Exposed the Scam of Fake 16TB SSDs: Inside There’s a MicroSD and Some Weights
Exposed the Scam of Fake 16TB SSDs: Inside There’s a MicroSD and Some Weights
A Reddit user has uncovered a persistent online fraud scheme that offers 16TB SSD or HDD drives at unrealistic prices on platforms like eBay. By intentionally purchasing these suspicious items, the Redditor revealed that inside a 16TB "SSD," which cost less than $30 (about €25), there was only a small motherboard and a 60GB microSD card, glued together and weighted to give a sense of solidity to the product.
16 TB SSD for only €25? What could go wrong?
by u/Hartkralle in pcmasterrace
The user, identifying as u/Hartkralle, intends to report the sellers to eBay, leveraging the robust consumer protection policy that guarantees refunds and the closure of fraudulent accounts. The mechanism of the scam is simple: the drive is recognized by the operating system with the declared capacity (e.g., 16TB), but the actual storage capacity is limited to that of the internal microSD. If an unsuspecting user tries to transfer more data than the true microSD can hold (in this case, over 60GB), the entire contents of the drive will be corrupted, resulting in irreversible data loss.
The Persistence of Digital Scams and Defense Strategies
In addition to the risk of data corruption, these fake drives obviously do not offer the reading and writing speed performance one would expect from a modern SSD. The abysmal price difference compared to authentic products makes the scam particularly appealing to those who do not closely follow the evolution of the technology market. For comparison, a 2TB portable SSD from Amazon Basics costs about €350, while a recognized brand’s 8TB drive can approach €1000.
This type of scam is not new in the online marketplace and has deep roots, as evidenced by previous cases with VHS tapes in the 1990s, where low-quality tapes were passed off as 60-minute recordings. Today, aided by the chip and memory shortage, the market has seen the emergence of particularly sophisticated SSD clones, such as imitations of the Samsung 990 Pro. In these more complex cases, the only reliable way to verify authenticity is to resort to specific software like CrystalDiskInfo.
The strategy employed by the Reddit user, while effective for the individual, raises some doubts about the real ability of e-commerce platforms to contain the phenomenon. Although eBay guarantees refunds and penalizes scammers, the opening of new accounts by the same wrongdoers makes the fight an ongoing challenge. Some users suggest the use of artificial intelligence to proactively identify and block these fraudulent listings, ensuring a more reliable market.
Despite the presence of similar scams on other platforms, such as Amazon, and for various types of products, such as lithium-ion batteries with inflated capacities, awareness and taking precautions remain fundamental.