Beware of Fake SanDisk Ultra II 2.0GB Compact Flash Memory Cards

This Post is taken from MartyBugs.net

• It details a fake SanDisk Compact Flash card that was purchased from eBay, and provides information to allow you to easily identify fake SanDisk cards.

• The Purchase of the card was through eBay, from a seller who has been a member of eBay for nearly 5 years, and with about 140 positive feedback ratings.
• The item was labelled as "Sandisk Ultra II 2GB compact flash card", with the description saying it was a "brand new sandisk Ultra II 2GB Compact flash cards complete all with retail packaging, manafacturers warranty etc".
• The price was very good....in fact, too good to be true, as the buyer soons found out.
• The card turned up in the mail several days after payment was made, and came in a retail box, complete with a piece of paper labelled "SanDisk Flash Memory Card User Guide", which mentions a 5 year warranty policy (although the box mentions a "Lifetime Warranty")...... read on and compare the images ....
  
  
  
  

From the above picture, showing the Front / Face of the Compact Flash Card ..... can you tell which card is a FAKE ??? !!!!!

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... What about the Back of the Compact Flash Card .... which one is the FAKE Card ????

The product number shown on the back of the card is incorrect, showing "SDCFB" instead of "SDCFH". The fake card also has an extra "TM" logo next to the "CF" logo at the top right of the back of the card, as well as having different patent numbers, and slightly different font for the copyright date.

Only the Genuine Card has serial number (The genuine card serail number was intentionally blurred).

The serial number is normally printed in small white text on the bottom edge of the card. As the photo above clearly shows, the FAKE CF Card's serial number is missing.

The protective cases for the cards are also different, with the case for the fake card being slightly smaller. The fake card didn't actually fit into its protective case properly, as the case appeared to be slightly too small.



Other people have reported fake SanDisk cards as having labels with lower-quality printing (such as this site). The fake card came with what appears to be genuine-looking packaging, as shown above.

The genuine SanDisk boxes have a hologram logo sticker on the front of the box, in the bottom left corner, just above the SanDisk logo, but this fake box is missing the sticker. The "SanDisk Ultra" text on the genuine box is also much more embossed and glossy, and the "II" text to the right of the "Ultra" on the fake box doesn't line up with the rest of the text.






The genuine card had a user guide with the "Ultra II" name on the front, while the fake card came with a generic user guide (which contradicted the box, and mentioned a 5 year warranty). The fake user guide was just a photocopied piece of paper folded up, while the genuine user guide consisted of several papers stapled together.

The back of the user guides was also different, with slightly different details, and a different layout.

This kind of incident is not new is fairly common nowadays where by cheap knock offs are abundant in the market place. This is just a reminder for all of us to be very careful with what we buy....

Conclusions (From MartyBugs)

• Be careful when purchasing items like this on eBay. Always read through the seller's feedback, as it will give you a indication of their reputation.
• However, in some cases, the seller may not even be aware that they are selling counterfeit cards, but might be under the impression that they're selling genuine cards.
• A few quick searches on the web indicates fake and counterfeit Compact Flash cards, SD cards, USB memory sticks, etc, are encountered far too regularly by many people.
• According to this eBay guide, more than 95% of USB flash drives listed on eBay are counterfeit items. While this particular fake Compact Flash card has the correct 2GB capacity, and appears to work fine, its write speed is much slower than it should be, it's not covered by any warranty, and its reliability and robustness are unknown quantities.
• I purchased a SanDisk Ultra II Compact Flash card because I know they are a reputable and reliable card with good performance. However, I ended up with a fake card with no warranty and a much slower write speed... In other words, if the price is too good to be true, then it's probably a fake card.

Footnotes

• Other people are reporting fake SanDisk Compact Flash cards which look much more like the genuine SanDisk cards than the one shown in the photos above.
• As a result, it can be more difficult to identify fake cards. Lack of a serial number is still a very telling sign of a fake card.
• However, some fake cards have a fake serial number, and one method which should still allow you to identify a fake card is to call SanDisk's technical support phoneline, and ask them to verify the authenticity of the serial number on the card.
• A reader emailed me to warn about using fake SanDisk cards. Due to the larger and less accurate positions of the holes in his fake card, he ended up with some bent pins in his Canon 300D camera. As a result, not only was he out of pocket due to purchasing a fake card, but he also had to pay for repairs to his camera!

article source from MartyBugs.net

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