"Ma'am/Ser, DVD, DVD? VCD? Tree-plex?"

Most of you probably know this dialogue as this line is commonly used by those "pirates" who want to sell you the latest movie in DVD format. And while most of you will say that "pirated" is better since it's cheaper than the original, I beg to disagree.

You see, pirates not only make copies of your favorite movie titles; they also provide consumers with software applications, bags, shoes, phones, mp3 players, computer parts, and even LCD screens.

Sure, they are cheap and all that, but how about quality control and assurance that what you see is what you really get?

A person who went to China bought a D-Link USB Wi-fi Adaptor. Yes, it was cheap and all that, but look what happens after this person prys open the drive...

What

the

&$%^$^%$%^$%#

is

THIS?!??!?!

I

got

scammed.

OMG.

ARGH!!!! *)&(*&^$&*^#(*$()#&%#$*(&&%^^$@# PIRATED PRODUCTS!

His blog is here. Sad isn't it? This person learned a valuable lesson the hard way. While it may not happen to you, you are advised to be more vigilant as this kind of routine is prevalent in websites such as Ebay. Yes, E-B-A-Y.

Ebay posted a guide on how to pinpoint fake SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash Drives.

And I quote:

"Millions of eBayers have been deceived by inferior quality, unpopular cheap drives as more than 95% of all 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB USB Flash Drives listed on eBay are counterfeit items which have fake capacities."

If you want to know more on how to pinpoint fake USB drives, check out this link.

Games for portable gaming systems are also being rampantly pirated. I remember before, my mom came back from Hong Kong and she gave me a 128-in-one game for my Nintendo Gameboy; only to find out that 5 games work. Online buyers are more susceptible to bootleg Nintendo DS games, but as far as I remember, there are several bootleg games that can be found in malls here in the Philippines.

A guide on how to spot pirated Nintendo DS carts can be found in the 4 color rebellion website. You may be tempted to buy these pirated games, but be warned: Some of the games may work the first time, but this doesn't mean that it would remain like that all the time. Some users say that their save function's busted, while some mentioned that their pirated cartridge overheats after a short time.

PSP is also a target of these pirates as there is a way to play PSP games without purchasing any cartridges. I will not mention the process anymore so as not to promote piracy, but as far as I know, if done improperly, doing the "process"may cause your PSP to malfunction, or even be useless as you cannot even boot the PSP altogether.

May this blog serve as a reminder to all of us that piracy is not the best policy. While I am not STOPPING you guys from buying pirated products, I just want everyone to be more vigilant when seeing a bargain, as it is really hard to discern whether or not the product that you will be buying is "real" or a "bootleg" version of it.

Tell me what you guys think.