Nokia Ghana would from next year embark on a vigorous campaign to flush out fake versions of its mobile handsets on the Ghanaian market. The exercise, dubbed “the 360 Campaign” will educate patrons of Nokia phones to send the IMEI or Serial number of the handset to a short code and the customer would receive a reply indicating whether the product is fake or genuine. There have been concerns about the influx of counterfeit versions of genuine brands of mobile handsets like Nokia, and Samsung in particular, mainly from China. Ghana has been a major destination for counterfeit Nokia and Samsung phones, some which came with the same brand names but ridiculously low prices, and different features from the original. Retail Customer Marketing Manager for Nokia Ghana, David Anku told Adom News the counterfeit phones were not only denying Nokia and the country revenue, but also had negative implications for the buyer. “The counterfeit phones pose health dangers because they do not go through rigorous testing like Nokia would do – their batteries also contain mercury and there have been incidents of some of those batteries exploding and causing fires whiles on charge or in use,” he said. David Anku said ahead of the Nokia 360 Campaign next year, customers could also determine the genuineness of their Nokia handsets by observing whether the shop they are buying from, has the Nokia Ghana Warranty Logo. He said “again when you buy a Nokia handset ask the seller to write the IMEI number on the receipt and check with Nokia Care if that IMEI number is genuine or not.” David Anku said it would be better for Ghanaians to purchase Nokia handsets with Ghana warranty because if something went wrong with the handset, one could get it repaired or replaced in Ghana, but if the warranty was from another country then the phone would have to be taken to that country. He also noted that even though China was the main country where most of the counterfeit handsets came from, not every Nokia handset from China was fake because “we have one of our biggest manufacturing plants in China.” On the varying prices of Nokia handsets in different shop, David Anku said Nokia is talking with the retailers of its products to keep the price at the same level, saying that “we are educating them to understand that if they keep the price low they will sell more within a shorter time.”