By Chris Chang, posted Nov 18, 2011 at 12:32 AM, 2,472 views,

How Do You Spot Fake Chinese Wireless Routers? Well, You Take Them Apart

The story I am about to retell you starts in China. Some guy finds a really cheap wireless router at a roadside stall. He buys one right away, without any consideration. Then he goes home and starts unboxing it. But the router doesn’t seem to work properly. In fact, it does not even have chipsets on the board…

Yeah, believe it or not, the WiFi router’s circuit board does not contain any chips at all, it’s as blank as a piece of paper! We all know there are several malicious Chinese street vendors selling electronics – cell phones, music players, handheld game consoles, external hard drives – for unbelievably low prices, but this fake wireless router appears to be a mix of both clever trickery and a scam.

We see nothing weird about the packaging.

Inside the box.

Looks just the real deal.

The ports look normal, but nothing happens when the user plugs the power in to the router.

This is what the guy sees when he opened up the router.

That’s right – it’s a board with no chips at all, just the ports.

The conclusion – be careful when you buy cheap Chinese electronics wherever you are.

Source: PConline