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Beware! Fake MicroSD cards...

Does a fake card give the error "SD Card unexpectedly removed"?

I started a post in the HTC Legend subforum here while trying to figure out the problem with a 16GB card. But as I mentioned in that post, my laptop reports the card as 16GB and I used a SD card checker program to verify both the size and write speed.

I can't believe it cold be faked that well.
 
AdrianM said:
Does a fake card give the error "SD Card unexpectedly removed"?

I started a post in the HTC Legend subforum here while trying to figure out the problem with a 16GB card. But as I mentioned in that post, my laptop reports the card as 16GB and I used a SD card checker program to verify both the size and write speed.

I can't believe it cold be faked that well.
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your laptop was tricked too. my computer would write 10GB of stuff, or appear to, then when i ran a check for corrupted files, 8GB were unreadable. You got a fake
 
i attempted to format my fake in my phone, it locked up my phone, so i pulled the battery and popped the fake in my compy and after the crashed format the card read 8MB.
 
how do I get pictures from my Dinc to laptop? drive g and f appear when I use usb cable from phone to laptop but it keeps asking me to put a disk in drive f or g. I thought it was supposed to pop up "copy from to"...tks
 
enable USB Debugging, select mount as disk drive on your phone when you plug it in. navigate to DCIM>100MEDIA and all of your goodies should be there. if you save your pictures to your SD card like you should they will be on that drive, if you save them to your phone they will be on the removable drive that is your phone.
 
I bought mine from eBay and its just fine. You just have to ask the right questions to the seller. Make sure you also test it before you use it. I use h2testw. It writes files to the card until its full. By doing this you can see the real write speed and then when it verifies you can also see the test speed. Only putting a few files on here or there doesnt show the actual read/write speeds.
 
if you do decide to risk it and buy through ebay, and you do get a fake, ebay class it as counterfit, so in the uk anyway its illegal to actually send it back, your supposed to hand it in to a police station or destroy it. put that in the first email to ebay and you'll get an immediate refund, i got stung a little while ago :(
 
The only problem is how to define a conterfeit? Just because it doesn't work doesn't automatically mean it's conterfeit right? I got a pair of these that I am reasonably certain are counterfeit, but only because neither works. As far as just looks, I'd challenge anyone to tell the difference between my product and the real one. I guess all I am saying is try and be fair to the seller and contact them first. The last thing a seller should have to deal with is buyers hitting them as a counterfiet salesperson. Products do malfunction.
 
they do make a program that tests SD cards. its on the SD community website.... i think its the SD formatter. thats a good way to test it.
 
I was always nervous about the thought ob eBay and SD cards. Almost have bought in the pst, but didn't. I will still stay away.

I recently had my first eBay scam. I bought a 'brand new, sealed' Blu-ray of the second season of Weeds. The lady had 100% feedback (well over 100). Turned out to be homemade, labels were stickers and the menu only had the choice to play on it. Interestingly enough when I contacted her saying there was something funny about the Blu-ray she instantly refunded my money and told me to keep it since she got refunded for a bad batch she bought. Then she wanted me to give her positive feedback. I didn't and contacted eBay anyway, I hate when people try and pull that crap.
 
I came across this article on an Indian site. Of course this based on the Indian markets but I am sure this rubbish is being sold world wide. Anyway its good to know how not get duped :D

We’re definitely no strangers to counterfeit and fake products. In today’s world, it’s become commonplace to see an ‘Appal’ phone, here and a ‘Nipe’ shoe there. Piracy and cheap fake counterfeits have percolated into each and every segment of the market, so much so that there are extremely high chances that there’s a fake to every original product you’ve seen in the market.
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Fake memory cards out there ? Don't be fooled
 
Bumping this thread for all to see. Because the OP does have some good advice here, and there's an ever increasing number of counterfeit SDs around, especially from Ebay apparently.
 
This thread is quite shocking though I also got scammed in the past not only once but countless. And with the countless scam I had been through I make it a habit to post my questions on reputable forum sites before jumping into great offers online. Another thing, if I can just buy the same item on the local shop, I preferred going there by myself and buy it. Losing some money is not really a big deal, its what you feel inside that is hard to handle.
 
Justin01 said:
This thread is quite shocking though I also got scammed in the past not only once but countless. And with the countless scam I had been through I make it a habit to post my questions on reputable forum sites before jumping into great offers online. Another thing, if I can just buy the same item on the local shop, I preferred going there by myself and buy it. Losing some money is not really a big deal, its what you feel inside that is hard to handle.
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Losing your irreplaceable photos and videos can be big deal, and can be very hard to handle. All you see is just file-names, but no photos or videos. NOT recoverable, because they're just not there. We've had a few posts along those lines recently, that's why I bumped this thread, to bring this issue to attention and try save any heartbreak and anguish.
 
tinynipples said:
I know it has been touched on in many other threads (i wish i would have known before ordering) but i am taking a direct approach to possible save others some grief.

Perhaps it is common knowledge or perhaps not. regardless, i was unaware which means at least some people might not know. There are loads of fake Micro SD cards floating around. typically ebay. Basically they take a 2gb or so and manipulate the code a little bit to make your computer/phone see it as a 32gb card. usually.
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It must be chip manufacturers(fabs) producing these things. I don't think you can just set up in a shed somewhere making or doctoring flash chips. It's not like fake Gucci handbags or something, it's highly specialised, you need clean rooms and very expensive machinery. But then with organised crime and corruption, anything is possible.
 
I am blown away at the counterfeit items on eBay. I know they have millions of sellers worldwide and can't check every auction or it is hard to tell... so we as buyers need to report these people right away.
I recently purchased a "SAMSUNG... OEM... AUTHENTIC..." back cover plate for my Note 2 & it was fake. Like NFC not working fake...
When I pressed him hard, he admitted it was not authentic but an "aftermarket OEM". Seems like that's the new wording for counterfeit.

Just don't trust eBay so much anymore... this seller is listed as a "power seller" and "top rated" with 98.8% rating. He gets positive feedback from people who don't know the difference so can continue selling fake crap.

Thanks for heads up on the SD cards- didn't think those could be affected- like last poster mikedt said, this is a specialized item that needs high tech machinery to make... but guess anything is possible... wow.

Anne
 
mikedt said:
It must be chip manufacturers(fabs) producing these things. I don't think you can just set up in a shed somewhere making or doctoring flash chips. It's not like fake Gucci handbags or something, it's highly specialised, you need clean rooms and very expensive machinery. But then with organised crime and corruption, anything is possible.
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Not too sure about that. Out of touch with flash RAM but several years ago at work we had an EEPROM reprogrammer. Cost a few hundred dollars but the real cost was in the programming we wanted to put on the chip. Assuming flash memory is similar it would be relatively cheap, once you knew how to program the size, to reprogram memory chips.
 
Is it possible they are buying low capacity cards and just re-labeling them? Seems much easier than trying to manufacture them..
 
m-cman said:
Is it possible they are buying low capacity cards and just re-labeling them? Seems much easier than trying to manufacture them..
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Honestly, anything's possible. For them, it's likely about making money which would mean it would cost them less to buy a bunch of low capacity cards and relabel them, subsequently selling them at the price that a card of the labeled capacity would go for. Quite sad for the end user because they end up getting ripped off. It's highway robbery and it's sad.

tl;dr Only buy SD cards from reputable sources. If it seems too good to be true or sketchy, it probably is
 
I had the same problem purchased a 32gb Sandisk Ultra class 10 SD card from a ebay and when I got the package I knew it was fake because the packaging was bad. It was 32gb but maybe a class 4 or something. I request for a return and got my refund right away. The sad thing is its from USA seller that is top rated power seller. Lucky for me went to Costco the next day and saw it on sale for $19.99. I use ebay to find and buy stuff all the time just got to be careful who you deal with and make sure its a USA seller.
 
Hi there. My husband bought a 32gb micro sd off ebay. It was fake too.We didnt know until we use it on his birthday. I felt so disappointed because i used it on our Canon t2i camera and it was taking pictures like 5 pictures, then, on the 6th picture,i tried to review my picture to see if they were alright, but it says "corrupted file" ! I was so upset. That was very special occasion and no pictures can be opened at all! THe sad thing is, my husband bought 2 of those micro sd cards because it was such a good deal. I dont usually post stuff like this but i want to help out other people that are planning to buy one . Dont settle for less! Make sure it's a genuine product. I would recommend buying at from local stores. We bought a sandisk from walmart. And it work like a champ! I wish we read this before we waisted money buying two crappy micro sd cards we bought off from ebay. Lesson learned.
 
That's why it's hard for me to buy things online especially from Ebay. I always buy from local stores and get things tested before I hand them my money.
 
Never mind ebay, how about Amazon? Do you guys know that anybody can create a merchant account and sell "similar" item just by adding it to legitimate listing? You have to be VERY careful which seller you actually buying it from.

I got burned as well with my 32GB micro-sd card. Got it back in Dec of last year from Amazon. I thought it was a legitimate Sandisk card. 3 months later it started with mounting/un-mounting file cycle. It was driving me crazy. I was able to read the card through adapter on my laptop, but it was flaky on the phone. SanDisk has fantastic tech support. I sent them my Amazon receipt to create RMA. They did ask me to read a code off the back of the card, which to my surprise was missing. I took zoom-in pictures of the card and sent those to Sandisk. They created RMA and asked me to send it back to them for replacement. Got my replacement a few week later, directly from SanDisk, and it had code scribbled on the back (thus a legitimate card). I'm glad they were able to replace it, but it also looks like I got a fake one from Amazon. So be very careful who is the actual seller, and always keep a back up of your card content!!!
 
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