BEWARE FAKE SSDs on AMAZON

BrianInEngland · Dec 25, 2022

clam1952 said:
Been a few videos on these scam drives, firmware manipulation, using flash drives in the case and such.

Wouldn't be surprised if they were loaded with malware too. It's disgusting business practice from Amazon, as they're sponsored links they know what they're selling

BrianInEngland · Dec 25, 2022

It pays to only ever buy reputable brands - Samsuing, WD, Crucial etc may seem expensive but at least they are what's in the product description

RFS · Dec 25, 2022

It's not just Amazon - Ebay too is awash with them. Scan for "16TB SSD" and you get 442 results. The top ten most expensive are genuine, but all the rest are less than £100.

Same too for Flash drives. Here's one on Ebay offering 30 Tb for just $73.

ShamrockRig · Dec 25, 2022

To be fair, You would only purchase this if 1. Dont know anything about pc's/ssd's or 2. Didn't do you're due diligence on research( If you were included in no.1) on what you were purchasing. and to be honest, 3. At that price it was never gonna be what it said.

If it looks too good to be true. It probably is.
Its mostly common sense, even if i was gonna go something that i knew nothing about, Well that means ive got some learning to do and some research until i do, Then i make an informed purchase. Never wanna buy crap.

BrianInEngland · Dec 25, 2022

ShamrockRig said:
To be fair, You would only purchase this if 1. Dont know anything about pc's/ssd's or 2. Didn't do you're due diligence on research( If you were included in no.1) on what you were purchasing. and to be honest, 3. At that price it was never gonna be what it said.

If it looks too good to be true. It probably is.
Its mostly common sense, even if i was gonna go something that i knew nothing about, Well that means ive got some learning to do and some research until i do, Then i make an informed purchase. Never wanna buy crap.

The scammers (including Amazon) rely on most people being in the first category. Sadly a lot of people needing an SSD will just buy one of these because it's cheap.

Fabler2 · Dec 25, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
The scammers (including Amazon) rely on most people being in the first category. Sadly a lot of people needing an SSD will just buy one of these because it's cheap.

Yup- I agree. Sad state of affairs.

Winuser · Dec 25, 2022

clam1952 said:
Been a few videos on these scam drives, firmware manipulation, using flash drives in the case and such.

I do remember when there was a huge problem with fake USB flash drives.

Wisewiz · Dec 25, 2022

barman58 said:
I always purchase the drive and the case separately, thus ensuring that I get exactly what I need for the job in hand, Cost wise if I exclude the cost of my own time the cost is similar to the potentially "dodgy" cheap items, if not less. The actual hardware, is of course exactly what was specified for the job.

Agreed. I have several SSD enclosures, bought for under USD 15 each at my local computer shop. I have them loaded with surplus SSDs that became surplus after I replaced them with better or larger-capacity SSDs. So far, in about two-plus years of use, I'm happy with this scheme. The major plus is that the cost of doing it this way with a quality SSD inside the case is much lower than the cost of the pre-built portables.

Bastet · Dec 26, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
A search for 'external SSD' reveals a list of drives, in amongst the regulars (Samsung, WD, Crucial) are a LOT of obviously fake/rubbish/possibly malware-infected no-name drives. They even look like Samsung T5 drives. 11TB drive for £75? Don't think so!

I tried submitting a review saying these were fake drives, but Amazon wouldn't allow my review. Some of these are even sponsored links. Amazon have no shame in allowing these to be sold

Amazon.co.uk : external ssd

They only have 3 left too. No doubt people are still buying these fakes imo.

dbartenstein · Dec 26, 2022

Bastet said:
They only have 3 left too. No doubt people are still buying these fakes imo.

If you advertise that you only have a few in stock, some folks will be more enticed to impulse buy before they are out of stock.

Wisewiz · Dec 26, 2022

Someone here may call me out on this as no longer true, but it WAS true a couple of years ago: Amazon.ca’s helpdesk answered my question “What exactly does ‘Sponsored’ mean?” with “It means that the vendor has paid for the placement or position of the ad on this site.”

If that is (still?) true, some amount of our criticism of Amazon for listing some products — well, really, ads for those products — as “Sponsored” is misguided. It doesn’t mean that Amazon ENDORSES the product, but that the vendor has paid a premium for getting its ad NOTICED.

Winuser · Dec 26, 2022

Wisewiz said:
Someone here may call me out on this as no longer true, but it WAS true a couple of years ago: Amazon.ca’s helpdesk answered my question “What exactly does ‘Sponsored’ mean?” with “It means that the vendor has paid for the placement or position of the ad on this site.”

If that is (still?) true, some amount of our criticism of Amazon for listing some products — well, really, ads for those products — as “Sponsored” is misguided. It doesn’t mean that Amazon ENDORSES the product, but that the vendor has paid a premium for getting its ad NOTICED.

It's not misguided, at the most it's misunderstood. To be fair, I think most people know that sponsored means that the company paid to advertise their products or services.

BrianInEngland · Dec 26, 2022

Winuser said:
It's not misguided, at the most it's misunderstood. To be fair, I think most people know that sponsored means that the company paid to advertise their products or services.

In which case amazon must take some responsibility for ensuring the advertised product is what it says it is and more importantly meets all legal and safety requirements (not such an issue with usb drives but do they check whether a cheap electrical item is safe to use?). What if one of these fake SSDs contained malware and wiped some critical data when it was inserted, who would be held accountable? Here in the UK that would be Amazon as they sold the product whether or not they endorsed it. The buck stops at the retailer under UK consumer laws.