Would you use counterfeit RAM modules?

[BenStark]

I just received PC RAM modules from the usual suspects online, and they are counterfeit.

 

In fact, I knew before even ordering them that they were counterfeit, as I went through the reviews and found plenty of evidence.

 

The only reason I ordered them is that I wanted to see with my own eyes how good copies they are, and then report the seller for counterfeit when I send them back.

 

And yes they are real good copies these days, and most people don't know it, which is evidenced by the hundreds of 5 star reviews the listings get.

 

The package is identical to original, and eyeballing them and comparing to the real thing, doesn't show any difference.

 

Inserting them in the PC and running CPU-Z or other software, shows it is the real thing again. Correct specs, manufacturer correct, chip manufacturer correct.

RAM tests give also positive results.

 

I have looked at Youtubes about how to find the counterfeits, and what is shown there is a different quality of what I received.

 

The only way I could detect it, other that there is no Synnex or other warranty provider sticker, is by scanning the QR code on the module.

 

This results is a completely different RAM module from the same manufacturer. The QR code on the packaging label is completely different by the way, and takes you to Sh**ee and Laz**a.

 

So that brings me to the question.

 

Since they are these days capable of making near perfect counterfeits, who says that the chips are not of near same quality?

 

So would you use them, knowing they are counterfeit, but at half the price

[tgw]

you will find that these modules are even cheaper when they are not used to counterfeit brand products.

just the regular no-name ram modules.

you say half the price, maybe you could have them for 30% of the brand name price.

 

run a memtest for your specs and you are good to go.

[KannikaP]

8 minutes ago, BenStark said:

The QR code on the packaging label is completely different by the way, and takes you to Sh**ee and Laz**a.

Does that not suggest that both these companies KNOW they are fakes, but still have them on their sites?

[tgw]

11 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Does that not suggest that both these companies KNOW they are fakes, but still have them on their sites?

no

[tgw]

23 minutes ago, BenStark said:

I just received PC RAM modules from the usual suspects online, and they are counterfeit.

 

BTW, you most probably didn't receive anything from "the usual suspects". You received the wares from merchants advertising their business on the usual suspects' platforms.

[Celsius]

Can you post the link of the store you bought them from?

 

I need me some fake counterfeits 

Edited January 16 by Celsius

[KhunLA]

RAM & memory are too inexpensive to buy fakes.   Why would you ?  Just deal with the manufacturer or authorized resellers.

[OneMoreFarang]

Do you want a reliable computer? Then I would only use brand name parts.

 

If you use a PC for facebook, or watching videos, or anything else where you don't care if the computer crashes or malfunctions, then you can use anything. But what would be the point? Saving 50B or what? 

[connda]

No.

[recom273]

I have a couple of 8 drive PCIe card labelled LSI and Dell, they don't make them any longer and you can pay a lot for an second hand original  - They can be flashed into IT mode, the same as the original cards can. I think most home server guys run these counterfeit cards. They haven't let me down yet. As you say, these days. components can be manufactured the same or as near to the original for a fraction of the price of a used card.

 

Would I use conterfeit RAM? probably not.

Edited January 16 by recom273

[BenStark]

1 hour ago, tgw said:

2 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Does that not suggest that both these companies KNOW they are fakes, but still have them on their sites?

no

 

Yes they do, I have provided evidence of counterfeit items multiple times to them, and nothing happens. They just play a game of we take feedback serious, then a few days later you get an email with the request to report it again, and so on.

Months later the same sellers are still selling the same counterfeit items.

 

By the way, more than 50% of SSD's and RAM listed on those platforms is counterfeit, and then I know only about those that have the evidence in the customer reviews.

[BenStark]

2 hours ago, tgw said:

you will find that these modules are even cheaper when they are not used to counterfeit brand products.

just the regular no-name ram modules.

you say half the price, maybe you could have them for 30% of the brand name price.

 

run a memtest for your specs and you are good to go.

 

The item I'm talking about in this case is Kingston RAM. When you run CPU-Z it will show manufacturer and Chip producer as Kingston.

 

So how would i know which chips are actually used?

 

And more important, how would i know they are decent quality. Running a MEM test is no guarantee that they will work properly for an extended period.

Edited January 16 by BenStark

[novacova]

Run the software to show the deficiencies of the chips, take photos and videos of the process, take hi-rez photos of the ram modules with stickers removed. Send the photos to lazada and get a refund.

[tgw]

22 minutes ago, BenStark said:

 

Yes they do, I have provided evidence of counterfeit items multiple times to them, and nothing happens. They just play a game of we take feedback serious, then a few days later you get an email with the request to report it again, and so on.

Months later the same sellers are still selling the same counterfeit items.

 

By the way, more than 50% of SSD's and RAM listed on those platforms is counterfeit, and then I know only about those that have the evidence in the customer reviews.

 

neither you telling them nor customer reviews are evidence.

it would take significant time and effort for these platforms to establish these claims. then they do what ? exclude one or a handful of sellers ?

how many new sellers do you think could register on the platform in the meanwhile ?

and how would the platform benefit from excluding these sellers ?

it's just a non-starter.

no, you won't find brand name RAM at a fraction of the price.

 

just order from JIB or invadeit if you want brand name..

[BenStark]

9 minutes ago, novacova said:

Run the software to show the deficiencies of the chips, take photos and videos of the process, take hi-rez photos of the ram modules with stickers removed. Send the photos to lazada and get a refund.

 

Getting a refund is not a problem, thought that was obvious from the OP, but the software tests don't show deficiencies, neither does it show that it isn't the brand that you ordered. 

 

The topic is, if they are so skilled in making perfect copies, could it actually maybe stolen or fallen from the truck original stuff?

[tgw]

26 minutes ago, BenStark said:

The item I'm talking about in this case is Kingston RAM. When you run CPU-Z it will show manufacturer and Chip producer as Kingston.

 

So how would i know which chips are actually used?

 

And more important, how would i know they are decent quality. Running a MEM test is no guarantee that they will work properly for an extended period.

 

as far as RAM is concerned, once a memtest has been run without errors, it's pretty much safe to assume that the RAM won't have any problems in future, I only once had a case where a RAM module "became bad".

there are several programs to test RAM, serious tests can run for several hours.

 

it's not really relevant which chips are used, the important thing is if they perform at the required spec: frequency, voltage, bandwidth

[BenStark]

2 minutes ago, tgw said:

neither you telling them nor customer reviews are evidence.

it would take significant time and effort for these platforms to establish these claims.

 

So entering the serial number on the manufacturer website, and been told that that serial doesn't belong to that product isn't sufficient evidence?

 

It would be easy for them to weed out the fakes by just creating an algorithm that detects when an item is offered at 50% of the market price.

 

 

[tgw]

12 minutes ago, BenStark said:

 

Getting a refund is not a problem, thought that was obvious from the OP, but the software tests don't show deficiencies, neither does it show that it isn't the brand that you ordered. 

 

The topic is, if they are so skilled in making perfect copies, could it actually maybe stolen or fallen from the truck original stuff?

 

it's an open secret that many factories subcontracting for brand names produce more of the stuff than their customers will buy and will re-sell their production under a different name, but the product is the same.

 

the quality is a crapshoot though, because these moonlight products won't have the same quality control, and might even contain rejects.

Edited January 16 by tgw

[tgw]

1 minute ago, BenStark said:

So entering the serial number on the manufacturer website, and been told that that serial doesn't belong to that product isn't sufficient evidence?

 

It would be easy for them to weed out the fakes by just creating an algorithm that detects when an item is offered at 50% of the market price.

 

so you mean every seller would have to send their RAM modules to the platform so the platform can read out the serial number from the chip and then check it against the brand's lists ?

the problem lies in how the information can be reliably collected.

[novacova]

4 minutes ago, BenStark said:

 

Getting a refund is not a problem, thought that was obvious from the OP, but the software tests don't show deficiencies, neither does it show that it isn't the brand that you ordered. 

 

The topic is, if they are so skilled in making perfect copies, could it actually maybe stolen or fallen from the truck original stuff?

Counterfeit can be flashed with oem but will be deficient. Common practice modules are taken out of the factories and sold. Looks like you got lucky given that crapshoot.

[BenStark]

Just now, tgw said:

 

so you mean every seller would have to send their RAM modules to the platform so the platform can read out the serial number from the chip and then check it against the brand's lists ?

the problem lies in how the information can be reliably collected.

 

Maybe you should try not to twist my words.

 

If I send them proof that the serial number is not correct, then they have their evidence and there is no doubt anymore.

 

Creating an algorithm that detects when a new WD Blue 1TB SSD is offered at 900 baht, would also be sufficient evidence that a counterfeit is offered

[tgw]

6 minutes ago, BenStark said:

 

Maybe you should try not to twist my words.

 

If I send them proof that the serial number is not correct, then they have their evidence and there is no doubt anymore.

 

Creating an algorithm that detects when a new WD Blue 1TB SSD is offered at 900 baht, would also be sufficient evidence that a counterfeit is offered

 

the problem is, they can't rely on you to provide "evidence".

they would have to read out the serial number themselves, they can't just accept screenshots or whatever customers would send them, otherwise any shop could be knocked off any platform by competitors submitting false reports.

 

and regarding "usual prices", a platform can't be expected to know which price products should sell at. maybe the WD blue SSD has a SATA interface and the shop wants to get rid of its last 3 ?

it's not the place of a platform to meddle in commercial offers of what could very well be 1 million different products.

 

Edited January 16 by tgw

[BenStark]

5 minutes ago, novacova said:

Counterfeit can be flashed with oem but will be deficient. Common practice modules are taken out of the factories and sold. Looks like you got lucky given that crapshoot.

 

What you mean I got lucky?

 

I knew what to expect from the beginning, as I had checked QR codes from pictures posted by other customers, so I knew they were fakes. So I also knew it would be no problem to get a refund

 

I only wanted to know how perfect they were, and yes they were perfect.

 

I had looked at several youtubes on how to detect before, and these were really perfect compared to what was shown in the youtubes.

[BenStark]

1 minute ago, tgw said:

maybe the WD blue SSD has a SATA interface and the shop wants to get rid of its last 3 ?

 

I'm talking about a WD Blue SATA, not an M2, and they are not a discontinued item.

 

The price at the official stores are about 2500 Baht for a 1TB version, yet there are loads and loads offered on those site for less than 1000 baht

[NorthernRyland]

Installing takes time and is annoying so if they fail you're gonna have to take them out and waste time. Not worth it IMO.

[tgw]

12 minutes ago, BenStark said:

 

I'm talking about a WD Blue SATA, not an M2, and they are not a discontinued item.

 

The price at the official stores are about 2500 Baht for a 1TB version, yet there are loads and loads offered on those site for less than 1000 baht

 

Only one for 999 THB and "no warranty"

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/pc-accessories-500gb-1tb-ssd-sd-wd-blue-sata-wds500g2b0a-3d-nand-i4735693063-s19531283727.html?

hahaha

 

they mostly use the product options trick to display the price of smaller units when you search for 1TB, get the price for 500GB or 250GB.

on shopee they all have normal prices, and the rest of lazada was in line with expectations as well.

 

 

 

Edited January 16 by tgw

[GammaGlobulin]

No.

I would not.

What would be the purpose of using fake RAM?

What would be the benefit?

I use a computer for many years.

I buy 16 GB of RAM, and use it for 10 years.

I buy the best I can afford, and it lasts, and has never failed.

Therefore, it would not be cost effective for me to buy fake RAM.

 

But this time around, I think I will get two sticks of 16GB RAM.

And, I will have no need to get the fastest RAM, either.

So, IMHO, RAM is a true bargain for what one gets.

No need to shirk by buying less than genuine.

 

 

[BenStark]

4 minutes ago, tgw said:

 

Only one for 999 THB and "no warranty"

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/pc-accessories-500gb-1tb-ssd-sd-wd-blue-sata-wds500g2b0a-3d-nand-i4735693063-s19531283727.html?

hahaha

 

they mostly use the product options trick to display the price of smaller units when you search for 1TB, get the price for 500GB.

on shopee they all have normal prices, and the rest of lazada was in line with expectations as well.

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder why you try to defend those platforms, because i can show within 2 minutes at least TEN listings that are NOT the normal price.

 

In fact all those listed by China sellers are at those prices

[BenStark]

5 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

What would be the purpose of using fake RAM?

What would be the benefit?

I use a computer for many years.

I buy 16 GB of RAM, and use it for 10 years.

I buy the best I can afford, and it lasts, and has never failed.

 

Well who say those fakes will fail?

 

I have read a bit up on that subject over the past few days, and it turns out that RAM is something which rarely fails, and that is also the reason why those companies give life time warranties on RAM.

 

You will not find similar warranties on other IT hardware, like SSD or USB sticks, produced by the same companies

[tgw]

1 minute ago, BenStark said:

I wonder why you try to defend those platforms, because i can show within 2 minutes at least TEN listings that are NOT the normal price.

 

In fact all those listed by China sellers are at those prices

 

I'm bored with a headache.

I attached the reason why I'm posting (first picture).

 

And maybe yes, you can show me all offers below 1000 baht for WD BLUE 1TB SATA SSD on Lazada or Shopee.

 

I did two searches already.

On Laz, all these 1099 baht offers are for 250GB. 1TB is around 2000 baht. a normal price.