We’ve blogged about fake USB flash drives in the past and we were recently contacted by the producers of the television program BBC One Fake Britain. They were looking to speak to some industry experts about the pitfalls of ordering cheap USB memory sticks which actually turned out to be fakes. Please click here if you would like to see the full episode of Fake Britain where our resident USB expert Alan Dhillon gives some sound advice to the great British public.
A fake USB Flash Drive has been falsely programmed to display a larger memory capacity than it actually has. When plugging the USB drive into your computer, it will display the fake size so this isn’t a good way to check the real capacity. There is a free program called H2testw that can be downloaded which is a good way to determine whether you have been sold a counterfeit USB stick. The software writes multiple files to the USB up to the alleged memory size and reads back the files to verify them. Once the test has completed, it will show the true memory capacity.
The main problem with fake USBs is that the user is unable to retrieve data that they think they have securely stored. You may think that you have saved your photos, music or other data safely onto the drive but may only notice the problem when you go back to them and try and open or use them. In some cases, a fake USB may only be discovered months or years later when you suddenly need some valuable data that you have backed up and find out that not only has your data gone but so has the company that sold you the fake.
The problem of fake USB Flash Drives is widespread and is progressively getting worse as more and more fake USBs flood the marketplace. It is a huge problem both for the consumer and genuine distributors like ourselves as it damages our industry with counterfeits making consumers more unwilling to pay fair prices for genuine USBs.
There are numerous articles written on the internet about fake USB flash drives and how millions of people have been duped into buying them. Consumers should always be wary and if possible, always check a sellers rating and reviews to ensure no-one else has complained about data problems with their drives. It may be a cliché but if it is too good to be true then it probably is. USB memory chip prices are always getting cheaper but there is no way that a genuine 64GB USB is going to cost anywhere near £5.
Please get in touch with us if you would like some great prices on branded USB memory sticks.
