eBay, Amazon Computer Memory Chip Scam Dupes Consumers

A counterfeit of this simple little storage device may leave you without any data.

July 26, 2016, Los Angeles, CA -- It's no bigger than your fingernail, but this tiny authentic replaceable memory card holds your valuable data, photos and contacts in your phone, camera, iPad, tablet, laptop and GPS. If you buy a fake, you are likely to lose your data and you may damage your equipment.

Counterfeits of all the popular microSD cards including SanDisk^®, Samsung^®, Kingston^®, Adata^®, and others are widely available on eBay^®, Amazon^® and Alibaba^®, often at highly discounted prices. Dishonest sellers reap millions in profits, while industry experts warn as much as 80% of online memory is fake. Typically, the counterfeit cards and packaging look virtually identical to the authentic product.

Could you spot these counterfeit microSDHC memory cards from actual eBay and Amazon purchases?

Shown (clockwise): Kingston 64GB microSDHC, Samsung 64GB microSDHC, Samsung 64GB microSDHC, SanDisk 64GB microSDHC, SanDisk 64GB microSDHC, Generic (unbranded) 64GB microSDHC. All cards shown here are fake -- they do not exist in the manufacturers authentic product line -- and have actual capacities under 8GB. (photos: The Counterfeit Report)

The removable microSD memory storage card is an amazing, convenient and trouble-free storage device. When it works, it is unnoticed. When you get a fake, it will be the very core of your frustration, despair and pain – and your data will be gone.

The Counterfeit Report^®, a watchdog and consumer education website, found over 577,000 fake memory cards - models that that don't even exist in the manufacturer's product line - in just the past month on eBay, Amazon and AliExpress. Irrespective of the fact the models and capacities don't exist in the manufacturer's authentic product line, the items are allowed to remain listed on the websites. eBay listings track and reported sales of over 14,000 of these fakes to unsuspecting consumers. Amazon and AliExpress generally do not report sales.

Although consumers risk equipment damage and data loss, the e-commerce sites don't notify consumers they received a fake and are entitled to a refund -- even after trademark infringement notifications were submitted for the fake products by The Counterfeit Report.

Consumers cannot determine the actual memory capacity of a counterfeit memory card by simply viewing the capacity displayed on their computer, phone or camera. The counterfeiters are too smart for that, and simply overwrite the real memory capacity with a false capacity to match any capacity and model they print on the counterfeit packaging and card. A free downloadable test program (H2TESTW.exe) will easily tell you the real capacity of your card.

The fake microSDHC memory cards purchased by The Counterfeit Report from eBay and Amazon tested at 7GB or less, a fraction of their stated capacity. It was not uncommon for some counterfeit cards to fail during the test process. When the counterfeit memory cards reach their actual capacity, they begin to erase and overwrite your existing data.

The microSD^® ) standards are maintained by the SD Association (SDA). The microSD format includes four card families; the original Standard-Capacity (SDSC), the High-Capacity (SDHC), the eXtended-Capacity (SDXC), and the SDIO. The cards are available in three form factors; original, mini size, and micro size.

If you are going to trust your data and photos to a SD card, be sure to buy authentic memory cards from authorized retailers or directly from the manufacturer. See TheCounterfeitReport.com for more examples and photos of counterfeited memory cards.