Counterfeit Memory Card (alert)

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kuzano

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Since most of the REALLY EVIL SLRs are DSLRs, I will post this here. I work in computers and my favorite "stay up to date" computer magazine is Smart Computing magazine. I am not affiliated in any way.

I just received my latest issue and there is an informative report on counterfeit memory cards. The problem is big. I will enclose a link to the article in question. I have been aware of this for a while, but the person who asked about a 3rd party battery for an M8 jogged my memory because counterfeit batteries are also an issue.

It's a big scam and it's happening all over the internet, not just eBay.

http://www.smartcomputing.com/edito...d=45221&guid=24FC9083A47845BFAFA20BBA17CE3F33
 
I am very wary of this issue and will only buy memory cards from main street stores even though I pay more. (There are sales which occur often enough to allow me to reduce costs by timing my purchases accordingly.) Because this is such a common problem I will not buy on eBay and neither will I buy at computer fairs (We have one in our city every few weeks. It is generally reasonably OK with name brand equipment at least, but I have had problems with some stuff I have bought and I am very suspicious about the cheap memory cards some vendors flog and suspect their authenticity.)

I have however, bought cheap camera batteries and generally found these to be pretty OK. The price of name brand batteries for cameras is generally SOOOOOO over the top that I take the risk. I have not been let down yet. In this case I think its nuts paying around $100 for a name brand battery when a good quality after market one (I think the brand is named Inca) can be bought in camera stores for under half this or on eBay for maybe a quarter or even less. (I think I paid as little as $15 plus postage for a battery for a digital camera when the original goes for around $100. I think this is just price gouging.)
 
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Its like they say, if its too good to be true then its proboably not.
That being said through, I do come across nice deals for CF cards from costco every once in a while.

Theres lots of guides out there to help spot fake memory cards. Plenty enough to deter me, through not for a friend of mine through. Naturally bought from ebay, when he gave the card a try it would write to the card very slowly. When connected in a card reader it would only register half the memory stated on its label.
 
I've informed people (here also) of these counterfeit flash cards since early 2007 IIRC. I'm surprised that your computer mag reports on it only now when this has been an issue already for a year or more.

But you're right to report it here. In normal use you may never know you got a counterfeit card... until you run into trouble.
 
I bought a counterfit SanDisk Ultra II CF card (squared edges) from a company called Shentech in NYC. The card crapped out on me while photographing in Ecuador. I was livid. After verifying that it was a fake, I contacted them and they plead ignorance. They were reported to SanDisk and the BBB. Unfortunately, they're still in business.
 
Interesting question. I've reached out to my brother-in-law to see what he can come up with. He is one of the few remaining manufacturer representatives out there and reps a line of cards to a large online/retail/VAR entity in the Midwest. I'm hoping that the companies do not take the same approach as we have to do with collectible cameras. These are commodity products after all.

I've asked him about deals and he says watch the big box stores (e.g. Best Buy) for their cycles and I will get better prices than I can get through him. So I watch and some times wait a week or three.

B2 (;->
 
I agree with that legitimate name brand cards are so cheap, even at retail stores, why bother with counterfeit? If you're that cheap yourself you deserve what you get! As long as a retailer orders from the official supplier there is no danger of them getting fake cards.
As to batteries it would be no surprise to me that some of the third party brands can be just as good as the name brand. They all seem to use the same batteries anyway, only changing the contact point - sometimes! The current battery for the Pentax K10D works 100% with the Konica-Minolta 7D and with point and shoot various Pentax and Olympus batteries are swappable. However I have seen so-name batteries that work well at first but stop taking a charge well before the original battery. Also if a third party battery somehow damages your camera the warranty is void.
 
RML said:
I've informed people (here also) of these counterfeit flash cards since early 2007 IIRC. I'm surprised that your computer mag reports on it only now when this has been an issue already for a year or more.

But you're right to report it here. In normal use you may never know you got a counterfeit card... until you run into trouble.
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Ditto, I've knew of these since 2005 (then again in 2006 when they resurfaced a warning). I rarely find magazines now days to keep people 'up to date' on anything security wise.

But like with everything else, there are still people who haven't heard about it yet, so a refresher is good once in a while.

Likewise with Counterfeit batteries (which are not only fake, but also dangerous)
 
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