Users on the Dutch Tweakers Forums report that a Groupon seller sold fake Sandisk MicroSD cards. The cards work and have the advertised capacity but their maximum transfer speed is much slower than the speeds specified on the packaging.
The fake Sandisk MicroSD cards were sold by UK seller Connectronics who according to the Groupon page sold more than 1000 items. The cards were available in capacities of 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB and sold at €7.99 / ($9), €11.99 ($13.50), € 13.99 ($15.85), €24.99 ($28.30) and €49.99 ($56.70) respectively. Instead of the promised maximum 48MB/s transfer speed, users report a maximum transfer speed of 25 MB/s which is about 50% slower.
(image credit grote_oever)
At first sight the packaging looks legit but users report spelling errors on the back and the picture of the phone on the front-image isn't sharp. Sandisk also confirmed to the users that the cards are fake based on the serial printed on the packaging and other characteristics.
The seller of the fake memory cards so far denied they are fake and still sells them, Groupon has stated it needs up to 10 days to come up with a solution.
It's apparently not the first time fake Sandisk memory cards are sold. According to the website The Counterfeit Report, about 33% of all memory card on the market are fake of which the majority is sold on Ebay. The website also lists method of separating fake cards from legit ones.
Besides Sandisk also Samsung, Kingston, Toshiba and Transcend counterfeit SD cards have been spotted. While the Sandisk MicroSD cards from this report appear to work and have the advertised capacity, this isn't always the case. Some simply don't work, only have a small part of the advertised capacity available or contain many read errors.
