This guide is written for the benefit of the consumers who think they are receiving legitimate video games for gaming consoles such as Nintendo DS, gameboy advance, PlaySatation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube.

I have firsthand experience in dealing with sellers who try to peddle fakes to unsuspecting buyers. I myself was fooled when purchasing a Gameboy Advance game a few years ago from a seller in Hong Kong. That itself should have raised some red flags that the item was fake. Alot of counterfeit products originate  in China because well, its the bootleg capital of the world in my opinion. Here are some helpful hints to spot a fake:

• It usually will not come with the original box. If it does than the box was probably duplicated using matte paper and a ink jet/laser printer.
• Even if it does come with a box that looks like its the real deal, it definitely will not be sold with other contents such as the instruction manual.
• Check the spelling on the picture of the actual item. They could just put up an image of the real thing they took from authorized dealers such as  Gamestop or Ebgames. But chances are, the spelling of their actual item is not spelled the way the actual gaming company would spell their own name. Example: Nintendo is spelled Nintondo on the fake.
• The price, if its too good to be true it probably is. If the seller has a buy it now for that popular game that just came out but at half the price for a NEW copy of it, its fake or the seller of the item is just too generous ( that happens alot right? ).
• Like I mentioned earlier, be weary of sellers from countries with shady history in terms of counterfeit items. I'm not saying that everyone in China are selling fake stuff. I'm Chinese also so its not being racist.
• Check the item description to see if contains the words authentic, names of the manufacturer of the product, or the automated listing description of the item. That way, if you purchase the item and later find out that its not as described by the seller you have a legitimate case against the item being falsely peddled as the real thing.

I hope this helps somewhat in alerting the consumer about fake video games.