Fake Sandisk Memory cards
 

Here we see three CompactFlash Sandisk Extreme III cards....or do we?

The 2gb one came from 7dayshop.com (bought for approx £30)
The 4gb one came from Jessops (think this was near £65-70)
The 16gb one came from a Chinese ebay seller. (won for less than £25 !!!)

No prizes for guessing, even before looking closely at the pics, that the 16gb one is indeed the counterfeit one! Admittedly, it is a very good copy, so good that these photos dont show too much difference. However, the plastic texture of the card is wrong, note the difference in reflectivity of the word 'extreme'. The third photo shows the 16gb card on the right...the label is not pure white, more a cream colour. The text is also quite pale, not as black as all the others
The 16gb card Has edge serial markings as 'BH080802516B made in China'. A little investigation work reveals this serial can be traced back to the Shenzhen factory in China. The chip is their own 'TOPXCARD' branded hitachi copy (dam it....not even a Texas Instruments/Sandisk copy!)
There have been reports that this serial number is being used on cards ranging from 512mb all the way upto 32gb. Sandisk, Kingston and Lexar are the brands labels used.
Upon checking the actual capacity of this 16gb card, it is found to be 15gb (even after formatting), and write speed is about the same as a genuine UltraII card.
Reports suggest up to 90% of cards sold on ebay is counterfeit. I got mine for a silly low price, so was virtually expecting a counterfeit through the post.

Interestingly, the 2gb and 4gb cards also have variations.
I can take it the 4gb is genuine, bought as Jessops clearance stock, and also checks out with the same type Andy gave me with the D2h (and I know he buys from the high street too). Weirdly one 4gb card has the label on upside down, the other (I used to take these pics) doesn't.
The 2gb card from 7dayshop.com displays 'made in china'. However, the serial checks out and the packaging checks out with Sandisk. Capacity and write speed match the 4gb cards.
All I can find is that Sandisk do actually have multiple facilities dotted around the world manufacturing genuine products, which might go to explain why some genuine cards are now displaying 'made in china' on the edge markings. Sandisk themselves seem very sketchy about this infomation though..
What is most worrying is how good the copies are now. All comparisions I've found tell the reader how such things as fonts, print quality, trademark symbols, and materials used are radically different. Those differences aren't quite so marked as one might think.


Have a close look at your memory cards.
take a picture, say where you got it from. Hopefully, we can build up more data on memory cards.
Interested on other peoples first hand findings?

7dayshop.com are reliable and cheap, I have bought from them before, so I presume they would be legitimate.

You have to be carefull on ebay, many items from China / HongKong are fakes, sold cheaply tricking the users, who don't make sure it works properly before giving positive feedback. I once heard of a story, from a person who had bought a 2GB Usb stick. It didn't work, so he opened it up and was just a usb cable in some plastic casing, with one end sticking out. Clever indeed, but not fair or funny for the buyer!

I would only buy from 100% reliable stores, Jessops would be one of them.

My CF card came from Currys.

I would never ever use a card larger than 4Gb. This was hit home to me last week when I did that model shoot - the other photographer had a card fail on him and lost all the shots on it - that was until I recovered them for him then threw the card in the bin!

counterfeit memory can come in 4gb sizes and less too. Card capacity isn't the issue. Though, yes, potentially less shots are lost assuming both capacity cards are full

Yep, some reports suggest upto 90% are fakes......as I typed out on the orignal post above.

Definately worth checking your memory, and maybe googling the serial number on the edge markings?
It's amazing what you might find ;)

I agree with Joe, and yes, I do buy all my cards from places like Jessops - I bought one a few years back from what I consider a reputable eBay site, I've used them before and since. When I opened the packaging that looked spot on, the card (a 4Gb) inside didn't. It was so slow the buffer kept freezing the camera - my old D70. It was meant to be a Sandisk II CF card. I returned it to the seller voicing my suspicions and they pulled all their Sandisk cards off eBay within 24 hours I got a letter and an apology plus 2 proper 4Gb Sandisk cards within a few days. That is why I have used them since - though not for cards... By the way Derek I use nothing smaller than 8Gb cards now - and have done so ever since I got the D200 & D2X (both now gone) - Now I use 16 & 12 Gb Sandisk Extreme III's. Both came from Jessops and they were selling off the 16 Gb's I assume to prepare for the Extreme IV's so I got two for £65.

Yes, I was still there when they were doing that. Many of the Extreme III cards went down in price. I think I got my original 4gb one then....The newer Extreme IV ones where advertised by Jessops heavily back then.
That's a good ebay seller Andy. Definately worth buying from, as they've definately proved their honesty.
I can understand the reasoning behind using smaller cards, pretty much the same way as I didnt like using 250exp bulk film backs on cameras (apart from the horrific bulk)....
BUT, larger capacity cards do have their place. Since getting higher res SLR's with larger files, it makes sense upgrading cards. The thought of opening up a rain cover , then card door to keep changing cards is not something I want to do whilst taking pictures at football sideline, for example


I started this topic thread, mainly as it's quite startling the number of fake cards around at the moment.

If others have stories of fake cards, what they've found with them, how they spotted them, their thoughts etc, maybe even more comparison photos, please do chip in

ebay themselves know this is a major problem, they have their own guide on how to spot fakes:
http://reviews.ebay.com/How-to-spot-...00000001567660
and
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/How-to-spo...00000003010197

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

Thanks for the links Duncan.
Interesting that some are saying the fakes don't have 'made in china' on them. Obviuosly, the fakers are reading these guidelines/reviews, and modifying their fakes!

Unfortunately many of the sellers are unaware what they are doing, buying cheap Chinese wholesale in good faith.
I was duped like this and my response was to start the site http://memoracle.com which has links to free software to download which will check any type of flash memory card and if it is fake give you the proof to confront your vendor with, you will find they act very quickly in your favour with proof in front of their nose!!
There is plenty of information on there too and though it is aimed at SD cards, the software can be used with any type of card.
Good luck and I hope that helps! :)