Reduced Read / Write Speed: This one is very common.When it comes to counterfeit memory cards, you will find a number of different types of them out there: In fact, it is not worth buying used and refurbished memory cards, because you won’t be able to tell how heavily those cards had been used. eBay is filled with sellers with high ratings who are involved in selling counterfeit products, while Craigslist or other online forums are going to be mostly selling used, refurbished or counterfeit memory cards that you are not going to be able to test before you hand them your money. The same goes for others.īe especially careful when buying from websites such as eBay and Craigslist. For example, when buying from Amazon, I always make sure that I get the product that is marked as “Shipped and sold by Amazon”. When buying from such websites, I always make sure that the product is shipped and sold by the same company. However, many online retailers such as Amazon, NewEgg and Walmart allow third party sellers on their platforms and that’s typically where most of the troubles come from. That’s why they take extra measures to only purchase products directly from manufacturers and they never allow anyone to resell their products on their online platforms. In addition, they have a reputation to maintain – if they ever ship a fake product, they know that the news will quickly propagate across the Internet and hurt their businesses in the long run. As a result, such companies are less likely to get scammed. Smaller companies take returns very seriously, because it is one area that could get out of hand quickly and result in huge financial losses to the company. The staff they employ in their return departments are typically very knowledgeable, and if they see anything wrong with the return, they won’t issue a refund. These companies are much smaller than Amazon and they are specialized in camera gear, computers and storage. If I don’t want to go through these hassles, I just buy camera gear and accessories from the companies I trust: B&H Photo Video and Adorama. Personally, I do buy quite a bit from Amazon, but I always make sure to test electronics out after receiving, to make sure that they are not fake. Since Amazon handles so many returns, its staff might not be able to understand differences between a real and a fake product. The fake product might then recirculate and end up with another customer. Amazon is a huge company and as a result, it sometimes gets scammed by resellers and sometimes even by some customers, who buy legitimate products and return fake ones to get a full refund. Does this mean that one should not be buying from Amazon? Not necessarily. And the worst part is, some of the products were marked as “Prime”, sold and shipped by Amazon. Unfortunately, things are getting more complicated today, because even trusted companies end up selling fake products, often without knowing about it.įor example, the online giant is perceived as a trusted seller, but a number of photographers have experienced receiving camera boxes filled with sand, bricks and other junk, while those who have purchased memory cards through Amazon received fake SanDisk and Lexar memory cards. The last is especially important, because buying from an untrusted source can result in receiving a fake product. However, while shopping for memory cards, we should always pay close attention to things like memory card brand, speed, size, price and seller. Personally, I only shop for memory cards when they are on sale about once a year, as I also think that it is not necessary to pay full price on an item that often goes on sale. Why spend hundreds of dollars on expensive storage, if you can pay much less? That’s the typical thought process of many photographers and that’s understandable – after-all, given how expensive camera equipment is, it is tough to spend even more money on accessories. Without a doubt, photographers love great deals, especially when it comes to memory cards. Understanding which memory cards are real vs fake is extremely important, which is why we decided to write this article. The problem with fake memory cards is that they either completely misrepresent their true capabilities, or contain much less storage than advertised, which can result in storage failures with unrecoverable data. Some of these fake memory cards have no-name brands, but most of them look legit under big brand names such as SanDisk and Lexar. One of the biggest issues that the photography community faces today is fake memory cards that show up in many online stores, including the most popular ones such as Amazon. While many of us in the photography world spend time talking about the necessity of dual memory card slots and their importance on modern digital cameras, few seem to truly understand bigger problems related to storage media.
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