it is important to be able to spot a fake.
This page includes methods to spot fakes,
and examples of fake cards.
Why should you care ?
* Inferior quality card - you're not getting what you paid for
* No warranty - when the card fails, you're out of luck
* Fake cards sometimes have invalid partition sizes, making it likely to fail
* It will drive costs of genuine cards up
Spotting a fake
there is no device in the market
that can test the card, and ensure that it's genuine.
You must manually scrutinise your card,
(both visually and by testing it's performance),
to get some idea of it's genuinity.
Presentation quality and differences:
First thing to look for is poorly printed labels and material;
most fake cards have slight differences from the real deal.
Example of fake 1GB Sandisk SD Card
This particular card was also missing a notch, making it quite easy to spot:
Example of fake
2GB SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash Card
Note the faded red print on the back, and
the "TM" next to "CF" at the top right side on the fake:
Note there is no serial on the bottom of the fake
(Serial blurred on the real one)
Note the fake box has no hologram:
Other example of
SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash 2GB Card
Note the poor print and alignment of label:
Note the poor quality workmanship on edge,
print quality and alignment of text:
The SanDisk card manual was different to the real thing as well (Note that the manual on the right hand is from a Sandisk Ultra II, where as the manual on the left is for a 'Flash Memory Card'):
Example of Fake
2GB Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo (High Speed).
Note that the fake card has poor quality printing and does not have the same various extrusions and intrusions as the genuine card. With the number of lips and dips on the genuine card it isn't difficult to spot the fake.
*Right Picture = Fake
*Left Picture = Fake
Please Visit http://martybugs.net/articles/fakesandisk.cgi for more information.
