Counterfeit SD flash memory cards

[dddave]

I recently ordered several premium Samsung Evo Micro SD memory cards from Thailand's largest online supplier who I will not name just to be on the safe side.

The card packaging, one 128GB and one 64GB just didn't look right, type not crisp, peg holes not punched through.  I did some YouTube sleuthing and what I found confirmed my suspicions...both cards were counterfeit. 

For the Samsung Evo's, it's not hard to spot.  Samsung paints the edges of the Evo's white, apparently a complicated process. The counterfeit cards had black edges. Samsung prints manufacturing information, model number and serial number on the back.  The phonies were blank.  If you look at the graphics on the front under magnification, the genuine card's graphics are crisp and sharp, the copies appear a bit soft, colors less vivid.  The micro sd comes with a white adapter that should have "Samsung" engraved on the back, not printed.

One of the problems with counterfeit memory cards is they can program them to give you a false reading when you install them, thus my 64gb card showed 62.4gb "available".

There are several tools available online that actually test the memory by writing to it.  I used "H2testw" which takes a while but confirmed that both the 64gb and 128gb cards actually had less than 16gb available.  Also the write/read speeds were way, way below what these premium cards were supposed to deliver.

This all made me suspicious enough that I went and tested several other hi capacity premium 64 gb Sandisk cards I had bought over the last year.  One that I purchased at Fortune at JEB  tested fine, the other purchased online was a counterfeit.

I contacted Customer Service and they asked me to submit photo evidence which I did.  They quickly offered a full refund.

 

It's obvious to me that these online sellers have neither the will or means to verify the authenticity of what they sell.  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just to clarify, on your latest purchase that turned out to be fake, was the purchase direct from the online retailer, or, from a third party merchant who sells thru the online retailer's site?

 

 

[dddave]

Just now, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Just to clarify, on your latest purchase that turned out to be fake, was the purchase direct from the online retailer, or, from a third party merchant who sells thru the online retailer's site?

 

 

3rd party merchant, as far as I know.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 minute ago, dddave said:

3rd party merchant, as far as I know.

 

Thanks Dave... Do you wanna put a link to the testing software you used to check the cards?

 

[dddave]

2 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Thanks Dave... Do you wanna put a link to the testing software you used to check the cards?

 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/H2testw.shtml

 

Note that initially, the H2testw display will show the false number...one must actually run the test to get the actual number and that can take several hours depending on the size of the card.  also, be aware that it can also delete any data already on the card being tested.

[ArnonK]

There a lot of Kingston Flash Memory Cards out there to be counterfeit. 

 

Here in Thailand, it's easy to see if a Kingston Flash Memory is counterfeit. Here is a typical cover of a counterfeit Kingston Flash Card:

 

All of the sellers of Kingston Flash Card, having Stickers or printed Logos of the Company on the Flash Card covers, and if those are failed, that's counterfeit stuff. Beside of that, the Read/Write speed of those counterfeit Flash Cards is Class 2 or 4, never Class 10!  

 

And here is a link to the app: http://www.heise.de/ct/Redaktion/bo/downloads/h2testw_1.4.zip

[ArnonK]

There also several other test apps which could be used to check Flash Memory Card etc. like FakeFlashTest ,  SD Speed Test for Mac, F3 (FightFlashFraud) and others. 

[Crossy]

2 hours ago, dddave said:

It's obvious to me that these online sellers have neither the will or means to verify the authenticity of what they sell.  

Or they know full well it's carp, they just hope the sucker doesn't notice, those who do get a refund.

 

Do process your refund, if they ask you to return to goods do so (once you have your money back), mark the package "counterfeit goods, returned for refund".

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, ArnonK said:

There also several other test apps which could be used to check Flash Memory Card etc. like FakeFlashTest ,  SD Speed Test for Mac, F3 (FightFlashFraud) and others. 

 

Do any of those work without overwriting/destroying any existing data on the card?

 

[ArnonK]

Yes, they do, but in that case of existing data, only that space without data would be used and therefore quite incorrect!

[jacko45k]

Were they especially cheaper than you would expect them to be?

 

Some years ago I ended up with one of these, the capacity was somewhat lower than claimed and I discovered that using the same program you did.  Luckily before I tried using it otherwise data would have been lost. The Chinese supplier claimed he was unaware that his supplier had given him 'fakes' configured to look bigger. I got a partial refund and reformatted the device to show and work for the actual capacity.

[Formaleins]

These fakes and other sub standard products just get returned then resold over and over again until someone a bit less clued up ends up just accepting them at face value - They will never be removed or destroyed.

 

I bought some DDR3 memory from a store in the city a while back - When I got it home it was faulty.

 

Returned the memory modules to the store where they tested them in a PC and confirmed that indeed they were duff. They promptly gave me a refund on the spot, then repacked the faulty memory back in their original boxes and put them straight back on the shelf for sale!

[Darcula]

Since this "largest online seller" is now partly owned by a Chinese company, expect more and more such cases.

[clokwise]

When I wanted to purchase SD cards from Lazada recently I noticed a surprising number of them had 1 star reviews and short reviews in Thai, basically all saying "FAKE". Ended up buying SD cards from Lazada anyway, but from the "Official SanDisk Store" in Lazada. They cost a fair but more but they were genuine.

[dddave]

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

Were they especially cheaper than you would expect them to be?

 

Yes they were, especially considering they were a "Premium" line of cards. 

I admit I sometimes get a bit too focused on finding the lowest price for an item, letting common sense taking a back seat.    

[dddave]

57 minutes ago, Darcula said:

Since this "largest online seller" is now partly owned by a Chinese company, expect more and more such cases.

It was just announced this past week that Alibaba now holds 86% of that seller and just replaced the CEO with one of their own.

[logres212]

21 hours ago, ArnonK said:

There a lot of Kingston Flash Memory Cards out there to be counterfeit. 

 

Here in Thailand, it's easy to see if a Kingston Flash Memory is counterfeit. Here is a typical cover of a counterfeit Kingston Flash Card:

 

All of the sellers of Kingston Flash Card, having Stickers or printed Logos of the Company on the Flash Card covers, and if those are failed, that's counterfeit stuff. Beside of that, the Read/Write speed of those counterfeit Flash Cards is Class 2 or 4, never Class 10!  

 

And here is a link to the app: http://www.heise.de/ct/Redaktion/bo/downloads/h2testw_1.4.zip

I bought 3 Kingston 64gb cards on Lazada, all fake only about 8gb available. Purchased 64gb SanDisk fulfilled by Lazada no problems. So I think that's the way to go. Certainly give those memory sticks , 1TB & 2TB, I've seen for sale a big miss obviously fake.

[ICECOOL]

Did you contact L? You will get your money back if it's fake. 

[peterrabbit]

Ever since the Chinese became involved with 'Thailand's largest Online Store' I have had countless Fake or misrepresented goods including SD cards.

I now don't use them any more, except as a source of information for pricing, and then source locally.

[Lee4Life]

I think I have run into a few counterfeit Kingston micro sd cards, the packaging appeared to be real to me but the cards were unusable, when I looked more closely at the cards I noticed they were the only cards in the batch that had a little hologram type logo sticker on them that said "Kingston", the good cards were sticker free.. They were purchased at a retailer in Chiang Mai and we live in Nong Khai so I just wrote them off.

[metisdead]

A troll post has been removed.

[jacko45k]

4 hours ago, dddave said:

Yes they were, especially considering they were a "Premium" line of cards. 

I admit I sometimes get a bit too focused on finding the lowest price for an item, letting common sense taking a back seat.    

Well although I don't really want to be 'smarmy', but the old adage about it being too good to be true comes to mind,

Thanks for the heads up!

[katana]

I've started getting a few fake SD cards on Ebay too so always check them with H2testW now. The packaging can look quite convincing. Unfortunately H2testW can take 2-3 hours to run on a 64GB card but was the only software I found to be reliable. All the others were buggy.

Funnily enough, the ones I've bought on Ebay loose, already removed from their packaging, which you might expect to be fake, have all been ok.

[sandyf]

23 hours ago, dddave said:

Yes they were, especially considering they were a "Premium" line of cards. 

I admit I sometimes get a bit too focused on finding the lowest price for an item, letting common sense taking a back seat.    

I think that we are all guilty of that. I bought 4 by 32Gb, 2 Kingston and 2 Sandisk, from the well known online supplier and I am fairly sure they were all counterfeit. They all failed fairly quickly in 2 separate android devices. Three were total write off but I managed to recover one by reformatting it. Just use that for some music and video in my phone so no big deal if it does pack up.

[dddave]

23 hours ago, ICECOOL said:

Did you contact L? You will get your money back if it's fake. 

I did with the Samsung Evo's and they granted the refund after I sent them photo evidence.

Didn't bother with cards I purchased in the past as I can't be 100% sure which cards were purchased where.

[dddave]

9 hours ago, katana said:

I've started getting a few fake SD cards on Ebay too so always check them with H2testW now.

Most of the YouTube videos on counterfeit memory cards, USB drives and SSD's say the phony media was purchased on E-Bay so it seems to be a common problem.

[Beachcomber]

Why would anyone buy this stuff from a dubious Chinese source when there is a local dealer, who also incidentally is a sponsor on this site, where you know the product is genuine.

 

http://www.invadeit.co.th/category/memory-cards/

 

  

[MW72]

I bought 2 sandisks from the same retailer. Both fakes. Stuck them in my dji spark and it told me the write speed was too slow. These were supposed to have a faster write speed than the current card i use with no problem.

 

It was a 3rd party seller whose name is almost identical to the websites name. Didn't spot at the time that it was not a direct sale.

[samsensam]

 

buy from reputable retailers/we sites; ones that have genuine, positive feedback, and use sites that have robust resolution procedures should you be mis-sold an item.

 

if something sounds too good to be true it probably is...

[PoorSucker]

Also returned two cards the other day, they did not even want them back,full refund though.