Fake Samsung 980 Pro SSDs on the Rise: Beware of Counterfeit Drives

It's pretty peculiar it even fooled Magician. The software must not have very robust algorithms for recognising genuine drives, then. I wonder what happens when you update the firmware through Magician, haha. Best case scenario would be an immediate error message with nothing else happening, the worst case would be bricking the drive permanently.

 

In the UK I REGULARLY see fake SSD's on Amazon. Someone bought one into the shop the other week, sold as a 5TB external SSD but when I opened it I found effectively 64GB SD card and adaptor.

What's worse is that it was a sponsored item, and was still available a week after I reported it to them.

 

The company i work at buy things from China in bulk, once we got hundreds of fake "Kingston" SSDs

 

In fact, I just checked and it's still on there, (or back on there) for £55.99 as a sponsored item.

 

I guess as long as your check clears for advertising, you can put anything on Amazon you want.

 

What do the user reviews say?

 

I don't get it... why would you buy such a drive used in the first place? If I'm buying a used drive, it's either from someone I personally know/trust or because I'm on a very tight budget, in which case, I'd get a lower-tier model.

Buying a used SSD is like buying used underwear - with good hygiene and a good washer, maybe it's fine, but you're taking a lot of unnecessary risks for something that is kinda designed to be used by a single person/PC for its usable life.

 

You can report bootlegs. it's rare when they do anything about it. The story is the same on ebay if the seller is big enough.

 

Amazon only removes items that are not politically aligned with Amazon.

 

I never buy anything used. Just hope counterfeit items dont end up being sold as new by Amazon one day.

 

Funny thing is this is not a hackjob SD ...the drive seem like an ok performers midrangers , at least usable!

 

avoid Amazon

 

Its probably the safest place you can buy from on the internet. If something the least bit out of place with your purchase, you get your money back. If Amazon not safe, no other place will be.

 

ahaha, that's a good analogy...when it comes to buying something used it tends to be a temporary solution for me until a major upgrade. i still wouldn't risk buying a used drive though.

 

Google isn't any better than Scamazon, your search results can easily pop up with scam advertisement coming up on top. Google has been cannibalizing its own search results more and more.

 

Never ever had a problem with Amazon. People are just stupid and don't know how to shop. When buying anything that costs more than 50€ I make sure it's sold and shipped by Amazon directly. Never got scammed, never got bad product, never got delayed shipment.

 

Amazon does give your money back on smaller purchases but be very careful about stuff that's a bit more pricey.
I once bought a TV for about 1200$, the box came damaged and they charged the wrong credit card on the account (not mine) on purpose automatically because i had forgotten that i put a limit on mine.
I contacted amazon a few times and they refused to refund and charge the correct card, they told me to return the Tv and purchase another one to correct it. I had to take the giant TV to the post office my self. They wouldn't refund the card until they receive the item first and verify it at their warehouse which took about 5 weeks...

 

Ive been buying from Amazon since 2008, and ive spent an absolute ton of money on PC equipment and never had an issue. I recently hjad to return a 32" monitor that died a couple of weeks after i bought it, the process was so simple and i had my money back within 10 working days. Mobo's GPUs, CPUs, RAM and SSDs/NVMes the lot, never an issue but i wouldnt buy 2nd hand ever.

 

True, people are definitely stupid for falling for scams most of the time, Amazon has some amount of responsibility to protect people who are "stupid" when they allow randoms to sell under their banner, but that would probably not be as profitable as ignoring the problem.