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Amazon selling obviously fake SD cards / flash disks is baffling. It’s super easy to spot and fake disks cost users data, so you’d think they’d take that seriou

Amazon selling obviously fake SD cards / flash disks is baffling. It’s super easy to spot and fake disks cost users data, so you’d think they’d take that seriously. https://a.co/d/auXcxrZ https://a.co/d/auXcxrZ ($29 for 1TB as their “overall pick”)

MattGaiser 3y ago
I imagine they make a ton of it back from users who never need anywhere near that much space. I have the non-technical people of my life insist on a terabyte for everything. One of them bought an iPad Pro just to have a terabyte of space. After 8 years of their prior iPad, they had used up all the space (64gb I think) and wanted to be sure they wouldn’t run out.
- margalabargala 3y ago
  Depending on usage patterns this assumption might not hold. Improvements in cameras etc are causing the sizes of the photos and videos that people take to hugely increase in size. The prior ipad you spoke of might have only recorded 720p video, while the new Pro likely does at least 4k. If they use their ipad to record video of family events, that 1tb might represent the same usage as the old one.
- Nextgrid 3y ago
  Keep in mind that these scam devices rarely present themselves as a functional but lower-capacity version. It's more often the case that the device does present the advertised capacity, but with a massive "black hole" in the middle where any writes are silently discarded. Depending on your filesystem, you don't need to write much data at all before you're likely to hit this "black hole" and start losing data.
nonrandomstring 3y ago
Some work I supervised sampling Amazon and Ebay products for vendor malware showed an absolutely shocking prevalence of dodgy goods. I don't think they can stem the tide.
- kmeisthax 3y ago
  Amazon is perfectly willing to ban people from reselling their used Apple products. The only reason why they don't apply that treatment to memory devices is because Amazon runs on payola. Apple paid for market exclusivity and Samsung/Sandisk/etc didn't.
- smallmancontrov 3y ago
  The same ebay scammer has been popping the same fraudulent listings into my feeds every few weeks for the last 8 years. Their "pay through (external url)" URL always uses Comic Sans, so I call them the "Comic Sans Scammer." If ebay was trying, I suspect that these listings would have changed a bit to evade detection, but the only thing that ever changes is the compromised account name. To ebay's credit, their support is very good once you are on the "press button, get called seconds later by a human" tier, but I also make ebay a lot of money, so I'm not sure how common it is to receive that level of service.
ProllyInfamous 3y ago
I only purchase solid state storage, in person, from big-box stores. They have providence, maintaining custody from manufacturer to store shelf. Unlike (e.g.) Amazon, where all vendors' have "identical" items thrown into one big "for sale" bin.
- Tommah 3y ago
  > They have providence, maintaining custody from manufacturer to store shelf. That's called provenance, not providence.
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    Thank you, I had a hunch I mis-remembered.

MattGaiser 3y ago

I imagine they make a ton of it back from users who never need anywhere near that much space. I have the non-technical people of my life insist on a terabyte for everything. One of them bought an iPad Pro just to have a terabyte of space. After 8 years of their prior iPad, they had used up all the space (64gb I think) and wanted to be sure they wouldn’t run out.

margalabargala 3y ago
Depending on usage patterns this assumption might not hold. Improvements in cameras etc are causing the sizes of the photos and videos that people take to hugely increase in size. The prior ipad you spoke of might have only recorded 720p video, while the new Pro likely does at least 4k. If they use their ipad to record video of family events, that 1tb might represent the same usage as the old one.
Nextgrid 3y ago
Keep in mind that these scam devices rarely present themselves as a functional but lower-capacity version. It's more often the case that the device does present the advertised capacity, but with a massive "black hole" in the middle where any writes are silently discarded. Depending on your filesystem, you don't need to write much data at all before you're likely to hit this "black hole" and start losing data.

nonrandomstring 3y ago

Some work I supervised sampling Amazon and Ebay products for vendor malware showed an absolutely shocking prevalence of dodgy goods. I don't think they can stem the tide.

kmeisthax 3y ago
Amazon is perfectly willing to ban people from reselling their used Apple products. The only reason why they don't apply that treatment to memory devices is because Amazon runs on payola. Apple paid for market exclusivity and Samsung/Sandisk/etc didn't.
smallmancontrov 3y ago
The same ebay scammer has been popping the same fraudulent listings into my feeds every few weeks for the last 8 years. Their "pay through (external url)" URL always uses Comic Sans, so I call them the "Comic Sans Scammer." If ebay was trying, I suspect that these listings would have changed a bit to evade detection, but the only thing that ever changes is the compromised account name. To ebay's credit, their support is very good once you are on the "press button, get called seconds later by a human" tier, but I also make ebay a lot of money, so I'm not sure how common it is to receive that level of service.

ProllyInfamous 3y ago

I only purchase solid state storage, in person, from big-box stores. They have providence, maintaining custody from manufacturer to store shelf. Unlike (e.g.) Amazon, where all vendors' have "identical" items thrown into one big "for sale" bin.

Tommah 3y ago
> They have providence, maintaining custody from manufacturer to store shelf. That's called provenance, not providence.
- ProllyInfamous 3y ago
  Thank you, I had a hunch I mis-remembered.