[Samsung Galaxy S7 Guides, News, & Discussion] MeltdownSpectre:
Hey everyone,

Not sure exactly how to start this thread, but this is not only going to include a few questions from me, but also discussion on how this is possible, have you seen anything like it, and why its done?

So to start off, a few weeks ago my dad dropped his Galaxy A5 and broke the screen, long story short, got him a new phone, was a brand new flat Galaxy S7 from a local store in Pakistan.

The seller was very persistent in saying that it's a 100% genuine and even has warranty, albeit not one that applies in Pakistan, but it does have 'foreign warranty'.

Now I have to mention here that there are normally 3 types of phones available here:

-Sold officially through an authorized distributor / retailer. An official Samsung Galaxy S7 goes for about 620 USD with 1 year warranty and accidental coverage in Pakistan.

-Smuggled / imported illegally from abroad. Usually still sealed, you can tell because of the foreign languages on the instruction booklet, and/or a European CSC. A smuggled Galaxy S7 would go for about 550 - 570 USD.

-American variants of flagship phones, more commonly known as 'kit' phones. Imported in bulk, wrapped in bubble wrap, and shipped as is. No box, no accessories. Just the phone itself. A 'kit' T-Mobile Galaxy S7 (G930T) for example, would be around 400 - 420 USD depending on the seller.

I chose for option 2, the smuggled / imported one, for the sole reason that the official retailer for Samsung did not have a flat GS7 in stock, there was a 2 week waiting period. So I went for the smuggled one, since it was raining heavily that night, I was in a hurry to get home, so I didn't even open the phone in the shop, I just picked up what I thought was a 'brand new' phone and went on my way. The box said G930F, and Silver Titanium on it. It also had a suspicious 'Smart Care 24 month warranty' sticker on the top left corner of the box.

ALSO, I needed a Dual SIM phone, so I assumed the box would say G930FD, but it didn't, again, I noticed all this stuff when I got home.

See here:

As I started noticing these little things, I instantly noticed the sticker on the front of the box said:

Now, the G9300 model means it's the Chinese / HK variant, with the Snapdragon 820, rather than the Exynos 8890.

However, the 'FZKAXSG' part was obviously fake, because the first few letters refer to the device colour and storage or something, and the 'XSG' part refers to the UAE CSC, which is impossible, since the G9300 is exclusive to HK and China.

I was hesitant to open the box, but I still went ahead with it, since fake boxes are also common here, I reluctantly cut the seal, and pulled out the phone, which at first glance, did not look silver AT ALL, in fact it looked nothing like my Silver Titanium S7 edge. It looked more 'Gold' to me than anything else, but I could be wrong.

In fact, it seems as if it's a mix of both Silver and Gold.

Excuse the fingerprints and air bubbles, I had actually put the plastic back on, after checking the phone, this picture was taken after I was done with the phone.

Turn the phone around, and there's the ordinary Samsung DUOS branding, underneath is where the sh*t begins. The font in which the IMEI, S/N, and country of origin are written looked 100% fake and again, nothing like the way it's written on my S7 Edge.

Furthermore, it said G930F on the back, which it definitely wasn't.

The sticker on the back that should've said G930FD if it actually was a Dual SIM, said G9300 instead. The IMEIs check out to be clean, but do not belong to an S7, you can check online.

Unsurprisingly, the accessories are also upside down, on my S7 Edge box, the headphones are on top, and the charger and cable are below it.

Now, I turned the phone on, went through the setup process, this is where I just wanted to punch myself and the seller.

Settings > About > Model Number: SM-G9300

It was Android 6.0.1, with a security patch of June 2016.

There was no Software update button anywhere in the settings app.

I downloaded the Phone Info app, and installed it. It said 0x0 KNOX, model number SM-G9300. Manufacturing date was March 2016, and the Colour / Internal Storage tab says 'Gold / 32GB'.

I checked the firmware tab, where the Bootloader, PDA and Baseband showed that of a G9300, but the CSC code said 'G9350ZZH1ABP9', which is that of an S7 Edge.

CSC code itself said 'TGY' which is a Hong Kong CSC, which I assume was done to get Google Play Services installed on the phone, since the G9300 has only one firmware available on SamMobile, which has a CHC CSC, which is Chinese, which means no Google Apps installed.

And just to confirm any remaining doubts I had, the Phone Info app confirmed it was a Snapdragon 820, and not the Exynos 8890.

So, this has fake IMEIs, a strange ROM with parts of the flat S7 and the S7 edge, a fake back cover, and probably because of the fake back cover, the camera hump and the chrome ring around the heart beat sensor and flash is protruding a lot more than it should be.

I then went back to the seller, where there was another guy already arguing with him, he had sold the same G9300 phone to that guy who was complaining that the phone would FC a lot, and was getting extremely warm.

I knew this seller, so I asked him to cut the bull**** and give me a 'real' brand new Galaxy S7. He handed me another shady looking S7 box, with G930FD on the back, took the phone out and it checks out to be a 930FD, hardware wise at least. Works like one, looks like one, has an Exynos chipset. BUT, NO Serial Number and IMEIs of a G930A? WTF

I then asked him about that again, where he goes to say, 'all the S7s coming to Pakistan are like this'. In the same location, there were a few other shops selling S7s and sadly, they were all like this. Fake back covers, fake IMEIs, fake boxes, and no serial numbers. They all work fine though.

Here is a Gold Platinum GS7 that I got from him, that works fine as well, but just has the weird protruding camera hump and the fake back cover that has the fake font and no Serial number written on it.

Sorry for the extremely long post, just wanted to create this thread for discussion purposes and to express how saddening it is to see this sort of crap happening, only in Pakistan as far as I know.

Let me know if you've seen anything like this before, and if so, where? Also, how do they manage to pull it off? Flashing different IMEIs, and why do the phones not have a Serial Number in the settings app? It just comes up as a bunch of random numbers, rather than starting with Rxxxxxxx and Phone Info detects no S/N at all.

However, all the phones have 0x0 KNOX and work perfectly fine as well. In fact, I even flashed 7.0 Nougat on it, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Cheers,

murtaza02