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Fake memory cards demystified

By Leonard Goh
March 21, 2008
We often hear people saying that "if it's cheap, it's inferior". Well, that may not apply for some services or products, but when it comes to memory media it is often the case. The fake ones are generally sold online or via unscrupulous retailers at half the price (or sometimes much less) of the real McCoys. So what difference will it make when using a bogus media?

For starters, counterfeit memory card wouldn't work as well as the real deal. The most distinct difference would be its performance. Write speed and transfer rate are slower, and storage capacity of the fake ones may even be lesser than indicated. There are reports of people buying a fake 2GB memory media, only to find out that it can hold just half its capacity.

Most flash media come with a warranty card in the packaging. If you've bought a fake media and it fails, there is no way the real manufacturer will replace it, even if its brand name is pasted on the card.

The failure rates for the imitations vary, but don't take the chance. The last thing you will want to happen is for the card to fail when you are in the middle of a holiday. Some of the fakers tend to get corrupted when formatted, or when read by card readers.

So how do we spot the tell-tale signs of a counterfeit?

Packaging


Most of the time, the packaging will give it away. Fake memory media normally comes in shabby-looking boxes. Established brands like SanDisk and Sony will have a hologram sticker on the box stating its genuine origin, while fake memory media often comes in an inferior-quality box and doesn't display a hologram sticker. Some stores will even attempt to sell the frauds as it is without the box, at a much lower price.

Labels


Look at the card carefully for its serial number. Chances are that if it is the real deal, the media will have a serial number on it. Frauds will often bypass this process and produce cards that don't carry any serial number. Note that the wordings on fakes may be printed wrongly. There are reports on the Web where people have bought cards from "Sorry Corporation". Go figure.

Presentation


Since the pirates don't have the exact same mould that the original manufacturers have, the cards that they roll out often have missing notches or catches. These media may not sit in the memory slot properly (due to size and design) and could thus hinder operation.
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