Fake Flash Drives: Buyer Beware (A Public Service Announcement)

[Halfblind]

I think that I found a fake flash drive buyer beware. My brother bought the flash drive linked below from Amazon. I was thinking, "sweet I have more storage for my Steam/GOG games." Unfortunately, I was dead wrong. Upon installing a few larger games from both Steam and GOG the drive is unable to install anything more after around 60GB.

 

When installing a game from GOG the files were corrupt resulting in the game not working properly. When installing another game from Steam the game appeared to install correctly but there was no data on the drive. After installing the game directly to my SDD and then moving it to the flash drive in question the files became corrupted. Today I was able to install the Steam game to another flash drive without issues.

 

Does anyone else have this issue with these drives? I think the truth is in the pudding, my brother bought a scam drive. If you have ever bought a fake flash drive from Amazon or eBay can you please post the link to the fake drive. I am fully aware of these scams, but many like my brother are not. If we can save just 1 person together, we have done enough. Please, I warn you, do not buy these drives thank you.

 

The Amazon link doesn't let me paste the actual link which is a red flag. Below is what the link pastes for your information. I also still posted the share link just in case anyone wanted to see the product in question.

 

"Amazon.com: USB C Memory Stick 1TB Phone External Storage, USB 3.1 Flash Drive with USB C/Micro USB Compatible MacBook iPad pro(2019/2020) iPad mini6 and PC (Black 1000GB) : Electronics"

 

 

https://a.co/d/fw1VfBZ

Edited May 23, 2023 by Halfblind

[dasho]

I don't usually use shortened links when trying to warn people about scams.

[Halfblind]

24 minutes ago, dasho said:

I don't usually use shortened links when trying to warn people about scams.

Thanks for the heads up. By habit I am used to copying and pasting the share link and not the actual link. Please also read the updated text at the bottom of the OP.

[Gentlepoke]

Below is the link in OP, but without the shortener:

Spoiler

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HC426WK - USB C Memory Stick 1TB Phone External Storage, USB 3.1 Flash Drive with USB C/Micro USB Compatible MacBook iPad pro(2019/2020) iPad mini6 and PC (Black 1000GB)

If something is too good to be true, for example there isn't a named brand on it, or the price is pretty cheap, for the most part it'll likely be a hacked firmware and will probably only contain like 32GB of space.

[Individualised]

As a general rule 1TB flash storage usually will never cost less than ~£100. Anything below that is likely a scam. What's more offensive is that Amazon suggests these scam drives first when searching for 1TB USB drives.

[Gentlepoke]

3 minutes ago, Individualised said:

As a general rule 1TB flash storage usually will never cost less than ~£100. Anything below that is likely a scam. What's more offensive is that Amazon suggests these scam drives first when searching for 1TB USB drives.

I generally find that the following explains quite a lot of the brands selling on Amazon well: 

Spoiler

 

In the case of the USB item, LOMYGUS would be the indicator that something was not as it seemed.

[siliconn]

Even the genuine flash drives are something to watch out for, I have in my Possession a "64 GB" USB 3.0 Flash Drive from HP that actually only has 57.2gb of Usable Storage, granted i don't feel as burned because i bought the thing for like $9 at OfficeMax during a sale, but still... pretty bad when even the manufacturers are doing it too, i think VWestlife did a pretty good video on this recently.

[Individualised]

34 minutes ago, Gentlepoke said:

I generally find that the following explains quite a lot of the brands selling on Amazon well: 

  Hide contents

 

In the case of the USB item, LOMYGUS would be the indicator that something was not as it seemed.

The Chinese government needs to start properly regulating manufacturing of consumer products. Companies that don't adhere to safety and counterfeiting regulations should not be allowed to sell on Amazon period, even if such regulations don't exist in the country of the manufacturer. It's clear that these manufacturers have no concern other than to make money via deception, these companies do not even see that there is anything wrong with what they're doing and think it's just normal; I learned this from a podcast episode (I don't remember if it was Reply All or Underunderstood) which went into detail about the shady underworld of Chinese manufacturers that target Western online storefronts such as Amazon and Wal-Mart. Large companies based in China have a huge problem with this due to the lack of regulation regarding counterfeiting and consumer safety. Fake electronics are one thing, but fake food equipment is a whole other thing. For example I see a dog bowl in that video. No way would I give that to a pet.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Individualised

[dasho]

38 minutes ago, Individualised said:

The Chinese government needs to start properly regulating manufacturing of consumer products.

 

Just when I thought I wouldn't have a good laugh today.

[houston]

50 minutes ago, siliconn said:

I have in my Possession a "64 GB" USB 3.0 Flash Drive from HP that actually only has 57.2gb of Usable Storage

That's not a scam or a big hidden partition, that's just Windows' preferred method of representing data capacity. All hardware manufacturers (storage, RAM, probably VRAM too) list the capacity of their items in GB, gigabytes (orders of 1000000000 bytes).

Windows lists storage (but not RAM I think?) in GiB, gibibytes (orders of 1073741824 bytes), however they still use the symbol GB and continue the antiquated practice of calling them gigabytes.

Other operating systems allow you to display data capacities in whichever method you prefer.

[HavoX]

58 minutes ago, Individualised said:

As a general rule 1TB flash storage usually will never cost less than ~£100. Anything below that is likely a scam.

Another rule of thumb, buy from a reputable brand, like SanDisk.

[Individualised]

Just now, houston said:

That's not a scam or a big hidden partition, that's just Windows' preferred method of representing data capacity. All hardware manufacturers (storage, RAM, probably VRAM too) list the capacity of their items in GB, gigabytes (orders of 1000000000) bytes.

 

Okay so VWestlife did an interesting video on this recently. Those types of storage discrepancies started out as operating systems representing size in binary while manufacturers represented their size in decimal, but if you notice, 57.2 binary gigabytes does not match up with 64 gigabytes. A lot of manufacturers now, even legitimate ones, are cheaping out by using flash chips that have failed QA and simply disabling the non-functional parts of the flash chip. This is why most packaging states storage size may vary from advertised.

[Individualised]

3 minutes ago, HavoX said:

Another rule of thumb, buy from a reputable brand, like SanDisk.

You have to watch out for counterfeiters though; there's especially many fake SanDisk drives floating about that look like the real things but feel cheaper and have less storage.

[Halfblind]

7 minutes ago, HavoX said:

buy from a reputable brand, like SanDisk.

Just a reminder, my brother bought the flash drive not me. If I would have bought the drive, I would have chosen a brand that I know and trust. I wish that he would have bought a SanDisk. That is currently the drive that I have installed on my laptop right now. Other 'reputable' brands include, Samsung, Kingston, Lexar and PNY.

[Murdoch]

Yeah this definitely falls into the "If it sounds too good to be true, it is" category. I remember a video on YouTube where a guy investigated an alleged 8TB external SSD he got off Wish.com for stupid cheap. He attached it, and it looked OK at first though there were suspiciously 4TB partitions. Popped it open and it was a USB hub with 4 32GB drives attached and crammed into the housing, with the drives hacked to report 2TB instead of 32GB.

[Halfblind]

4 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

8TB external SSD he got off Wish.com for stupid cheap.

An 8TB Samsung internal SSD is like $400+ on Amazon while an Inland NVMe is like over $800.

This also sounds like a plot for a Linus Tech Tips video.

[Individualised]

23 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

Yeah this definitely falls into the "If it sounds too good to be true, it is" category. I remember a video on YouTube where a guy investigated an alleged 8TB external SSD he got off Wish.com for stupid cheap. He attached it, and it looked OK at first though there were suspiciously 4TB partitions. Popped it open and it was a USB hub with 4 32GB drives attached and crammed into the housing, with the drives hacked to report 2TB instead of 32GB.

This sounds like a case of the manufacturer getting scammed themselves. They tried to sell cheap makeshift SSDs made out of flash drives and ended up buying fakes.

[Murdoch]

19 minutes ago, Halfblind said:

An 8TB Samsung internal SSD is like $400+ on Amazon while an Inland NVMe is like over $800.

This also sounds like a plot for a Linus Tech Tips video.

 

It wasn't Linus but yeah along those lines. He knew it was a scam going in, just wanted to show people how it was done.

[houston]

1 hour ago, Individualised said:

but if you notice, 57.2 binary gigabytes does not match up with 64 gigabytes.

Whoops, you're right. It should only be a bit over 59GiB. I doubt there's a full 6GiB partition hidden in there either. I tried doing the maths but I assumed that I got it wrong

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Now its time to get the USB Flash Drive manufactures to incorporate holograms on their genuine products.

[HavoX]

14 hours ago, Halfblind said:

Just a reminder, my brother bought the flash drive not me.

...I don't think your brother should even be legally qualified to buy anything that is too technical to him, let along flash drives, heh. Perhaps this thread should knock some sense into him. ;-)

 

11 hours ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

Now its time to get the USB Flash Drive manufactures to incorporate holograms on their genuine products.

Seconded.

[Individualised]

16 hours ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

Now its time to get the USB Flash Drive manufactures to incorporate holograms on their genuine products.

No? I've seen more fake knockoff shit with tatty-looking hologram stickers all over than premium products that use them.

[Ludi]

Who the hell is falling for 1000gb flash drives lmao 

 

20 hours ago, Individualised said:

The Chinese government needs to start properly regulating manufacturing of consumer products. 

 

They're too busy regulating their people.

[Individualised]

Just now, Ludi said:

Who the hell is falling for 1000gb flash drives lmao

It's 2023 and they exist in reasonable quantities now, albeit at a high price. You can even get 1TB microSD cards. This actually makes fakes a bigger issue now as it means the fakes seem more credible and they can charge the same prices as they do for real 1TB drives.

[indigotyrian]

Fake flash drives in general are quite popular, particularly on online storefronts. They aren't always immediately obvious, either. Atomic Shrimp did a couple of great videos breaking these down:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Bucket]

22 hours ago, houston said:

That's not a scam or a big hidden partition, that's just Windows' preferred method of representing data capacity. All hardware manufacturers (storage, RAM, probably VRAM too) list the capacity of their items in GB, gigabytes (orders of 1000000000 bytes). 

Windows lists storage (but not RAM I think?) in GiB, gibibytes (orders of 1073741824 bytes), however they still use the symbol GB and continue the antiquated practice of calling them gigabytes.

Other operating systems allow you to display data capacities in whichever method you prefer.

 

This is a pet peeve of mine. The discrepancy is NOT "Windows's preferred method" because Microsoft doesn't know how numbers work. PC nomenclature always assumed numbering in powers of 2 which made perfect sense because binary is the alphabet of computer language. RAM is still measured in powers of 2 because arbitrary memory capacities would be a logistical nightmare. Floppy drives used it. Early HDDs used it. Even modern drives measure allocation units (the smallest chunk of data it can store) that way; a 4KB unit is 4092 bytes and not 4000.

 

It was the marketing executives of hard drive companies who said, "Hey, you know what? Instead of putting 1073741824 bytes in our drives, we can reduce it 1000000000 and STILL call it a gigabyte!" Then they all high-fived each other, fired 100 workers and gave themselves raises.

 

Fuck those guys. 1024 bytes is a KILOBYTE.

[houston]

Nobody calls 100₂ "One hundred in base-2"*, because (contemporary) human language is exclusively decimal. It's my personal position that it makes equal sense for 1024 to have ever been simplified to the metric unit of a Kilo, no matter how much inertia might be going behind it. The maximum value of an unsigned character is 255, if there were some hypothetical phrase which were equal to 250 in ordinary English speech (maybe a millaquarter**? I don't know Latin), you wouldn't be able to just say it's equal to that and expect everyone to know you really mean the "computer millaquarter".

 

*Before anyone wonders, this isn't even technically correct. One hundred means one hundred things, that English numeral isn't instrinsically tied to the Arabic positional numbering concept of "One-zero-zero", just like it isn't intrinsically tied to being one C in Roman numerals.

**Edit: A quartermillion! Duh.

Edited May 27, 2023 by houston

[Bucket]

23 hours ago, siliconn said:

Even the genuine flash drives are something to watch out for, I have in my Possession a "64 GB" USB 3.0 Flash Drive from HP that actually only has 57.2gb of Usable Storage, granted i don't feel as burned because i bought the thing for like $9 at OfficeMax during a sale, but still... pretty bad when even the manufacturers are doing it too, i think VWestlife did a pretty good video on this recently.

To address the original point...

Yes, companies are putting their stupid shovelware on drives. I bought a 16GB SanDisk drive years ago that automatically installed some "recovery" bullshit that was spyware for all I knew. As you probably know, a regular format won't get rid of it. A utility built into Windows called DISKPART can help you wipe the entire drive and get that space back. (Be VERY CAUTIOUS using that utility because there are no guardrails.)

[Halfblind]

On 5/24/2023 at 8:11 AM, HavoX said:

...I don't think your brother should even be legally qualified to buy anything that is too technical to him,

Give my brother a break, things like this happen to most people from time to time. Plus, he is the one who had to teach me how to use a smartphone. When it comes to PC's, music, science and video games I know more than anyone else in my family. For me it does help to watch Austin Evans and Linus Tech Tips to keep up with current trends. I also possess a more 'sensitive' gut instinct than both my brothers. I also don't just act before I think either. I wish that they would remember to come to me before purchase anything tech related too.

 

That being said I need some help. What do I do with the scam drive? I really want him to get his money back, but I am afraid of what will happen to the drive if we send it back. Does Amazon reimburse you if you don't send it back? I feel that if the seller is smart enough to hack the firmware on the drive wouldn't they be smart enough to retrieve my data even after the drive has been formatted? Please help, what is your advice?

[dasho]

14 minutes ago, Halfblind said:

That being said I need some help. What do I do with the scam drive? I really want him to get his money back, but I am afraid of what will happen to the drive if we send it back. Does Amazon reimburse you if you don't send it back? I feel that if the seller is smart enough to hack the firmware on the drive wouldn't they be smart enough to retrieve my data even after the drive has been formatted? Please help, what is your advice?

 

If there is info on there that you don't want randos to see then destroy the drive and eat the monetary loss. There are utilities that can try to overwrite drives/partitions with various patterns in order to make data unrecoverable, but destruction is the safest method.