After a recent transaction where a seller sold me a fake GBA game, I have decided to write this help guide to assist everyone out there.

The easiest way to identify a fake GBA game is to have a look at the base of the cartridge where the gold cartridge connectors are.

If you shine a light inside this area, located at the back of the connectors near the plastic casing, you will see white text printed on the circuit board bearing various pieces of information.

The text varies from cartridge to cartridge but generally has 'Nintendo', the year of manufacture and/or item serial number imprinted.

All the fake cartridges I have seen thus far do not bear these official Nintendo identifiers.

This is the only near fool proof way of identifying a fake cartridge since most pirated copies nowadays are so good that you cannot tell simply by looking at the quality of the label, instruction manual or box.

So next time when in doubt, request a seller to email you a photo of the area described above to validate that it is a genuine item.

If they refuse to, they obviously have something to hide!

Without a doubt I will be copping alot of hate mail for writing this, but the truth needs to be revealed.

If this guide is of help to you, please take the time to thank me by voting below.

Here is a photo of the area: