How to check your phone is genuine
It's as important to us as it is to you that you're spending hard earned money on guaranteed genuine items. Why? Because we want you to come back for more and hopefully recommend your friends and family too.
Most importantly, remember that fakes may be made and sold by crime syndicates to fund other, more sinister operations. They may be unsafe and will obviously use fake batteries and chargers which can be a fire hazard. They will not have passed or even been submitted for any safety checks and they're also not going to perform as well or last as long, so it's just not worth it for any reason. In the long term you're not saving anything and may be putting your life and that of others at risk.
But anybody can claim the phones they sell are genuine. So how can you tell? First of all, most of our phones come factory sealed (not all manufacturers provide sealed boxes). However, we don't know anybody who tells you how to actually check your phone - but we do!
Here's how to check:
1. Click here to go to imei.info - this website contains a database of most (but not all) mobile phone serial numbers, or IMEI numbers. Each phone has it's own unique IMEI number, dual sim phones have two - one for each sim.
2. On the imei.info site enter the FIRST and ONLY the first IMEI number shown on the side of back of the box. Take care as an IMEI number consists of 15 digits and it's easy to miss a digit or get it wrong.
3. Click on the "I'm not a robot" checkbox and click "Check". The result will then show you the model of the phone and links to other information about your phone. As this information is supplied by the manufacturers it confirms that you have a genuine phone.
However, there are a few points to be aware of:
- Not every phone is listed on the database
- Some new models may not yet be listed
- Manufacturers often reuse IMEI numbers from unsold models. In this case the phone shown may be a different model, but the manufacturer should be the same which shows the phone came from that manufacturer.
- Many phone have different model numbers in different countries. For example the Nokia 6.1 Plus is also known as the Nokia X6 in some countries.
- Some phones may show the model number rather than the model name. for example, the Samsung Galaxy S9 has the model name of G960F so the database may show "Samsung G960F" instead of "Samsung Galaxy S9". On android phones you can usually find the model number on the "About Phone" section of the phone settings menu.
- The same area of the settings menu will also show the IMEI numbers. Remember, only the first one (often referred to as IMEI 1 or SIM 1) will be registered on the database.
- You can also find your IMEI number by dialling *#06# on your phone keypad.