Recently, bought a suspected fake SanDisk Micro SD Card on Qoo10 (Singapore online retailer).
Apparently, fake Micro SD cards (used for cameras as storage) are very common, even on Amazon and eBay. A popular estimate is that 1/3 of all micro SD cards on the market are fake!
The one I bought was a 16 GB SanDisk microSD card. Basically, according to this website, “The 16GB SanDisk branded item is a fake. There is no 16GB micro SD product in the SanDisk product line — it is a fake.”
What made me quite angry is that not only it is fake, it couldn’t work as well! (If it were fake but worked well, I could close one eye…) Both my Xiaomi Camera and also the card reader I got could not even detect it. The card reader with the fake microSD card could not be detected by either PC or Mac.
I think the main visible difference between the real SanDisk Micro SD and the fake is that:
- The real microSD card has a imprinted rectangle box on its flip side (see the 1st video below for more details, the real one is on the right).
- If you shine a light on the front face, it should say “Made in China” for the real Sandisk microSD card (see the 2nd video below).
Other differences include:
- The fake microSD card has lower speed and volume (for example it could be rated 64GB but only has 2GB space!)
- Lower printing quality on the fake microSD card
The authorities should really crack down on these fake SD cards. It is getting harder and harder to distinguish between the real and the fakes, some of the fakes replicate 99% of the real product up to the design of the packaging.
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