5 ms·

Walmart lists a 30TB portable SSD for $39. It is, naturally, a scam

74 points by kposehn 4y ago

wruza 4y ago
This is not new. I remember back in early 00’s my buddy bought hundreds of 512mb mp3 players in China for local resale and only accidentally figured out that they were 64mb or so. The most interesting part was that they played songs, but different ones than those listed in the catalogue! That was one in a million chance to notice. When he went back to the shop, the seller already started packing his boxes. Luckily he was with a guy who knew a thing or two about negotiations so they got their money back eventually.
- anubiskhan 4y ago
  "Knew a thing or two about negotiations" Is this like, "Nice boxes you're packing there. Be a shame if something happened to them..."
  - cosmodisk 4y ago
    Or your face for that matter...:))
  - v-yadli 4y ago
    Early 00s Chinese "computer cities"? Noooo. You don't do that to merchants. Merchants do that to you.
- LorenPechtel 4y ago
  Yup. I'm thinking back many years ago, I forget just how long. Returning to the US from China, the lines got way out of balance and they redirected a bunch of us in the citizen/resident line to the non-resident line. Big difference in their attitude, the guy wasn't willing to believe we hadn't brought home any souvenirs. (Hey, you have our travel history in front of you--many flights, all to Shanghai. Is that someone playing tourist?? No, it's someone with ties to the city. You can see her name, you can see her appearance, you can certainly tell English isn't her native language. You should have already realized I married a Shanghainese and that we were visiting her family.) None of the cheap electronics?? Really now, why would I have wanted those "200gb" storage devices I was seeing all over the city?? At the time no 200gb flash devices existed, certainly not at those prices.
mandeepj 4y ago
I'd not necessarily call it a scam; your money is safe. It's a hassle for sure and mentally stressful - if it does not work or dies soon - you might end up pulling your hair and running for return
- kwertyoowiyop 4y ago
  It is absolutely a scam. Why would you call it anything less? “Scam: a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation“
donmcronald 4y ago
The retailers should be liable for stuff like this. A fake SSD isn't going to kill anybody, but there are lots of cases where people have been injured or killed by substandard products to the point of counterfeiting regulatory symbols. I don't even understand how these products get imported.
- cdqnwg 4y ago
  which cases?
  - crest 4y ago
    Lethal USB chargers.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - donmcronald 4y ago
    The one that sticks out in my mind is the one with the guy that bought a motorcycle helmet with fake safety certifications off Amazon and got in a serious accident. I can't find any articles about it, but, IIRC, the lawsuit was decided in favor of Amazon, so maybe it's been scrubbed from the internet. Fake, unsafe stuff is rampant: 1. (Paywall) https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-has-ceded-control-of-its-site-the-result-thousands-of-banned-unsafe-or-mislabeled-products-11566564990 https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-has-ceded-control-of-its... 2. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/647377213/fake-bike-helmets-cheap-but-dangerous https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/647377213/fake-bike-helmets-c... 3. https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/tech/amazon-fake-kids-products/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/tech/amazon-fake-kids-product...
  - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
    https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38167551 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38167551 https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/amazon-marketplace-conterfeit-fake-goods/ https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/amazon-marketplace-conterfe...
  - karamanolev 4y ago
hulitu 4y ago
" This is another giveaway; Windows reports drive capacities in gibibytes (1,024 mebibytes) or tebibytes (1,024 gibibytes), while drive manufacturers use gigabytes (1,000 megabytes) and terabytes (1,000 gigabytes). This is why a 1TB drive normally only has a reported capacity of 930-ish GB," Another vendor another scam. I am looking forward when they will sell 64 bits processors with only 60 bits. But with SaaS everything shall be possible.
- nullc 4y ago
  Be thankful they don't see modern x86-64 processors as 512-bit processors due to the vector units. :P
- karamanolev 4y ago
  Don't current x86-64 CPUs come with ~48 bits of addressable virtual space? So in a way, you're not far from the truth.
kornhole 4y ago
I bought one similar fro Ebay for curiosity but then was afraid it might contain some kind of malware on it. If stores allow products with fake specs, they would allow malicious ones as well. This is a bigger concern to me.

74 points by kposehn 4y ago

This is not new. I remember back in early 00’s my buddy bought hundreds of 512mb mp3 players in China for local resale and only accidentally figured out that they were 64mb or so. The most interesting part was that they played songs, but different ones than those listed in the catalogue! That was one in a million chance to notice. When he went back to the shop, the seller already started packing his boxes. Luckily he was with a guy who knew a thing or two about negotiations so they got their money back eventually.

anubiskhan 4y ago
"Knew a thing or two about negotiations" Is this like, "Nice boxes you're packing there. Be a shame if something happened to them..."
- cosmodisk 4y ago
  Or your face for that matter...:))
- v-yadli 4y ago
  Early 00s Chinese "computer cities"? Noooo. You don't do that to merchants. Merchants do that to you.
LorenPechtel 4y ago
Yup. I'm thinking back many years ago, I forget just how long. Returning to the US from China, the lines got way out of balance and they redirected a bunch of us in the citizen/resident line to the non-resident line. Big difference in their attitude, the guy wasn't willing to believe we hadn't brought home any souvenirs. (Hey, you have our travel history in front of you--many flights, all to Shanghai. Is that someone playing tourist?? No, it's someone with ties to the city. You can see her name, you can see her appearance, you can certainly tell English isn't her native language. You should have already realized I married a Shanghainese and that we were visiting her family.) None of the cheap electronics?? Really now, why would I have wanted those "200gb" storage devices I was seeing all over the city?? At the time no 200gb flash devices existed, certainly not at those prices.

mandeepj 4y ago

I'd not necessarily call it a scam; your money is safe. It's a hassle for sure and mentally stressful - if it does not work or dies soon - you might end up pulling your hair and running for return

kwertyoowiyop 4y ago
It is absolutely a scam. Why would you call it anything less? “Scam: a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation“

donmcronald 4y ago

The retailers should be liable for stuff like this. A fake SSD isn't going to kill anybody, but there are lots of cases where people have been injured or killed by substandard products to the point of counterfeiting regulatory symbols. I don't even understand how these products get imported.

cdqnwg 4y ago
which cases?
- crest 4y ago
  Lethal USB chargers.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- donmcronald 4y ago
  The one that sticks out in my mind is the one with the guy that bought a motorcycle helmet with fake safety certifications off Amazon and got in a serious accident. I can't find any articles about it, but, IIRC, the lawsuit was decided in favor of Amazon, so maybe it's been scrubbed from the internet. Fake, unsafe stuff is rampant: 1. (Paywall) https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-has-ceded-control-of-its-site-the-result-thousands-of-banned-unsafe-or-mislabeled-products-11566564990 https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-has-ceded-control-of-its... 2. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/647377213/fake-bike-helmets-cheap-but-dangerous https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/647377213/fake-bike-helmets-c... 3. https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/tech/amazon-fake-kids-products/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/tech/amazon-fake-kids-product...
- ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
  https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38167551 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38167551 https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/amazon-marketplace-conterfeit-fake-goods/ https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/amazon-marketplace-conterfe...
- karamanolev 4y ago

hulitu 4y ago

" This is another giveaway; Windows reports drive capacities in gibibytes (1,024 mebibytes) or tebibytes (1,024 gibibytes), while drive manufacturers use gigabytes (1,000 megabytes) and terabytes (1,000 gigabytes). This is why a 1TB drive normally only has a reported capacity of 930-ish GB," Another vendor another scam. I am looking forward when they will sell 64 bits processors with only 60 bits. But with SaaS everything shall be possible.

nullc 4y ago
Be thankful they don't see modern x86-64 processors as 512-bit processors due to the vector units. :P
karamanolev 4y ago
Don't current x86-64 CPUs come with ~48 bits of addressable virtual space? So in a way, you're not far from the truth.

kornhole 4y ago

I bought one similar fro Ebay for curiosity but then was afraid it might contain some kind of malware on it. If stores allow products with fake specs, they would allow malicious ones as well. This is a bigger concern to me.