eBay Counterfeit Memory Card Scam Continues

Despite complaints, eBay continues to sell fakes.

June 9, 2017, Los Angeles, CA – It's a simple scam, take a low capacity memory card costing a few cents and reprint it with a higher capacity label and a globally recognized trademark. Sell it on eBay as an authentic items for up to $100.00 or more.

It's no bigger than your fingernail, but this tiny replaceable memory card holds your data, photos and contacts in your phone, camera, iPad, tablet, laptop and GPS. However, it's a fake and you are likely to lose your data, images, and you may damage your equipment. If you are planning a purchase to save irreplaceable documents or photos, buy wisely. Could you identify this 64GB microSDHC^® card as a fake? If you can't, you may lose a massive amount of data.

The Counterfeit Report^®, a watchdog and consumer advocate website, found 1.6 million counterfeit memory cards on eBay in 2016 and reported 1,339,254 to eBay, authorized by the trademark holders, for removal. eBay listings show that 157,231 counterfeits had already been sold to eBay consumers before the removals.

Alarmingly, while eBay claims they "do not allow counterfeits" - the fact is they do. Even more distressing, eBay does not notify buyers they purchased a counterfeit item even after eBay is informed of the fake items. Buyers, of course, would be entitled to a refund under eBay's "Money Back Guarantee."

Shown below are just some of the counterfeit micro SD^® memory cards listed or purchased on eBay. All microSDHC^® cards over 32GB are fake - there is no such authentic product in any brand.

(photos: The Counterfeit Report^®)

The micro SD^® trademark is owned by SD-3C, LLC, who licenses its use to authentic, conforming products. None of the items shown are authentic licensed products.

Consumers cannot determine the actual memory capacity of a counterfeit memory card by simply viewing the capacity displayed on their computer, phone or camera. The counterfeiters are too smart for that, and simply overwrite the real memory capacity with a false capacity to match any capacity they print on the counterfeit packaging and card. A free downloadable test program (H2TESTW.exe) will easily tell you the real capacity of your card. Additionally, there is no manufacturer to honor any warranty.

The removable micro SD memory storage card is an amazing, convenient and trouble-free storage device. When it works, it is unnoticed. When you get a fake, it will be the very core of your frustration, despair and pain – and your data may be gone. When the counterfeit memory cards reach their actual capacity, they overwrite and erase any existing stored data.

If you are going to trust your data and photos to a micro SD^® card, buy authentic memory cards from authorized retailers or directly from the manufacturer. See TheCounterfeitReport.com for more examples of counterfeit and fake memory cards.

eBay has become the perfect platform to enable and facilitate criminal activity and benefit from the proceeds of dishonest actions. These practices impact jobs, consumer safety and public trust using deception with impunity. Counterfeiting costs U.S. manufacturers over $250 billion, and U.S. workers over 750,000 jobs.