Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

I have discovered that I own several counterfeit memory cards, both CF and SD. They are now in the trash. I know where I got them (a national chain camera store with an expensive name, Walgreen's, and two camera sellers on e-Bay.) I've learned the hard way that this was foolish to try to save a few dollars when losing my images while I'm still taking them can be so costly and devastating.

The counterfeit brands were Kingston, Lexar, PNY and SanDisk, all well known brand names.

Has anyone else discovered they purchased a counterfeit card?

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Thanks for the heads-up! How did you find out they were counterfeit?

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Too many had failed. I checked for key indicators and found half of the ones that had failed over the past 2 years were fake. The rest were 5 Lexar and 2 PNY that were legitimate but failed anyway. Lexar was having problems a year or so ago, so that helped explained those 5 (out of 11 in total ranging from 4MB to 8MB).

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

So how do you avoid buying a counterfeit? The best way is to only buy from a reputable dealer or web site (like B&H Photo, Adorama, etc.). And if a deal is too good to be true or much cheaper than available elsewhere, it could easily be a counterfeit (poor quality and lower reliability).

Here is a site that explains how to identify a counterfeit SanDisk memory card:

http://members.shaw.ca/fakesandisk/

And several other sites worth reading. All good reasons not to buy memory cards on e-Bay, and only from a known reputable dealer or website. Once you have permanently lost hundreds of images, you will never again see that special price as so special! Learn from those who have lost hundreds of images and benefit.

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/05/20/one-third-of-the-sandisk-memory-cards-on-earth-are-counterfeit/

http://oeding.com/tutorial-how-to-spot-a-fake-memory-card/

http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Fake_Memory_Cards

http://www.digicamhelp.com/accessories/memory-cards/fake-memory-cards/

http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-Sony-Memory-Stick-Pro-Duo-MagicGate-Cards-Exposed?ugid=10000000001236041

http://www.popphoto.com/how-to/2008/12/real-or-fake

Sheeba Loc: Maryland

Thanks so much for this information.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

Thanks for the info. I will have to go back and check the few that I bought on ebay a couple of months back. Although I did buy them from the same people I bought my camera from and everything there has been legit.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

This thread has inspired me ask Festina Lente to author a new FAQ entitled: How can I discern a counterfeit memory card?
We will use the above as a core for the FAQ.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

I checked my cards and they seem to be fine. They have the indentation at the bottom and a serial number on the back like the links say they should.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

I think that is a good idea. I didn't even know that there were that many cards out there that were counterfit. I was shocked to hear how many SanDisk were counterfit from that one article. I will definitely be more careful from now on when purchasing cards.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

This is old news....I found out I had a counterfeit a SanDisk several years back. I had bought a high end card off of eBay & it even came with a Rescue Pro mini CD disc. Well, the CD loaded, & it asked for the CF card serial # to validate the installation. When I entered it, it didn't work. Called SanDisk & that's when I found out the card was counterfeit. It hasn't failed though...Many of the counterfeit cards won't fail, but they don't have the capacity printed on them nor the read/write speeds...

WNYShooter Loc: WNY

I'm not surprised.

I think many here in the US, in fact, North America, would be amazed at just how many counterfeit goods are in our retail and wholesale channels. My best friend is a manager in US Customs and his department specifically handles IP infringment. He tells me that they seize over $1B MSRP a year in counterfeit goods at the US border, and that they believe they are only catching about 15-20% of the actual bad goods entering. And the top items counterfeited? Consummer Electronics. Also in the top ten, from memory and not in any particular order: Optical media, clothing, footwear, cigarettes(this one really shocked me), pharmacy drugs, computer parts, and etc..

The company I work for has a 100% lifetime guarantee on our industrial products, and lately, about 6% of our warranty returns are knock-offs, even more troubling, many of the recent examples are very very good copies on the exterior, even the packaging and documentation is well done. Since our products are 100% manufactured here in the US, and only sold by us and a handfull of outside distributors, they have to somehow be physically aquiring our items to copy them. Even worse, we have even begun seeing copies of a few custom products which are made to order, meaning that they are either getting the design information from our facilities, or directly from the specific customer.

Shaka Loc: Brisbane, Australia

Thanks for the heads-up it is appreciated.

BobT Loc: southern Minnesota

Read an article some time ago that stated more than 80% of the memory cards sold on Ebay were either, counterfit, defective, or stolen.

Lucian Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio

a radio programme recently was stating that even the US govmt has been having problems with counterfeit part for military jets popping up and such parts for commercial airliners have been a problem for years. It is amazing what they come up with and it amazes me how they get the parts to copy and how they get them into circulation of such parts.

I bought a Kingston 32GB SD card brand new still in the package for about 30% less than retail from a guy on Craigslist and it worked for a few days then suddenly failed. Called them and found out it should have a serial number imprinted in black ink on the back, which it did not. The front was identical to a real one though.

CanonJC

I have 9 memory cards, all Sandisk. 4 of 9 cards are new. I will check them. Thank you a million!