How To Identify Fake USB Flash Drives Before Buying Them (Page 2 of 3)

There are definite preliminary steps you should go through before sending out money anywhere but manufacturers' websites and reputable online dealers.

Then look at the price. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is not true. When it costs $2-$4 a GB to manufacture NAND memory for drives, real manufacturers cannot afford to undercut their manufacturing costs by 50%- certainly not beyond a short period of time as a loss leader. If you see a name brand drive for under half price, and it is Black Friday at Walmart, you can probably assume that the two or three drives parceled out to each store are real, if you are lucky enough to be the first customer in line. Under normal circumstances, no one is going to be selling a real USB drive for a third of the price it costs to make it. Even in the Far East, raw materials have a basic cost, and while their additional production costs may be far below those of first world nations, they are not in the business to lose money either.

Look at the packging in the image. Most OEM sell their products, especially ones as small as USB drives, in a package about 4” x 6 “ or 6” x 8”. The edges are mechanically sealed shut. Yes- they use the packaging you need to open with scissors or even a knife. Some fakes are starting to come packaged like this.

If the outside appears to be cardboard, with a bubble showing the drive and staples holding it shut, the drive has probably been repackaged- and is likely to have been tampered with.

If the outside is plastic, but opens via a hinge, with two small plastic indents to snap shut, it is likely to be another example of fake packaging.

If you see a picture of the back of the packaging, does it include a serial number? Kingston Technology Asia has set up a site where you can input information from the back of a package, and they will let you know if it is a genuine Kingston Product. Unfortunately, they only cover drives sold in the following countries: Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

It can be a little hard to examine a picture of a drive closely on your computer screen, but there are some warning signs. The GB size should not be on a sticker attached to the drive, or a sticker attached to the packaging. The colors on the packaging should be intense, not washed out looking ink. They should also match the colors on the manufacturers website. The color on a monitor does not always reproduce accurately, but if an red drive appears orange or brown, be suspicious, especially if you have seen any other warning signs. If you can see the side of the drive, does the color and texture appear to be on a stick on label?

Some have remarked Kingston Data Traveler 150 drives also show a © after the name which is almost too small to be recognized.

If the drive looks poorly finished, with an uneven hole where the LED is supposed to show, or is rough looking edges at the ends, it is probably not in the case designed by the original manufacturer. If you can see the connector, it should have a smooth finished appearance, with the side of the connector where the edges meet meeting smoothly and without any gap. Kingston engraves a serial number on the connectors of their high GB drives. If you are shown both sides of the connector, and they are perfectly smooth, it is not authentic.

You may occasionally find a bargain used drive on eBay. For new drives, you can check the name of the seller to see if they are on SOSFAKEFLASH.com's list of sellers they have vetted. If the seller has many low priced USB drives, along with suspiciously low prices for iPods or other Mp3 players, go and check their feedback for negatives. People can not afford to sell below cost for any length of time, and if they seem to have a never ending supply of those cheap drives and players, chances are good they were not made by the OEM.

If the seller feels a need to provide screenshots of his drives, attesting to their purported capacity, beware. A hacked drive is going to show altered capacity, so the screen shot proves nothing.