(Note: There was also a report of the same cheap counterfeit
cellphone batteries being sold in the Chicago Regional
Area at discount and "dollar" type stores.
These counterfeit batteries *do not* have any protection diodes
installed inline with the charging contacts, thus if a cellphone
is placed on a conductive surface the internal cells will
quickly overheat resulting in fire and/or injury. The counterfeit Nokia
and Samsung replacement batteries were believed to
have been made in and imported from China)

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Nokia Cites Fake Batteries in Phone Explosions
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._nm/tech_nokia
_explosions_dc

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/...gnokias_1.html

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia (news - web sites) Thursday pointed the finger
at counterfeit batteries after another of its phones exploded and burned
its user, the third such case in two months, and said original batteries
sold with its phones were safe.

The world's largest mobile phone maker said earlier a young Vietnamese
woman was hospitalized with burns after her mobile phone apparently
exploded.

The incident follows two similar accidents in the Netherlands, one last
week and the other in August.

Following the latest Dutch incident, which left a 15-year-old boy in the
town of Hengelo with leg burns, the country's consumer watchdog said it
would probe the case.

"We don't yet have any information on what is the origin of the battery in
the Vietnam case," Nokia Mobile Phones spokesman Kari Tuutti told Reuters.
"(But) there hasn't been a single case of an original battery exploding
anywhere in the world," he said.

Nokia has cited faulty batteries from independent electronics manufacturers
for similar incidents in the past.

Nokia has said these manufacturers violated security requirements which
should prevent the battery heating up after short circuiting, for instance,
after the phone was dropped.

Contraband and counterfeit mobile phone batteries are widely available in
Vietnam in local markets at around $2-$3 a piece compared to $20 for
genuine product, a local Nokia spokesman said.

"The biggest issue is with counterfeit, illegal batteries," Tuutti said.
"Therefore we recommend that retailers and consumers try to verify the
products sold have original batteries."

Mobile phones are becoming increasingly popular in Vietnam despite modest
incomes and there are around 1.6 million mobile phone users among the
population of 80 million.