BEWARE of FAKE 1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB USB Flash Drives on eBay
A very high percentage of all 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB USB Flash Drives listed on eBay are counterfeit items and have fake & overstated capacities. No Name 16GB and 32GB USB Flash Drives are mostly FAKE.
They were reprogrammed from much smaller cousins 512MB, 1GB, 2GB capacity drives for quick profit!
Don't be foolish thinking you got a "CHEAP 4GB / 8GB / 16GB / 32GB" deal, in fact you were paying for a "VERY EXPENSIVE 1GB / 2GB" hacked sticks. The sellers are laughing their way to the bank!
Most of the well-known branded counterfeits even have brand new packaging, serial numbers like a real mccoy.
COMMON counterfeit brands found flooding on eBay are:-
SanDisk - Cruzer Mini (SDCZ2) or Cruzer Micro (SDCZ4).
- Most fake SanDisk display the capacity as 'G' instead of 'GB' on the item and packaging.
FAKE SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash Drives Exposed
FAKE SanDisk Extreme Compact Flash Cards Exposed
FAKE SanDisk Ultra Compact Flash Cards Exposed
FAKE SanDisk Ultra Secure Digital Cards Exposed
Sony - Micro Vault.
- Counterfeit Sony Micro Vault does not bundle with software such as 'Virtual Expander'.
- Most fake Sony display the capacity as 'G' instead of 'GB' on the item and packaging.
- All Sony Vaio USB Flash drives available on eBay are counterfeit as 'Vaio' refers to Sony proprietary branding reserve for Sony notebook series only.
- All Sony 16GB USB Flash drives on eBay are also counterfeit.
FAKE Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo MagicGate Cards Exposed
FAKE Sony Micro Vault USB Flash Drives (Exposing soon!!!)
Kingston - Data Traveller I & II.
- Counterfeit Kingston does not bundle with software such as 'Migo'.
- A well-known counterfeit Kingston Data Traveller with an identical serial number appearing across all 4GB (white body with black handle) and 8GB (white body with orange handle) versions at the back of its retail packaging, SN: TCO7773-00156959, LK: A510M1D-5380562U. On the side of the item it may have some small printing showing 'DTI', 'KF08 1 9 0 5 5V' and '5262-014.AOOLF CHINA'.
- All Kingston 16GB USB Flash drives on eBay are counterfeit.
Imation - Swivel & Mini.
- Counterfeit Imation does not bundle with software such as 'Imation Flash Manager'.
BenQ, Dane-Elec, Hyundai, Laser, LG, Toshiba, Transcend, TwinMOS.
No Name or Unpopular Brand.
A very high percentage of the counterfeit flash memories are using Hyperstone and iCreate memory controllers, instead of the original manufacturer's own memory controller!
How to tell if your USB drive is counterfeit and has fake oversize capacity?
The fake will deceive you by displaying the 'false/oversize' capacity when you connect it to your PC, however they will NOT be able to store the data to the stated capacity.
So you MUST perform data test by writing a BIG (1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB) file to the usb drive, then READ back the same file from the usb drive to another location on your PC to compare. The READ back process is the only proven way to uncover its 'REAL' capacity.
A genuine USB flash drive will complete data transfer of a single 1GB file anywhere from 50 to 180 seconds writing to. Usually the writing time is twice as long as the reading time.
The fake will take an excessively long time (1 to 7 hours) only 'pretending' writing but the data was not actually being written. Hence when you try to read it back, it will claim data as being CORRUPT. Many have reported that many strange files/folders eg. 00000.000 will appear and you cannot delete them.
The fake flash drives are usually shipped out from ASIA especially from China, Hong Kong, Korea or Singapore, and they are also listed on Australian, UK, USA and European's eBay.
The counterfeit model cannot be located or matched with any genuine models on the manufacturer's web site.
Counterfeit 'USB Flash Drive / Compact Flash / Secure Digital / Memory Stick' are flooding the eBay market at very low Buy-It-Now (too good to be true) price to make you think is an absolute BARGAIN.
Here is a BIG list of picture collection of all notorious counterfeit USB drives with fake 1GB to 8GB capacities. Hope this helps everyone to identify and avoid buying them!
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FAKE SanDisk Ultra Compact Flash Cards Exposed
Since many have not seen genuine production SanDisk unit and counterfeit is now made to appear like 80% genuine, it is indeed difficult for most people to tell them apart. From the pictures submitted by eBayers all over the world, we are exposing the physical difference in the counterfeit which you can benefit from whether you intend to purchase one or make comparison with your own. Beware of sellers that are using original SanDisk web download pictures to sell counterfeit SanDisk as they do not represent the actual item that you will receive!
This article covers all SanDisk Ultra II 512MB (SDCFH-512), 1.0GB (SDCFH-1024), 2.0GB (SDCFH-2048), 4.0GB (SDCFH-4096) and 8.0GB (SDCFH-8192) models.
For other flash memory product
FAKE SanDisk Extreme Compact Flash Cards Exposed
FAKE SanDisk Ultra Secure Digital Cards Exposed
FAKE SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash Drives Exposed
FAKE Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo MagicGate Cards Exposed
Clue #1 Reveal Manufacturer's Part Number using PCMCIA CF Card Adapter (Cannot use USB Card Reader)
You can use any PCMCIA CF Card Adapter to reveal its true manufacturer's code property inside the CF card. The common USB Card Reader will NOT be able to reveal this information.
A Lexar 32-bit CardBus Reader was used to identify the manufacturer part number of the two 4GB CF cards under the test, using standard Windows XP or Vista's "Device Manager" or using the "Safely Remove Hardware" process on Windows taskbar.
Genuine SanDisk CF, will display as "SanDisk SDCFH-.... SCSI Disk Device" for SanDisk Ultra CF range, "SanDisk SDCFX-.... SCSI Disk Device" for SanDisk Extreme CF range. Substitute "...." with the actual capacity of your card in MB. So a genuine SanDisk 4GB Ultra CF will display as "SanDisk SDCFH-4096 SCSI Disk Device".
Fake SanDisk CF will display as other incorrect part number. One such fake CF displays as "TRANSCEND SCSI Disk Device" instead, clearly a rebadged CF from Transcend CF card.
Why REBADGING? The answer is HIGH PROFIT. The market price of corresponding 33X or 45X speed Transcend, A-Data or NoName OEM CF cards with different internal electronics components are clearly way less than half the price of the similar speed SanDisk. Double or triple the original selling price is achievable by simply rebadging them to become the 66X speed SanDisk Ultra II CF, when most buyers have no idea the CF card they have received is simply a rebadged fake SanDisk Ultra II card. So you must always check your cards!
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GENUINE - COUNTERFEIT
Clue #2 Front view
Genuine has 4 round metal corners inside the black plastic housing. Fake has 2 sharper top corners and 2 rounder bottom corners. Some fakes have the front label as upside down.
Genuine has thick black plastic housing at bottom edge and are in consistent with side edges as well. Fake is way too thin at bottom edge and thicker at side edges, resulting in overall larger internal metal surface area. Another fake variant has non-straight metal edge on the left and right hand side of the card as shown.
Genuine has shinny aluminum surface with brushed horizontal pattern. Fake has matt/dull stainless-steel surface with no pattern.
For 4.0GB card, genuine has a wider font face on the '4' digit. Fake is bolder.
Genuine uses print ready/control vector art technique to print the label. Fake uses inferior hi-res bitmap to copy the genuine label, so zoom in a bit to see the printing flaw.
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Genuine - Counterfeit
Clue #3 Back view
Genuine has 4 round metal corners inside the black plastic housing. Fake has 2 sharp top corners and 2 round bottom corners. Some fakes have the back label as upside down.
Genuine has thick black plastic housing at bottom edge and are in consistent with side edges as well. Fake is way too thin at bottom edge and thicker at side edges, resulting in overall larger internal metal surface area. Another fake variant has non-straight metal edge on the left and right hand side of the card.
Genuine has shinny aluminum surface with brushed horizontal pattern. Fake has matt/dull stainless-steel surface with no pattern.
On the white label, genuine 4GB card has additional instructions to operate the card as 2GB Fat16 modes or 4GB Fat32 mode and a hardware switch which is not found on 2GB card. Fake uses the same 2GB white label for all 2GB/4GB/8GB cards with no hardware switch on 4GB card.
On the white label, older fake has extra 'TM' word appearing on top right hand corner of the 'CF' logo, product code incorrectly labelled as 'SDCFB', different font face on the '03 SanDisk' and 'CF' logo.
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Genuine - Counterfeit
Clue #4 Bottom/Side Edge view
Genuine has one line of white color production batch/serial number 'BE06xxxxx MADE IN CHINA' on the bottom edge or 2 lines of 'BE06xxxxx' & 'CHINA' on the side edge. Older fake usually has none or has other different pattern of characters like: 'ASS0606DG', 'ASS0607DH', '650712198 8DC04G1MP2-2LC00 ASS'Y IN TAIWAN' and '2GH ... 0602'. Some are in yellow-green (non-white) color. If you see other variant patterns, they are also fakes.
Newer fakes are now being reported to have the 'legitimate' batch number like the genuine so this may no longer be a useful criteria.
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Genuine - Counterfeit
Clue #5 Clear Plastic Protective Clamshell
Genuine has 4 very rounded corners on its SanDisk clamshell. Fake has 4 sharper corners as depicted by the view below. If you compare the clamshells side-by-side, you will better notice which is a genuine SanDisk clamshell.
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Genuine - Counterfeit
Clue #6 Retail Packaging view
Genuine has all its printed wording properly set and allign. Fake has the red 'II' word out of allignment (it may sit lower or higher) with the rest of the 'Ultra' word. Some fake also have the 'R' trademark logo much smaller in size.
On the circular 'TICK' logo, genuine has 'LIFETIME LIMITED WARRANTY' wording. Fake has 'LIMITED' wording missing.
All retail package has the golden metallic 'SanDisk 3D holographic sticker' at the front of the retail box with unique serial number, as pictured. However newer fakes are now being reported to also have changing serial
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