You\u2019ve probably heard the popular joke that \u201cyou can never be too rich or too good-looking.\u201d If there was a computer equivalent, it would probably be that \u201cyou can never have too much processor power, or too big a hard drive.\u201d The good news, where computers are concerned, is that both processors (by experts) and drives (by almost anyone) can be upgraded relatively easily and that there\u2019s a booming market for those upgrades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The corresponding bad news is that there are a lot of fraudulent sellers out there offering bogus deals, even major websites like those of Amazon and Walmart. Processor chips aren\u2019t easily faked, but solid-state drives (SSDs) unfortunately are. If you\u2019re in the market for an upgraded drive, here\u2019s how to avoid being scammed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Traditional hard drives worked by encoding data on spinning discs coated with iron oxide. A set of magnetic heads could then read or write data, by choosing the correct spot on the discs and moving there. Those moving parts, of course, meant it took some time to find the data you were looking for. Over time, drives got bigger, spun faster and found data more quickly \u2014 but there were clear upper limits on their speed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
SSDs are different.\u00a0 At bottom they\u2019re made up of memory chips, though not the kind used for your computer\u2019s main memory.\u00a0 Consumer SSDs use a kind of chips called flash NAND<\/em>, which can be read and written many times but unlike your computer\u2019s memory won\u2019t lose their data when turned off (NAND isn\u2019t an acronym but a type of logic gate<\/a>, which is an electrical engineering thing that\u2019s outside the scope of this article).\u00a0 They\u2019re faster than traditional hard drives by a lot<\/em>: modern hard drives can transfer data at about 200 mb\/second, while consumer SSDs can transfer data at up to 3500 mb\/second.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously we\u2019re leaving out a lot of detail, but the short version is that SSDs are faster, quieter and draw less power than old-school hard drives. That\u2019s why they\u2019re found now in all but the cheapest devices. Unfortunately they also cost more than conventional hard drives, which is why there\u2019s an opening for scammers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n High-profile third-party platforms like the ones hosted by Amazon and Walmart have been a Really Big Deal in online shopping. Those companies already sell a huge range of products, but opening their sites to third-party sellers made it possible for almost anyone to sell almost anything there. Which is a good thing, as a rule, but it\u2019s also opened the door for scammers to take advantage of their visibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And boy, do they take advantage.\u00a0 The FTC\u2019s 2022 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book<\/a> records over 327,000 reports of shopping scams \u2014 good for second place among common forms of fraud \u2014 and total losses of over $358 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n This kind of retail fraud can take a lot of forms, including: <\/p>\n\n\n\n SSD scams typically fall into that last category, using various technologies to create a fake SSD that seems to work but in fact is not at all what it was supposed to be. Let\u2019s take a closer look at how that works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Suppose you\u2019re running out of space on your current drive and want lots more room for games, photos, music, cat videos \u2026 whatever\u2019s your particular pleasure. If you go to any of the major sites and start searching, you\u2019ll find that SSDs aimed at the consumer market usually top out at 2 to 4TB (a terabyte, for marketing purposes, is 1000GB), with a relatively small number of larger sizes available at prices ranging into the thousands of dollars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, over the past year, a number of third-party vendors have offered SSDs on major shopping sites that claim to offer an impressively large 16TB capacity for under $100. How is this possible? Well \u2026 it isn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When reviewers and columnists smelled a rat and ordered units to evaluate, they discovered that the supposed SSD was actually just a compact flash card \u2014 the kind you\u2019d see in something like your car\u2019s dashcam or a pro-quality camera \u2014 with a much smaller capacity.\u00a0 The bogus drive\u2019s interface simply lied to any connected computer<\/a>, and pinkie-promised that it really was a big SSD.\u00a0 For one reviewer, at computer site ZDNet, the flash card inside didn\u2019t even work<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For companies like Amazon and Walmart, incidents like this are damaging because buyers don\u2019t blame the actual no-name vendor: They bought from the Amazon or the Walmart website, so they blame Amazon or Walmart. After too many incidents, they\u2019ll be tempted to stop using the platform altogether (and negative publicity certainly doesn\u2019t help either). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem is, these sites work very hard at making it easy for entrepreneurs and new startups to sign up and list products on the platform. That\u2019s what brings life \u2014 and eyeballs \u2014 to the website, and enforcing tough regulations on these small-scale vendors would defeat the purpose. This leaves websites playing a constant game of whack-a-mole, with shady vendors often returning under a new name within hours of being banned or delisted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Major sites like Amazon will usually reimburse you for any fraudulent sales as a way to minimize that kind of reputational damage. That won\u2019t always be the case with smaller online marketplaces, and if you get a bogus drive that appears to work it may take you months to even realize you\u2019ve been scammed (and by that time, it\u2019s usually too late for a refund). Even if you do<\/em> get your money back, the whole incident still costs you time and stress. The site itself will also need to account for that added outlay, which over time drives up costs for everyone. It\u2019s a lose-lose scenario. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how can you tell when you\u2019re looking at a \u201clikely-fake\u201d product listing? Reviewers who\u2019ve written about these on major computer sites knew at a glance that they were likely bogus, because the price was so far removed from what a legitimate product would cost. But if you aren\u2019t a tech writer, you wouldn\u2019t necessarily know that. You\u2019d just be looking for a big drive at an attractive price, and these (apparently) fit that description. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly, looking at the reviews won\u2019t necessarily help either.\u00a0 Unsurprisingly, scammers who are already gaming the system by selling fake products have no scruples about gaming the reviews system, as well<\/a>.\u00a0 Criminals can use multiple methods to recycle reviews for other, legitimate products and attach them to the new, bogus product; a practice that\u2019s called review merging<\/em>, review hijacking<\/em><\/a> or review reuse<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever you call it, the ultimate outcome is that a very shady product can appear to have hundreds or even thousands of positive reviews. That\u2019s a problem for ordinary consumers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how can you confidently order a good upgrade for your computer? There are several ways you can stack the odds in your favor. One is to shun \u201cmarketplace sellers\u201d in general, and only buy directly from Amazon, Walmart and similar vendors (\u201csold and fulfilled by \u2026\u201d rather than \u201csold by [x] and fulfilled by Amazon\/Walmart\u201d). Of course that shuts out a lot of perfectly legitimate small businesses, so it\u2019s not necessarily your best option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Making a practice of actually reading the product reviews \u2014 not just looking at the star rating and how many reviews there are \u2014 helps a lot. If you find that you\u2019re looking at a whole bunch of five-star reviews about a hairbrush or an electric rice cooker, you can reasonably assume that the entire listing is bogus. Similarly if there are a lot of reviews but they\u2019re all clustered around the same date, and have much the same phrasing, there\u2019s a strong likelihood those reviews are fraudulent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most importantly, take a moment to compare the price of the drive you\u2019re interested in against others that cite similar specs. If anything else that seems comparable offers much lower capacity and speed, or comes in at a much higher price, that should be a big red flag for you. Think of it as getting quotes for having your roof done: if three contractors quote you $10,000 to $15,000, and one says he\u2019ll do it for $500 and a case of beer, that lowest bid is probably not legitimate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly there\u2019s no equivalent to Spokeo<\/a>\u2019s people-search tools for online vendors.\u00a0 Most of them are located overseas to begin with, and they\u2019re ready to switch to a new and equally bogus business name in a heartbeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n At best, if you\u2019ve gotten an email address<\/a> or phone number<\/a> from them in the course of your interactions, you can try running those through a Spokeo search.\u00a0 If it turns out that there is indeed a U.S. resident connected with the scam operation, this may help you in filing a complaint with law enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, the best thing you can do is simply to remember the age-old advice that \u201cif it seems too good to be true, it usually is.\u201d Just remembering that principle will do a lot to protect you from scams in general, not just those involving bogus SSDs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tech Target – Logic Gate (AND, OR, XOR, NOT, NAND, NOR and XNOR)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. Federal Trade Commission – 2022 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n ReviewGeek – Why the Heck is Amazon Selling these Fake 16 Terabyte Portable SSD Drives?\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n ZDNet – I Bought a \u201816TB External M.2 SSD\u2019 for $20 and Got What I Deserved<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nShopping Scams Are a Big Business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Anatomy of a Fake SSD Scam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a Real Problem for Shopping Platforms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bogus SSDs Often Have Good Ratings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Spotting a Bogus SSD<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf It Seems Too Good to Be True \u2026\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n