You wouldn’t shoot your next wedding with a card you bought from a shady street vendor would you? But can you even trust that online retailer? Can you spot the fake below?
With the explosion of devices requiring digital media cards, counterfeit memory is a very profitable business. And while marketplaces such as eBay are known to be rife with shysters looking to make a buck you can never be too safe no matter where you’re shopping. So what can you do to protect yourself?
- Don’t buy your CF cards from eBay. It’s just too risky!
- Buy from Verified online resellers: Most memory manufacturers publish a list of online retailers licensed to resell their products.
- Verify the cards you get are original by checking with the manufacturer via their customer service department.
A few excellent resources that can also help you spot a fake.
- Fake Flash News – They have a great article on How to Spot a Fake Sandisk Extreme III (source of the photo above)
- SOS Fake Flash – Toward A Fake Flash Drive Free World – No More Counterfeits – No More Data Loss
- Ebayers Against Fake Flash - FrankenFlash Project -Toward A Fake Flash Drive Free World
- Flash Drive Facts – Consumer Awareness – Flash Drive Education
- Flickr Advanced Search – type in “counterfeit” or “fake” + the brand name of your memory card.
3 Comments at "Pssst… Hey Buddy Want to Buy a CF Card?"
I got shnuckered this way on Ebay about three years ago. The guy said everyone on Ebay does it this way. His cards were counterfeit when I checked with Sandisk CS. Ebay refused to do anything about this seller. Lesson learned, stick with big boys, B&H, Adorama, Sammy’s, etc.
I too made the mistake of buying a CF card from someone on EBay… worked for about 2 days.. then failed… after doing some research… found that this was one of the most counterfitted cards out there. The guy was a serious scam artist… he required that people would fill out a positive feedback, before he’d refund their money… after the feedback was entered.. they’d never hear back from him, or see their money. I think I spent $80.00 on Ebay for a CF card that was about $140 at Adorama.com… lessen learned here… don’t buy from Ebay… at least not memory cards. I’m adding a link to the ebay seller (Who left ebay after a couple months of selling a ton of fake cards)… scroll through them all, and you’ll find a bunch of people that commended him on a fast transaction.. then a couple days later left follow up messages about them not being able to return their fake memory cards.
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&ftab=FeedbackAsSeller&userid=ilya13&iid=-1&de=off&items=25&page=3
This really stinks. Like professional photographers need to deal with this kind of thing.
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