. Silvin Sinan, head of care, Nokia West Africa, explained that as long as the trade on counterfeit mobile devices continue, government loses revenue in the form of taxes, the economy loses potential employment opportunities and investors are discouraged thus dealing a deadly blow at government’s efforts at encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI).
Sinan said this discourages creativity and innovation because the very existence of cloned counterfeit devices is an infringement on intellectual property. He noted that the interesting thing about the trade in counterfeit devices is that it is a buyer’s market. This means that it is the demand for them that encourages the supply. “We believe that if the average consumer is aware of the potential hazards that he exposes himself to every time he purchases a counterfeit device, chances are that he would have a rethink,” he said. “The more people are aware of these dangers, the less vulnerable they become and the cheap prizes of these devices become less and less attractive.” 
As a further move to eliminate substandard products from the Nigerian market, Professor John Akanyan, director-general of Son, at a telecom forum in Lagos stated that his organization would be collaborating with the National Information Technology Development Agency (Nitda) to rid the Nigerian mobile market of fake devices that do not meet the stipulated international standard for products that should be imported into the country.