# Fake SD cards



## AsRock (Jan 29, 2017)

Well i came across a video accidentally which is over a year old now, how ever thought might make some more aware.

The guy in the video goes on about how crafty they have gotten, including false size and near perfect looks to what your supposed to get.  He goes on about a program that you can use how ever goes on about how easy it is to get a virus infected version.

How ever going by the video testing the wright speed and filling the card should allow you to tell if it's fake or not by checking how much data is on it.

Here's the video and i am sure some are already aware of this but thought i would make a post on it anyways.











newtekie1 thought this was worth adding that it's not just limited too just these cards, tbh i am not surprised really.


newtekie1 said:


> Also be warned, and it might be worth adding to the OP, there are plenty of USB Flash drives that are faked in the same way.  I pretty much assume all flash media, USB or SD, off ebay are fake.  And any from a 3rd party seller on Amazon or Newegg.
> 
> I buy only from Newegg directly.


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## micropage7 (Jan 29, 2017)

i got one. personally i feel its getting harder to say which one is fake without testing it
now i switch to local brand since its safer


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## newtekie1 (Jan 29, 2017)

I ordered a 256GB off ebay that was too good to be true, and I figured it was a fake before I ordered it.  I just bought it for fun, I got my money back through ebay anyway.

Also be warned, and it might be worth adding to the OP, there are plenty of USB Flash drives that are faked in the same way.  I pretty much assume all flash media, USB or SD, off ebay are fake.  And any from a 3rd party seller on Amazon or Newegg.

I buy only from Newegg directly.


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## micropage7 (Jan 29, 2017)

newtekie1 said:


> I ordered a 256GB off ebay that was too good to be true, and I figured it was a fake before I ordered it.  I just bought it for fun, I got my money back through ebay anyway.
> 
> Also be warned, and it might be worth adding to the OP, there are plenty of USB Flash drives that are faked in the same way.


fake usb flash drives are kinda easier to spot, from material, the color and of course money cant lie


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## newtekie1 (Jan 29, 2017)

micropage7 said:


> fake usb flash drives are kinda easier to spot, from material, the color and of course money cant lie



You'd be surprised, I've seen some really good quality fakes.


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## AsRock (Jan 29, 2017)

newtekie1 said:


> You'd be surprised, I've seen some really good quality fakes.



Talking of which it s not limited too memory cards either, been kinda worried buying one due to this.









But when talking memory card read wright speed will be a give away.

EDIT: How long is it going be until it happens to Newegg as seen it's not US based now.


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## micropage7 (Jan 29, 2017)

newtekie1 said:


> You'd be surprised, I've seen some really good quality fakes.


haha in here so far i can find its easy to separate which one is fake and which one that not
just few that really well made
mostly well known brands that get faked


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## newtekie1 (Jan 29, 2017)

AsRock said:


> EDIT: How long is it going be until it happens to Newegg as seen it's not US based now.



I think there needs to be some clarification on how things like that work.  They are still US based.  The company's headquarters is still in the US, they still operate as a US company.  However, the majority of their shares are owned by a Chinese company.



micropage7 said:


> haha in here so far i can find its easy to separate which one is fake and which one that not
> just few that really well made
> mostly well known brands that get faked



I know when Corsair's GTX and GS drives hit the market, there was a huge problem with fakes on the ebay market.  Somehow they had made a near identical copy of the case for the flash drive.  I'm guessing an original mold for the casing "got lost" from the factory and the counterfeiters were probably using an original mold.  It's pretty common over in the Asian manufacturing countries for original molds to "get lost" and end up in counterfeiters hands.  Anyway, they were producing essentially genuine cases, the only real way to tell was the plastic was slightly different, but if you've never had an original you'd never know.  Then they were putting 8GB or 16GB flash drives in them and selling them at 128GB Corsair GTX/GS drives.  Then, when the price of 128GB flash drives came down, they just stuck 128GB drives in the cases, that way the capacity was right, and tools to detect fake drives would detect the proper 128GB, but the drives were slow garbage compared to a real GTX/GS drive.


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## AsRock (Jan 29, 2017)

True but i cannot help to loose a little faith as some of these scams work from the US too and then have them shipped in, although you will not waiting 2-4 weeks for your item(s) but still.


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## Jetster (Jan 29, 2017)

I better check mine I've bought a bunch


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## silentbogo (Jan 29, 2017)

AsRock said:


> True but i cannot help to loose a little faith as some of these scams work from the US too and then have them shipped in, although you will not waiting 2-4 weeks for your item(s) but still.


International delivery is not that slow, as it used to be.
I used to order parts from DealExtreme (now simply DX) about 4-5 years ago, and it only took ~3-4 business days to get it to my stepdad in US.
For Eastern Europe it's usually in the ballpark of 2-3 weeks, but my last paid shipment of ICs (only $3.00 or something like that) took less than a week for two separate stores! That's with scheduled delivery to my doorstep...
Most of that time is spent on clearing customs. The actual shipping process takes ~3 days, if you live in the urban area.

So, it is quite possible that Chinese are responsible for all fakes/knockoffs in the world 
Like fake Kingston RAM and SSDs, indistinguishable from the real ones. Or crappy fakes of already mediocre chinese phones (khm.. Meizu, Xiaomi etc.)


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## jboydgolfer (Jan 29, 2017)

I still cannot grasp why anybody would use eBay anymore. Even if things come at a cheaper price it's either used or overly priced crap. And when it is new and cheap there's a like  80% chance you're buying fake merchandise.  Or at least  miss represented   Merchandise.

 I  used to do a lot of selling on eBay, even before it became popular for deadbeats and unemployed people to start selling their crap. After dealing with a few buyers who were obviously scamming and having eBay side with them every time , regardless of mountains of proof in my favor. I decided then to discontinue doing business on eBay , to continue was only asking for trouble.

 Now in the year 2017 if you're still purchasing from eBay you at least have SOME(aka 100%) knowledge that scammers exist heavily on the site in which case you're playing with fire and you're going to get burned, frankly you deserve it if you're willing to play with it accept the consequences .i'm certainly not saying people deserve to get ripped off but if you're buying from the Shady site you should expect. And certainly shouldn't be surprised when it happens, or cry about it.( i'm not saying anyone is crying here particularly )


 The sooner all the people who still use eBay stop using eBay it'll disappear, then no one else can get effed over by it .

 And please save your  text, I know people CAN get good deals on eBay but you could also have sex with strangers and not get HIV, but that's not the point is it?


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## alucasa (Jan 29, 2017)

It's possible that the CPU I bought on Ebay is fake. It's an E5-2683v3. The retail price for it is 1850 USD. On ebay, it's o sale for 350 USD.

CPUz and HWinfo both say it's no ES. Cinebench scores add up to the real thing, and I've been using it to render pretty much every day for months now.

Would the Chinese be able to produce fake but properly functioning high-end Xeon chips?


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## blobster21 (Jan 29, 2017)

I bought a so called samsung evo 64Gb class10 micro SD back in july 2015.

Bought it 23€ from an amazon retailer called "Memory city "

It turned out to be a scam, the card generated too much heat and the paint coating wear off after several demanding transfers.


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## rtwjunkie (Jan 29, 2017)

jboydgolfer said:


> I still cannot grasp why anybody would use eBay anymore. Even if things come at a cheaper price it's either used or overly priced crap. And when it is new and cheap there's a like  80% chance you're buying fake merchandise.  Or at least  miss represented   Merchandise.
> 
> I  used to do a lot of selling on eBay, even before it became popular for deadbeats and unemployed people to start selling their crap. After dealing with a few buyers who were obviously scamming and having eBay side with them every time , regardless of mountains of proof in my favor. I decided then to discontinue doing business on eBay , to continue was only asking for trouble.
> 
> ...



Damn did, you woke up on the wrong side of the eBay bed? 

Anywho, you have a point with obviously underpriced new stuff.  Steer clear.

With used, well what's wrong with used? You make it sound like a bad thing.  Hell we all do that here on TPU.

Far from the occasional good deal, everything I ever got on eBay has been standup and continued to work well from a long time, from CPU's to motherboards, RAM, GPU's, and even HDD's. 

It's a matter of due diligence reading up on the seller, looking at real pics of the item and reading descriptions thoroughly, and asking whatever questions you need to of the seller.


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## alucasa (Jan 29, 2017)

Come on. Asking people to do due diligence is like pulling teeth nowadays.

What people of today do =>

Spot a too-good-to-be-true deal.

Pull trigger ASAP in fear of it being out of stock.

Get the item.

Complain on Twitter/Facebook.

Rinse and repeat. Leaning from mistakes is so inhumane.


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## rtwjunkie (Jan 29, 2017)

alucasa said:


> Come on. Asking people to do due diligence is like pulling teeth nowadays.
> 
> What people of today do =>
> 
> ...



I guess everyone is not as careful with their money as I.

I work too hard to give my money away to thieves and con artists.


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## alucasa (Jan 29, 2017)

Many don't care as it's their parents' money down the drain.

Few days ago, I saw a teen with a gold Mastercard buying a 1080.


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## silentbogo (Jan 29, 2017)

rtwjunkie said:


> I guess everyone is not as careful with their money as I.
> 
> I work too hard to give my money away to thieves and con artists.


I almost lost my hope for humanity and civilization, when I stumbled upon some idiot on Youtube, who for the sake of questionable curiosity ordered a presumably fake GTX960 from a chinese store just to prove the point that it's fake (e.g. make a GPU-z screenshot and post a video).
$99 for a Choo-Choo the Train rebranded GTX560Ti, which only worked in an old C2Q system


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## alucasa (Jan 29, 2017)

silentbogo said:


> I almost lost my hope for humanity and civilization, when I stumbled upon some idiot on Youtube, who for the sake of questionable curiosity ordered a presumably fake GTX960 from a chinese store just to prove the point that it's fake (e.g. make a GPU-z screenshot and post a video).
> $99 for a Choo-Choo the Train rebranded GTX560Ti, which only worked in an old C2Q system



Well, I could defend his action on that. One can earn money off ads on Youbue, so some investment is required for a guy to start off earning fame. Some people are earning thousands a month off their youtube channels.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 29, 2017)

alucasa said:


> Well, I could defend his action on that. One can earn money off ads on Youbue, so some investment is required for a guy to start off earning fame. Some people are earning thousands a month off their youtube channels.



Mostly women getting their bangers out while playing games though no doubt


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## silentbogo (Jan 29, 2017)

alucasa said:


> Well, I could defend his action on that. One can earn money off ads on Youbue, so some investment is required for a guy to start off earning fame. Some people are earning thousands a month off their youtube channels.


Maybe, but for me it is pointless, as it holds no intellectual value. Just like most of the stuff on Youtube, like adults re-doing middle school science projects, or doing unboxing videos.
It would've been more tolerable, if it at least contained some warnings about fakes, but it was a simple "conventional" review of GTX960CE (_china edition_), which may misguide unknowing buyers into thinking that this is some "cutdown" version of the actual 960, and not an outright fake.


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## alucasa (Jan 29, 2017)

Clickbait title & thumbnail as well as being pointless are the ways of Youtube.

It's full of fakenews also.

Humanity is going down, dude.


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## RejZoR (Jan 30, 2017)

*Still useful tool to spot fake storage devices:*
https://rejzor.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/how-to-spot-fake-memory-cards-or-usb-drives/

It won't protect you from fakes, you'll just be able to know for sure it's a fake and demand a refund or something...


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## AsRock (Jan 30, 2017)

Nice, looks like the program that the guy was on about in the video i posted, i don't have any fakes to try but thinking just copying the data to the card to fill it and then taking the data of it and seeing how much actually fitted on it would do the same thing.

Then the read\wright speeds going be a giveaway too.


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## RejZoR (Jan 30, 2017)

Actually it's filling in with data for which it knows the hashes, so, as it reads it back, it needs to get same hash. If the returned hash isn't the same, it means the controller on fake USB drive was just rewriting same data over itself, returning wrong hashes.


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## AsRock (Jan 30, 2017)

RejZoR said:


> Actually it's filling in with data for which it knows the hashes, so, as it reads it back, it needs to get same hash. If the returned hash isn't the same, it means the controller on fake USB drive was just rewriting same data over itself, returning wrong hashes.



And what i am saying if it's a 128GB SD card copying that much data to it and then copying it back from the device should have the correct amount of data copied back.


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## RejZoR (Jan 30, 2017)

In theory you could fake even that. You need to actually verify content to be sure.


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## silkstone (Jan 30, 2017)

Testing a class 10 Lexar drive I got from a 'reputable' shop here. 4.66 MB/s transfer speeds, it's not looking good.
Mind you I am testing it via my Yi connected through USB2.

I have another to test from a big electronics superstore as well.


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## RejZoR (Jan 30, 2017)

Be aware that speed ratings in MB/s usually specify read speed unless stated otherwise...


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## NviGate Systems (Feb 15, 2017)

I've never personally bought a fake storage card, but know people who have. At work (PC Shop) many years ago a guy came in with a fake 512GB USB Flash drive he got off eBay and was trying to get us to write a letter to show eBay it was a fake. 

You see lots of those listings still. Some have disclaimers now saying the capacity may be different, or they say what the real capacity is, same as click bait.

If I need storage, I buy direct from Amazon (as in Sold & Fulfilled by Amazon) or from the local Best Buy, or at work if we got a good deal from one of the vendors. I still get a few things from eBay like Capacitors etc. A guy on there buys bulk from Mouser then relists in small quantities. Works good for him and for folks like me who don't want to order $50 worth of caps then pay $40 in UPS shipping.  

I also buy decommissioned enterprise goods from a guy in Calgary who buys from auction and lists them. Got good prices on a few things. It's hit and miss really.


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## micropage7 (Feb 15, 2017)

sometimes its not fake but bad quality
i have several cards that i believe its genuine but since the brand well known for 'like that' quality control it aint surprise me


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## NviGate Systems (Feb 16, 2017)

There are sellers who have access to cards that were rejected by QA, and they sell them. Same goes for CPU's RAM etc. It's quite the market for those items.


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