Ebay seller punting counterfeit micro SD cards

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

glasgowcyclist

Charming but somewhat feckless
Location
Scotland
Just a warning to avoid a particular seller on ebay selling fake memory cards. I know there will likely be others but this one I can prove.

My brother bought me a Samsung Pro Plus 256GB micro sd card for my new camera. It came in apparently legit packaging, with all the correct info and labelling back and front. However, when I put it in my camera it alerted me that the slow writing speed would cause errors.

I tried to format it but after 2 hours it was still only at 10% progress so something was very wrong with it. I aborted that and ran H2TestW on it and instead of writing at 180MB/s, it wrote at 7MB/s! Capacity was ok at a reported 249GB.

On the back of a genuine card will be model number, serial number, lot ID or country of manufacture (Korea or Phillipines, never anywhere else). This card back was completely blank.

My brother has reported it to ebay and will be returning the card for a refund.

IMG_0616.jpeg

Seller’s name is in the screenshot below.
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
Yeah this is very common unfortunately. Same with USB drives and 2.5" internal PC drives. Buy a bunch of old used up media, and flash it with firmware that reports something different. Profit.

I'll only buy media from reputable sources - so not eBay, nor will I buy from an amazon seller (if Amazon is the seller that's OK) or any other of the thousand marketplaces that have popped up posing as other shops (looking at you B&Q, the Range and Argos amongst others).
 
Top Bottom