Counterfeit SSDs and memory cards: be careful when buying last-minute gifts
Fake flash drives have been around for decades, and the scam never stops. There are currently far too cheap SSDs, USB sticks and memory cards in circulation.
Counterfeit SSDs often contain smaller memory modules than advertised.
(Image: c't)
Every year, it is important to keep an eye out when buying storage media. There are countless counterfeits on the market, especially in the Far East. At the forefront: Aliexpress and Wish, but Western platforms such as Amazon and eBay are not immune either. Counterfeit storage media can also be found on the newcomer Temu, but the platform seems to remove fakes more quickly, especially in the case of SSDs.
Alarm bells should ring immediately if the price seems too good to be true. Caution should also be exercised with high capacities, which are often not even technically possible. Extreme examples include USB SSDs with 128 TB of storage space for less than 45 euros. 8 TB models are technically possible, but are not available for 54 euros, even with the best Christmas discounts.
(Image:Â Screenshot heise online)
As a rule of thumb, NAND flash is not much cheaper in South East Asia than in Germany. The cheapest 8-TByte SSD (starting from 1159 €) costs many times more here.
Fake memory cards prominently advertised
In addition to USB sticks, SD and microSD memory cards are also popular storage media for counterfeiting. These are also available from Temu: the fake prices are not quite as tempting as those offered by Aliexpress & Co, but around 30 euros for a terabyte should still make you suspicious. In Germany you pay more than twice as much.
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Reviews of the memory cards reinforce the suspicion of counterfeiting: some users confirm lower capacities of around 100 GB. The media only trick the operating system into believing they have more storage space and then overwrite old files as soon as the memory is full. Users then lose data. Temu advertises such cards at the top of the search results.
Anyone who has already bought SSDs, USB sticks or memory cards from questionable sources and wants to check their authenticity can use the H2testw tool. It writes random data into the cells until the drive is full. If errors occur during the process, the probability of a counterfeit or defect is high.
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(mma)
