How to spot fake Monster HDMI cables

How to spot fake HDMI cable

It has come to our attention there are now a batch of fake produced Monster cables now being sold on the web, the origin of this batch is not yet know, however it is common knowledge Monster HDMI head has been copied and is now available on freely on the Market. However their trademark is not legal to copy. It is unknown at this time if Monster have a trademark on the HDMI head design or any patents on their cables however these FAKES are now appearing on the internet.

What’s the best way to tell fake HDMI cabling from the real thing?

Basically any make of HDMI cable is being counterfeited at this point, but Monster cables are exactly the kind of high-end, high-price product pirates like to target, and Monster as a company is very active in fighting counterfeiters. As such, there’s a lot of open information on detecting fake Monster cables. For this reason, I’ll be using Monster cables when I make specific references and examples.

Counterfeiters mostly prey on the buyer’s cupidity (not to be confused with stupidity) — that is, the wish to have money, and to hold on to as much of it as possible.

Because of this, the number one way to detect fake HDMI cables is by a simple price comparison. Monster cables are especially expensive, but HDMI technology is still a relatively young and covers a small market, and that means prices on genuine, reliable products should be rather expensive.

Your best bet is going to be checking prices against a definite authorized source. If the prices you are investigating seem unreasonably lower than those at the genuine source, then you’re most likely dealing with false merchandise. I’d say anything more than a 5% difference is suspect. In the case of Monster cables, the absolute lowest you’re looking at is around $30/unit.

● Bulk deals are most likely going to be fake unless you can get a definite “yes” from the manufacturer on whether or not they sell bulk. For instance, Monster doesn’t do bulk price cuts, or sell outside its authorized dealers network; so, any bulk price cuts on Monster cables will guarantee you fake product.

● Don’t deal with any cables with which you’re not already acquainted. Compare suspect units against everything–

○ Packaging type– cardboard box, blister-pack, paper sack, whatever. Be especially suspicious of units sold in original equipment manufacturer (OEM) packaging.
○ Check for blurred text, wrong fonts, cheap or faded coloring, strange marks, and even misspellings.
○ If the unit lacks warranty booklet, instructions, or a UPC code on the bottom of the box, it’s fake.
○ Differences in the cables themselves. This is mostly a cosmetic consideration.

● Bottom line here; there’s going to be noticeable differences between ersatz and genuine. Think about it– the only perfect copy is one that matches the genuine exactly, and then it isn’t fake anymore, now is it? Fakes will be of lesser make; otherwise they wouldn’t be on sale for cheaper than the real thing.

● The obvious one– any cables sold in an email are fake.

Well, the main advice is to buy on really trusted websites, such as Amazon.com electronics

Via Wholesaleforum

Leave a Reply