Fake micro SD cards

I recently bought a 32GB micro SDcard from a company in the UK trading as >mirosdcardsonline.co.uk< . The card was a fake with maximum storage of 2GB! I downloaded a test program, “h2testw_1.4”, which works fine with windows 7 and confirmed that the card was faulty and confirmed the maximum storage capacity of 2 GB (i.e… Not 32 GB as marked on the card!).

This test program will identify the problem and give you the necessary proof to demand a refund based on the fact that the seller is selling counterfeit cards.

The company I dealt with, Micro SD Cards UK Ltd of Luton, UK, trading as >microsdcardsonline.co.uk< did not reply except to ask me to return the “evidence” and then they would not reply when I asked for my refund. I had to obtain a charge-back via my credit card company which took two months but eventually I got my money back. Always pay by credit card and you are then protected against this type of fraud if the supplier does not refund you after a reasonable period.

In addition to advising not to deal with this company under any circumstances (it is run by a Mr. Hamilton and a Ms Griffith who never answer a phone call or respond to emails!), I would urge all readers to buy micro SDcards from a legitimate retailer or from a bona-fide online trader like Amazon. I subsequently purchased a genuine SanDisk 32 GB card from Amazon which is all that it should be - a first class product.

Please also be warned that microsdcardsonline.co.uk also sell branded SanDisk cards (the one I purchased was unbranded) but I would guess that these would also be counterfeit, but at a higher price, so I would advise that you shouldn’t take the chance!

This is scary, although this is not anything new about fake memory cards.

I’m buying on E-Bay 2 Micro SDHC 64Gb, seller posted pics of items into theyr original packaging. The packaging seems original,but…I see that, on seller pics, Micro SD are all black, but if i try to search this product on the Sandisk site i can’t found SDHC 64Gb (Sandisk show max memory is 32Gb for SDHC type) but only SDXC 64Gb. The packaging seem really original, now i wonder: Did ever Sandisk produce Micro SDHC 64Gb?

:smiley:   Hi Fab1972,

Dear member of SanDisk Community, welcome.

Well, friend, as you suspect (it’s also very cheap?), is fake.

International Protocol of the SD Association , it’s for all brands, and 64 GB, is SDXC only.

For more detail on this topic, you can check here: https://www.sdcard.org/home/

I guess that it’s a microSDHC 4GB, to which they added 6, or something similar.

If you bought it, then can make the following tests and verify:

1-   Format with (free): USB Flash SD Formatter 4.00, http://filecloud.io/jqtu1byc

Also you can try, with three portable utilities (free), whether they are fakes:

2-   USB Flash H2testw 1.40,                http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b            -It’s the classic utility, but for 64 Gb, it takes ~ 4 hours.

3-   USB Flash FakeTest 1.09,              http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b            -It’s similar, but has a quick option, and takes minutes.

4-   USB Flash ChipGenius 4.00,         http://filecloud.io/rqa7etmv          -All internal data, of your UFD.

Luck, and then you tell us, what happened, please.

Regards, Alfred.                                                            (Google translated)

:smiley:   Hi Fab1972,

Dear member of SanDisk Community, welcome.

Well, friend, as you suspect (it’s also very cheap?), is fake.

International Protocol of the SD Association, it’s for all brands, and 64 GB, is SDXC only.

For more detail on this topic, you can check here: https://www.sdcard.org/home/

I guess that it’s a microSDHC 4GB, to which they added 6, or something similar.

If you bought it, then can make the following tests and verify:

1-   Format with (free): USB Flash SD Formatter 4.00, http://filecloud.io/jqtu1byc

Also you can try, with three portable utilities (free), whether they are fakes:

2-   USB Flash H2testw 1.40,            http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b          -It’s the classic utility, but for 64 Gb, it takes ~ 4 hours.

3-   USB Flash FakeTest 1.09,          http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b          -It’s similar, but has a quick option, and takes minutes.

4-   USB Flash ChipGenius 4.00,     http://filecloud.io/rqa7etmv       -All internal data, of your UFD.

Luck, and then you tell us, what happened, please.

Regards, Alfred.                                                           (Google translated)

:smiley:   Hi Fab1972,  

Dear member of SanDisk Community, welcome.

Well, friend, as you suspect (it’s also very cheap?), is fake.

International Protocol of the SD Association , it’s for all brands, and 64 GB, is SDXC only.

For more detail on this topic, you can check here: https://www.sdcard.org/home/

I guess that it’s a microSDHC 4GB, to which they added 6, or something similar.

If you bought it, then can make the following tests and verify:

1-   Format with (free): USB Flash SD Formatter 4.00, http://filecloud.io/jqtu1byc

Also you can try, with three portable utilities (free), whether they are fakes:

2-   USB Flash H2testw 1.40,            http://filecloud.io/jl4fhn9b          -It’s the classic utility, but for 64 Gb, it takes ~ 4 hours.

3-   USB Flash FakeTest 1.09,          http://filecloud.io/n074g3x5       -It’s similar, but has a quick option, and takes minutes.

4-   USB Flash ChipGenius 4.00,     http://filecloud.io/rqa7etmv        -All internal data, of your UFD.

Luck, and then you tell us, what happened, please.

Regards, Alfred.                                                             (Google translated)

The Market is flooded with fake microSD cards, especially on Ebay, these card mount OK, report correct capacity written on the package, and never report an error when capacity of the original card before modification has passed,  These cards even format OK to the fake capacity.  Here is an example,  a card  physically is 4GB but its label and FAT file has changed to say 64GB.  You never know it is fake except to find out after 4GB in this case is reached and files start not to exit even when the FAT file tells you your file is in the memory. H2testw software  is very slow, but you can  test your card by writing a lot of large files like videos to the card and find out is it really is what claims to be.  Also note older devices don’t read exfat formated cards, so read the specs of your device may be SD card is not the problem. Buy  SD cards from large chains or authorized dealers, consider  the rest fake. Use your PC to Test the card immediately after purchase because you might pass the window to return it.

I bought a fake Sandisk 64GB from Ebay, it was only 4B, he seller returned my money immediately and did not even asked to send card back. I read we can report incidents like these Sandisk to start an investion, but I don’t know Sandisk cares or not, please let me know thanks…

I put this post up originally (ages ago) because my wife had problems with two cards that she’ d purchased in the Philippines; they were not bought on eBay, but through a retailer. These cards subsequently proved to be fake. We were unable to retrieve any of the images on these 2 Gb cards even after sending them to SanDisk themselves, who offer a recovery service.

As stated above. The cards read correctly as the stated size, could be mounted and formatted. However, once they had reached capacity they would no longer function; the images could not be read at all. Effectively the cards become unmounable.

I think I am late to the party, did some reseacch on the net to find out this been going on for a long time. These fake cards drive you crazy because they don’t give you a clue what is happening. I also found out Ebay does not really care what these scammers are doing, and challenging these seller is a big hassle that does not go anywhere, the best we can do make this problem as public as we can. I bought Samsung Evo class 10 card from Walmart so far it functioning perfectly and super fast.

I’d recommend 7DayShop.com. They are safe and very reliable. I’ve been using them since the film days.

I did checked  7dayshop.com, holly sh*t, they are Brits, unreal prices $98 for 64GB class 3 , here a class 10,   64GB  sells for $60 form the best retailer in US, where this is only place professionals trust, no I don’t work for them:smileyvery-happy: I think the VAT tax really works over there,

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Capacity_64GB&ci=1097&N=4037060554+4294955781+4264330180+4069497646+4264330178+4294194738

Here is one more free utility that you can quickly use to confirm your microSD card authenticity, using your Android device.  

SD Insight on the Google Play store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi&hl=en

Hi Andromeda,

This is very genuine way I found to detect fake sd cards using 

Fake Flash Test

Fake Flash Test

Fake Flash Test is another great tool to identify fake sd cards and flash memory devices.Here we have listed almost all procedure to find and provide information about how to find Fake memory cards from online retailer.

There is also an android app available on Google Play store that helps you to detect fake sd cards directly from your android device.This is very good micro sd card test software available on Google Play store for FREE.This Android app will write a test file and read it back testing it’s content to spot fake external memory of your device. It will test the speed and the storage capacity. Useful to check for a damaged or fake card.Check SD Card Tester Android App from Google Play Store.

Source : How to Verify Fake Micro SD Card

Hi all

I recently purcased a Sandisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s SD Card from a reputable Sandisk Reseller & got the following results using H2testw v1.4:

Warning: Only 60317 of 60318 MByte tested.

Test finished without errors.

Writing speed: 34.1 MByte/s

Reading speed: 35.9 MByte/s

Am I getting my MB/s & MByte/s symbols mixed up?

The reason I tested is because I used it in my BMPCC & got drop frames.

Thanks

Pete

Very helpful. However, not that much use after you’ve already bought them. The cards that my wife bought and used initially checked out fine. She took many images until the card was full. All the images previewed before and after; it wasn’t until she removed the card from the camera and later reinserted them that she noticed the fault - by then it was too late and she could no longer which shop she’d bought them from (in the Philippines). Anyway, thanks for the tip. ???

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Mobile-memory-professional-cards/One-Way-To-Spot-Fake-Micro-SD-Cards/td-p/339450

@urbancine wrote:

Hi all

 

I recently purcased a Sandisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s SD Card from a reputable Sandisk Reseller & got the following results using H2testw v1.4:

 

Warning: Only 60317 of 60318 MByte tested.

Test finished without errors.

Writing speed: 34.1 MByte/s

Reading speed: 35.9 MByte/s

 

Am I getting my MB/s & MByte/s symbols mixed up?

 

The reason I tested is because I used it in my BMPCC & got drop frames.

 

Thanks

 

Pete

Although this is an older post, no one has answered this question.  Pete, that looks correct.  There are 8 bits in 1 byte.  so there are 8Mb/s to 1MByte/s.  Megabit is usually written Mb/s and megabyte MB/s.  Notice the capitalization for MegaByte.  So if you multiplied your writing speed and reading speed, you get the following in megabits 272.8Mb/s and 287.2Mb/s respectively.  I’m not sure if your card advertised Mb/s or MB/s.  Those would be big differences, although I know very few cards that can read/write at 280MB/s unless you pay through the nose for high end professional ones.  I’ve checked the benchmarks of Sandisk Extreme series and they go between 20MB/s to 80MB/s for high end ones.  So I think your card is spot on.

I found this forum after purchasing a counterfeit Kingston card off of a Chinese shop in Quito, Ecuador and wanting to learn more about this dark side of the market.  The card is advertised 4GB and has only 481MB usable space shown after doing the H2testw.

Cheers,

-G

Woah! Learnt something from this post. Didn’t knew that people are selling out fake cards too… 

Hello. Nice perfect fraud here. EBay specisl.
Can I upload pics?