Fake USB Flash Devices Are Everywhere!

I bought a fake USB flash drive just so I could show you how terrible it is. These fakes are everywhere. I think it might actually be harder now to find genuine flash storage than it is to find fakes.
Here are some links for more information on testing flash drives:
www.raymond.cc...
www.geckoandfl...
fight-flash-fr...
Here's are a couple of my other videos where I tested the usual 'check the properties' type of stuff that people keep suggesting will work:
• Fake Terabyte USB Flas...
• FAQ About Fake Flash U...

[@geocyberwolf]

protip for future teardowns of cheap crap: Isopropyl alcohol will eat the hot glue allowing you to open things without damage.

[@nepocrates]

Good to know.

[@WingMaster562]

Also Heat Gun too And acetone (the lower concentration) as well

[@anidnmeno]

IT DAMAGED THEM

[@loveparade6573]

@@anidnmeno did you glarded it before?

[@emilyofjane]

IPA is the most magical chemical out there, it really can do it all ✨

[@amyporter4335]

Falling victim to one of these is a students worst nightmare. Sort of thing I wake up in cold sweats over. Thank you 😬

[@B_-.-]

As big man dan said - i had cloud and PC backups of my stuff, saved me a few times.

[@tracybeeeee]

After watching others learn the hard way, I would work on one cloud, save to another and email my post-grad thesis to myself with every save 🙈 Even if it means 30 emails to yourself everyday, I don't want to relive having to help a good friend try to recover 70 pages of their MA again. Eek.

[@amyporter4335]

@@Just-Dan too true. The struggle is real 🙈

[@drunkenhobo8020]

@@Just-Dan Every single year I tell the new students several times to back up their work in multiple places (including e-mailing it to themselves). And every single year I get a panicked student telling me they've lost everything because they kept their entire year's work on a single USB drive from 2008. Every student has 100 GB of free cloud storage, 300 MB of server space and an e-mail address. But no, let's just keep 25% of my grade on a USB drive that doesn't even have a case next to a leaking water bottle. What could possibly go wrong?

[@Blitterbug]

@@Just-Dan Your course head was being unnecessarily careful; as an IT engineer of some 35 years, I can assure you that a genuine, spinning rust (eg old school mechanical) USB hard drive is the way to go for peace of mind. The backup is air-gapped (don't leave it plugged in) and can be removed off-site for fire risk mitigation. Cloudy backups can help, but when some muppet sticks a spade through the fibre in the road, just as you are trying to retrieve your boarding pass from OneDrive to catch a flight, you'll find USB and/or NAS boxes are the smart way to go.

[@lykou1821]

Glad I avoided this and went with the 3 petabytes flashdrive for 13 dollars

[@JJschannel255]

Are you joking?

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

late reply you have fallen for a scam their is no petrabyte flashdrives!

[@runed0s86]

This is sad. That's not enough storage! You should have gone for the 4 exabyte sdcard!

[@rearspeaker6364]

@@runed0s86 that will slow the internet for hours, vacuuming information......

[@Daidek]

@@runed0s86 should have bought a 5 yottabyte sd card instead.

[@Lucina..]

I have two year old twins that always become very calm when I put a video of yours on the television. You have a perfect voice for narration. If you were to ever create a short story, especially alongside your footage of the outdoors, I think it would be absolutely lovely. Sorry for the long comment, and thank you for your great content. Ps. I was feeling a bit weird about posting this, but then I remembered that a lot of people have no problem posting insults, so I do believe this has a place in your comments.

[@joepelletier6694]

I would love this

[@leightonpetty4817]

Those kids are going to grow up to become well-spoken British men with a fondness for exposing scams and weird food

[@Tynach]

The way he does different voices for the various aliases he goes by in his scam baiting videos leads me to wholeheartedly agree! I would love to see some creative fiction narrated and/or voiced by him.

[@vampy8112]

His voice is great ASMR material as was Bob Ross's.. i used to get calmed and fall asleep as kid to the joy of painting 😀

[@meatpopsicle6244]

Reminds me of the narrator on little big planet or stanley parable.

[@olal9904]

It's amazing how far we've come. We went from scams being 100 gb not 10 years ago to 2tb today. Amazing.

[@shynoelle2265]

things have really gotten impressive recently amirite

[@FalconOfStorms]

It truly is a time to be alive. Wow.

[@charlieb308]

80GB for $16 www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-attache-4-16gb-usb-2-0-flash-drive-5-pack-black/5900264.p?skuId=5900264&ref=212&loc=1&extStoreId=1400&ref=212&loc=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0MD_BRCTARIsADXoopY4Qzqe65uFUF1YUEmUhLYzeL9sCapgOAQlXQlCrGE9usJyv1U9UqQaAhMuEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[@theunholybanana4745]

@@charlieb308 you can also get 256gb for £40 with both USB A 3.1 and C from SanDisk Link- www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XC1WGQR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_2wj8FbQBAN8CM?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[@kazuhiramiller2121]

Scam technology is always one step ahead of it's competition !

[@Skawo]

That is just the saddest little device I've ever seen. Absolutely encrappened into that case. Wonder if the fact that's clearly been done manually is what made it so expensive (along with its "premium" case, of course).

[@tactileslut]

The hot glue and jumper wires were the laugh out loud part of this. What a crazy waste of effort for some underpaid human breathing carcinogenic fumes.

[@PandemoniumMeltDown]

It's a mind trick that even a Jedi who failed at the academy could pull on an unsuspecting target. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ulterior-motives/201111/price-quality-and-value

[@CrraVideos]

Skawo? What are you doing here pal?

[@gab_v250]

10/10 sadder than Intelligent Systems's modern decisions on role playing games

[@Skawo]

@@gab_v250 very random

[@MEGURMAN]

I feel bad for the poor controller he's been lied to all his life :'(

[@JacobKinsley]

The controller was programmed to do that. The controller is an accomplice.

[@MuchWhittering]

@@JacobKinsley It's just following orders.

[@Tynach]

@@JacobKinsley It was brainwashed to do that, and is a victim.

[@TempDevil]

@@MuchWhittering good controllers follow orders

[@samerm8657]

🤣

[@Light_Y4gami]

This scares me, when I think my parents could get one of those...

[@rezcellent]

Then warn them

[@Light_Y4gami]

@@rezcellent yeah but they are stubborn and they don't actually listen to me anyway

[@echelon1014]

@@Light_Y4gami you have the Death Note for a reason🙃

[@Light_Y4gami]

@@echelon1014 All my appologies, I forgot.. I mean that this is the best way for L to discover who I am.. ;)

[@neon7874]

I guess way would be to buy it offline then if ur shopping with ur parents.

[@MoebiusUK]

Scandalous that 'Amazon' allow these devices to be sold through their website.

[@TheZodiacz]

Haha, as if they care!

[@davidwebb793]

At the risk of sounding pessimistic, it still makes them money

[@theravedaddy]

I gave up on feeling scandalised after reporting dog porn on farcebook and zuckerturds soybois telling me it didnt break their TOS....

[@jvccr7533]

Amazon is horrendous when it comes to electronics. PC part specs for instance are most often declared horribly and/or wrong. I still believe people could do better research and think a little more.

[@louie.lenard5795]

@@davidwebb793 I guess when it comes to anything regarding Amazon it’s unfortunately probably not pessimistic so much as realistic

[@td6590]

Lol my cousin thinks he got a 2tb and doesn't believe it when I tell him its fake

[@Dynamikcheese]

If he doesn't know that he doesn't have a 2tb hardrive by now then he never needed 2tb.

[@robovenom5530]

How long has he had it for?

[@Riven55555]

social engineering - the base of all scams.

[@hotaru8309]

I suggest recommending one of the other's on this is one that goes over why the reasons many people think it is real is untrue, but it does call out specific comments and may be offputting to the cousin. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXrMYYCQj5ikeLs Then there is this one that doesn't cover as many misconceptions, but still helps. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHiQe6KXaMpois0 I have a family member that will never believe something if I am thd one that mentions or recommends any information on the subject, so I do understand thst there are situations where you may be unable to convince them. Still, it's always worth helping someone, even if it's not successful.

[@dcu21]

Same. A lot of these people are on facebook 🤣🤣

[@nicholas_scott]

Another part of the scam- fake reviews. So many fake reviews, that i rarely read them any more. I now only look for the return policy, ie prime takes anything back

[@iworkout6912]

I have seen videos where you can buy from Wish boxes of returned items. Most of what you get are flash drives and ear buds. Occasionally something of real value. I believe Amazon sells pallets of returned items. You never know what you got until your dig in and see what your got. Might be fun, it you got the time and space to handle the pallet.

[@Candyrock15]

This is terrifying. Thank you for making us aware of this. I know nothing about tech, so if I ever found myself in a situation where I wanted to buy additional memory, I wouldn't even know that 2T is meant to be that expensive. £15? Yeah, that'd sound about right to me, whatever. It's probably meant to be that cheap anyway. All while not knowing that I had purchased a phony. Not anymore. This video was a lifesaver

[@encycl07pedia-]

Terrifying? Jesus. What kind of data is on your PC that you can't live without?

[@Vivien13579]

@@encycl07pedia- family videos maybe?

[@encycl07pedia-]

​@@Vivien13579 It's sad for a little while, but not scary. I lost photos of my grandfather due to an HDD failure.

[@encycl07pedia-]

@@asbestosfibers1325 Did you reply to the wrong person?

[@sclumptuous]

@@encycl07pedia- important files for work or college perhaps? it's much safer to store things like that on a physical drive than to stick it in the cloud or just have one copy of it stored directly on your device. especially people who manage spreadsheets and stuff like that for large companies who have a lot of people depending on the work they do, or students whose evidence of research and hard work are needed to get their degree. some people's entire livelihoods depend on the safety of their data - i can't imagine that someone like a wedding photographer could easily recover from losing hundreds of edited, high resolution photos because of one of these scam flash devices.

[@LyingSecret]

Welcome back to 'weird stuff in a can', this week it's fake USB drives, in a trash can. [cue music]

[@PandemoniumMeltDown]

The music... I felt like I was in Macy's back in the 80's

[@LyingSecret]

@@PandemoniumMeltDownI do love his interlude music, even if it is just youtube stock stuff :D It just seems so 'him' now.

[@Wistful77]

hehehee

[@Tiishen]

Astounding how gullible people are. "Well it says 2TB so it's clearly legit!" yeah right Unbelievable that they even look at the price that's like $5 and think "Yeah that sounds reasonable, totally not a scam", when even a regular 1TB HDD costs like $50

[@wariolandgoldpiramid]

But legit external hard drives of 1 TB do exist, right? My parents bought me one for New Year, and I dunno if I should be concerned.

[@Riven55555]

"Oh yeah must've fallen off the back of the truck" Social engineering is the oldest trick in the book that scammers use. The old maxim 'If it's too good to be true it isn't' always rings

[@santerixdxd]

@@wariolandgoldpiramid yes ofcourse they do. A 1tb hdd isn’t that expensive these days, usually priced between 50-100 bucks. A 1tb ssd in other hand can be slightly more expensive at 100-150 bucks. Then again if you were talking about a 1tb usb stick, then those are about 200-400 bucks.

[@hotaru8309]

@@wariolandgoldpiramid Yes they do. Like a MyBook? External hard drives of that size exist and it's also easy to call most of the companies to check or have your parents help register the warranty. Mostly if it is a brand and store that you trust and has a good reputation that helps. You could test it, but I do not think that will be needed. You can ask your parents to introduce you to it or set it up. Just let them know that you trust them, but were worried about fakes you heard about online. They may just simply show you the receipt or store and it be a good one, though they may be nervous to disclose the exact price as it's not too cheap and was a gift.

[@hotaru8309]

@@santerixdxd Thank you. We both replied with different information at almost the exact same time.

[@daddytwins2003]

I think the case cost more then the chips it was holding. I can't believe how janky it was inside.

[@TheDeadfast]

I reckon they have thousands of the circuit boards and just shove them into a different enclosure whenever the current version gets a bit too 'hot'.

[@encycl07pedia-]

more than*

[@bitelaserkhalif]

@@nemo-x built in sweatshop and the material scavenged from factory QC reject

[@quonevi9250]

I have huge respect for you for taking time and effort, trying to explain scams to people who're clearly ignorant and disrespectful towards you for their own sake, without belittling them. It shows that you're genuinely just trying to help out others, we need more like you on KZbin.

[@bmo14lax]

A quick tip/note to all: when using usb A to C cables: use quality brands. As those types of cables need a resistor inside. The cheap-o ones use resistors may be not optimal. Use brands like Samsung, Anker, Aukey, Lexar, Sandisk, Seagate, PNY, Kingston just to name a few safe ones I know off hand. Thanks for the public service Shrimp as always 👍

[@scragar]

Amazon had a huge issue a few years ago of selling bad USB C cables that didn't follow the standards and could potentially harm your device. I'm sure they've gotten better by now, but I still don't trust such cables from Amazon. I'd much rather buy direct from a manufacturer I trust than risk destroying expensive equipment to save a little on a relatively cheap cable bought from a company with a history of this sort of thing(letting fakes and low quality products be the majority of listings).

[@eDoc2020]

I agree with this sentiment but I need to disagree with you on a technical basis. The cheapest resistor you can get today will be plenty reliable. However manufacturers may install the wrong value resistor which could lead to equipment damage or low-grade wiring which can overheat.

[@bmo14lax]

@@eDoc2020 thank you for the correction! I learned something, and edited the post.

[@thomassteeles670]

Love the Caramel wafer wrapping to conceal your address lol. Those are some good wafers

[@EggBastion]

get the dark chocolate ones from Sainsburys (or anywhere else you can find em) or the coconut covered ones they only seem to sell in B&M or sometimes Home Bargains. You won't be disappointed!

[@thomassteeles670]

@@EggBastion I didn’t know there was different flavours! Thank you for the heads up :)

[@EggBastion]

​@@thomassteeles670 - The Dark ones are *'NEW'* _but they've been saying that this last 6 years now_ The other ones with the coconut crumb, my mate remembers from school so they've been sneaking those buggers under the radar for at least a decade or three. THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW.

[@thomassteeles670]

@@EggBastion this calls for a shopping trip lol

[@EggBastion]

@@thomassteeles670 Here, the Dark ones are easy to find but the coconut 'log' are a bit better camouflaged - here, have a jpg images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HYhJ2r3VL._AC_.jpg

[@hotaru8309]

I appreciate you elaborating and continuing to try to help, especially not just calling those that don't believe or understand "idiots." You aren't always rewarded for help, but it's still worth trying. Helping anyone, even if it takes some effort, is good. You probably know that; I just wanted to tell you that it's appreciated. I hope you continue to try. Thank you for the video and information.

[@WhoEvenFilms]

I knew I was missing a youtuber to watch, turns out the algorithm thought I didn’t like your videos :(

[@AtomicShrimp]

Weird that it does that, welcome back!

[@davidwebb793]

You're a wonderful service to benefit of humanity - thank you!

[@indask8]

4:39 I guess it's a form of confirmation bias, these people think they have "cracked the system" and found how to get real 2TB flash drives for 5% of the price. When you prove them wrong they are in denial and would rather pretend it's faulty or ignore you and keep buying these 2TB drives.

[@twolessba1087]

people these days are completely incapable of admitting that they're wrong

[@LyingSecret]

@@twolessba1087 No they aren't! (Monty Python argument joke)

[@twolessba1087]

@@LyingSecret i paid good money for this argument! no you didnt!

[@LyingSecret]

@@twolessba1087 hah nice one, glad you got that :D I remember Shrimp answering a question in a Q&A about 'I bet your fave Python sketch is the argument sketch' and it cut to his face 'no it isn't' :D

[@BaalFridge]

People who think 5$ 2TB drives are real are as gullible as Trump supporters.

[@drunkenhobo8020]

My mother's a deeply arrogant elderly woman and absolutely refused to believe that the "£1000 phone" she got from Wish for £50 was a scam. It had spoofed all of the specs on the device so she thought she had a octa-core 2 TB phone with 4 cameras. Eventually she became suspicious when it turned out it was slower than her Samsung Genio Slide from 2010. And when I got her to actually check the capacity by attempting to copy a few files onto it and it stopped after 2 GB. And that it was only a single 1.3 MP camera... According to her she still wasn't scammed though. And that's exactly the sort of audience that repeatedly falls for these things.

[@cubixman9676]

I just had a stroke while reading this comment

[@The_Bird_Bird_Harder]

Jesus christ.

[@drunkenhobo8020]

@@cubixman9676 You mean the way I wrote it or just the content of it?

[@cubixman9676]

@@drunkenhobo8020 The content, like no hate for your mother, but it just hurts my brain when things like that happen

[@Paula-dot-jpg]

This is a video that I needed back in January, but unfortunately I never saw until today. I needed new flash drives for college and I ended up getting myself 2 1 TB of these. There was a little voice in the back of my mind telling me this was too good to be true, but I trusted the overwhelming amount of positive reviews the seller had on their eBay. I also told myself "even if this is fake the consequences can't be that dire right? And if it turns out to be fake this only totals to $25 right?" For about a month I would exclusively save files to this because I had refused to either buy more expensive options for myself like internal ssd, more expensive but less capacity flash drives, or external hard drives which do have that capacity available. I would see the files I saved on these flash drives disappear, and not think about it until I tried to save a bunch of my old school stuff on there. A lot of my Camera Raw files get really big and I thought that I had actually overwhelmed the flash drive when, knowing now, it probably didn't actually have that capacity at all. I spent about $100 on file recovery software just to see if I could ever get about a month's worth of files back. Knowing how these flash drives actually don't have the capacity that they do makes me realize why this file recovery process actually has been so slow. I just thought the process worked so much quicker on my old flash drive that was degrading physically because of how it was only 64 gb. My error in not recognizing this probably made me spend more money in hindsight than if I actually bought the more expensive and reliable hardware to begin with. It is so appalling how easy it is for these sellers to take advantage of people who don't know that much about storage device tech, especially ones who don't have the financial security to necessarily go out and can buy new materials whenever they actually need them.

[@AtomicShrimp]

Yeah, file recovery works when the files have been deleted from a non-fake drive because the process of conventional deletion only removes the file from the index (so the actual written bytes are still there. On one of these spoofed-capacity drives, the data is well and truly gone. In some cases, because it was 'written' into a literal void. I am sorry this happened to you - spread the word to anyone else who might fall victim.

[@Dragonsphinx]

I’m the same: when I bought my external flash drive I went for Samsung just to be sure, and the 230€ I forked out for it honestly made me wince a bit. But in the same online store (a local fairly trustworthy one) had a smaller 1 TB flash device that looked a lot more like some you scrolled through and only cost under 60€. Smelled too fishy for me so I decided not to take a chance on it. I’m glad you’re making these videos to get the info out there.

[@MLWJ1993]

That's probably the most sensible way to purchase Flash storage, plus Samsung has great controllers overall.

[@PandemoniumMeltDown]

To understand why people are confused, in denial and the such despite valid information, we have to go in the people brains and look how they are engineered and identify the processes that prevent them from processing said information. Sometimes it's color, sometimes it's because they saw it on tv, sometimes it's because they'd rather trust a stranger with candy than an Atomic Shrimp, sometimes they're just too prooouuuud... Anyways, I'm not sticking my nose in users brains nor Brians because who noses what's really in there... not my cuppa, I'll stick to things.

[@byronjoel1400]

Thank you Sir 🤝

[@Evanz111]

I used to be so ignorant about fake flash drives. I always thought “no, it’s showing it has 100GB, so it’s legit” without knowing all the ways in which it can be cheated. Thanks for spreading the good word and continuing to shoot down all these false products! Edit: 100GB used to be a lot when I was younger, so that was always my benchmark for a good one, but yeah they’re much much bigger now obviously

[@MLWJ1993]

For flash storage 128gb is already a lot in small form factors (they're about half the price of that pricey 2tb fake).

[@the_dark_jumper2211]

Just today I checked Amazon for the price tags on 32 - 128GB flash drives. My mind is still thoroughly nested in the "32GB costs at least 40€", so I was more than flabbergasted to see that nowadays they cost

[@charlieb308]

www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-attache-4-16gb-usb-2-0-flash-drive-5-pack-black/5900264.p?skuId=5900264&ref=212&loc=1&extStoreId=1400&ref=212&loc=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0MD_BRCTARIsADXoopY4Qzqe65uFUF1YUEmUhLYzeL9sCapgOAQlXQlCrGE9usJyv1U9UqQaAhMuEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[@22doulos22]

"For me, I now only buy flash memory direct from a brand I trust." 7:01 Can you give us a list of brands you trust, please?

[@AtomicShrimp]

In no particular order: Sandisk, Samsung, Lexar, Transcend, Kingston, Crucial, Verbatim would be a good start

[@BeefIngot]

Also remember that you have to buy from stores you trust to legitimately source these drives as well, so that means no amazon marketplace sellers, or any marketplace for that matter. I like to shop on online stores with options to sort by the company themselves to avoid any marketplace sellers. So Bestbuy, Staples, Newegg etc. Unfortunately Amazon has a problem with sharing inventory with everyone who claims to be selling a product, so they are basically not trustworthy as a result.

[@stonent]

@@BeefIngot Yes I bought a samsung 64GB micro-sd card before from an online seller and upon touching the sd card, the samsung logo flaked off into my finger. This is probably why some of the better brands are using colors on their memory like red, blue, or grey plastics to make it harder for them to just rubber stamp a logo on a black Micro-SD card.

[@JackRoger_Official]

if it helps, i bought a 240gb Crucial SSD a little more than 1 year ago and it's still going perfectly. was 60€ but got it with a discount at 40€. (just to make it clear: a 2tb would simply cost around 40x8=320 € so..)

[@OnlyKaerius]

I've got a 512GB MicroSDXC card from Integral that I'm quite happy with, not top speed memory, but affordable and definitely good enough for videos on my phone. I bought it to store vacation photography (I bring a camera and shoot video while scuba diving), mostly backup storage, as the 64GB SD cards I have for the camera don't get filled up in a single vacation.

[@herrpez]

I imagine half of the people "defending" the drives somehow profit from their existence. The other half just don't want reality intruding on the fantastic deal they just got.

[@SianaGearz]

I know it might be a bit of a hindsight, but if you spray just a little bit of alcohol, just a few drops - isopropanol works amazingly, but ethanol works almost as well - it releases the hot melt glue. The glue eagerly absorbs the alcohol vapour within about a minute. It expands ever so slightly, releases from whatever it was holding onto, and turns from tough and chewy into somewhat crumbly, but still mostly coherent, it mostly just falls off in one or two pieces. It's magical. It should have been possible to extract the device undamaged. The drive self-destructing like that is common enough since the USB interface chip loads part of the firmware or the configuration from the flash memory chip, at the start of the chip which is a part of address space which is guaranteed to exist, and the bookkeeping information about wear-levelling goes there too. This way the controller doesn't need to contain any non-volatile memory of its own. But because the capacity was configured incorrectly, memory aliasing occurs, the physical address space of the chip, which is, let's say, 16gb, repeats time and time again to make up the claimed capacity, simply because there is no hardware connected to higher address lines, and the firmware or configuration ends up within the disk space exposed to the system as readable and writeable, often numerous times. So eventually you will overwrite and damage the basic configuration of the flash, making it inaccessible. I wonder if chip was resurfaced and if given some acetone, might reveal something more, but there's plenty of truly anonymous flash chips out there, so it's not a given. Also TSOP48 flash, well that's a sight from a bygone era.

[@Mobin92]

If you buy a storage device the first thing you should do is to run a full benchmark on it, especially if it's a hard disk. This can be done with a tool like "HDDScan" and takes quite a long time like 10 hours or so. It's annoying but it saves you from a half-broken drive which completely breaks once you have some data on it.

[@user-my4tp6yg1l]

subliminal messaging ad campaign for caramel wafers?? that’s a thumbs up from me

[@myownsummrr]

timestamp?

[@allenu]

1:53 presumably. Used to cover the mailing address?

[@rysacroft]

@@danielelaudaz8551 I agree, but when is Lidl going to start selling the plain chocolate version?

[@Pacmanfan-po9rn]

As a fan of Dankpods, the song at 1:10 felt familiar.

[@muratdogan7240]

"You gonna be humming that for weeks mate"

[@re-gaming3913]

Yes

[@re-gaming3913]

Identity theft

[@re57k]

I knew it! I knew I've heard of it somewhere, but couldn't pinpoint where.

[@ActualCharky]

I guess they are nuggets!

[@albapantheratigris6071]

It’s amazing people will defend a product that they know to be “too good to be true”. Test it.

[@letharja]

Off topic , but I appreciate your commitment to the colour purple

[@AtomicShrimp]

It's the best colour

[@letharja]

@@AtomicShrimp it really is

[@donaldmacisaac8479]

For those wondering the song that plays in the fakes time lapse is “a night alone” by tracktribe.

[@gab_v250]

also known as the "headphones comparison track" by aussie mate DankPods

[@donaldmacisaac8479]

@@gab_v250 I was thinking of that as he played it lol.

[@MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

Whoa! Fresh 2021 Shrimp?! Hey there bud love your content.

[@susanwood4770]

Thanks for going through this, hubby is always looking for these types of “bargains” I’m not sure if he has bought one, but he has said in the past he can’t find some maps he thought he had put on a stick drive. This might explain it!

[@Tuulos]

I've encountered the same problem but it's caused by simply owning too many external and flash drives.

[@g.davidturnblom5751]

As always, I am grateful to you for being so upfront about these things, especially the scams. Knowing what can happen and what to look for is what protects people from being robbed. I value your videos and hope you have some decent backups in case something very bad happens.

[@ChengTeoh]

It's sad that sellers take advantage of people who don't know any better and think that it's normal to buy a 2TB usb flash drive for insanely cheap prices. The cheapest 1TB USB flash drive that I could find was a PNY Elite-X 1TB USB 3.1 Gen 1 Flash Drive for $199.99 on Best Buy, and at that price one might as well buy a Western Digital - Easy store 1TB External USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive for $47.99.

[@ChengTeoh]

@Yashvardhan Saini true enough, a 1TB SSD for $160 in price feels reasonable to me.

[@peoplethesedaysberetarded]

Yup. They sure are. But take a moment. Look at it. Maybe enjoy the reflection of the light off their case. Enjoy the scent of the electronics. Imagine. Maybe this is the last of its sort on the planet.

[@Skawo]

If it was indeed the last of its sort on the planet, the mere fact would negate any need for happy exercises.

[@AtomicShrimp]

I wish it were the last one of its kind. Selling people something that will actually destroy the very thing it is supposed to preserve is just plain evil.

[@peoplethesedaysberetarded]

@@AtomicShrimp glad we could have a shared laugh. And, yes, this is vile and you wouldn’t want to imagine someone storing the first photos of their child on this. Keep at it, Mike, and thanks for the great videos. :)

[@MajinSayon]

@@Skawo precisely. I like the way you think.

[@LG141602]

Thanks for bringing this into awareness. I had to convince friends that these drives are fake and false info. They would get mad at me, they said it was a good deal.

[@gui18bif]

Sad thing is that I went to a proper store, bought a samsung 1TB drive. (Turned out to be fake.) Loaded it with a backup of my pictures. Days later found half of them nowhere to be found. I hate these scams.

[@encycl07pedia-]

Some "people" return fake merchandise in the original box and steal the legit merch. It's like how some scammers were returing "unopened" Ipads and filling the boxes with various junk that weighed the same.

[@GorillaGamingChannel]

Love the music on the “gallery of fakes” - very funny 😁

[@1976kanthi]

It’s called “A Night Alone”. A really nice piece music indeed.

[@ZeoWorks]

Currys here in the UK sell 2TB hard drives for the same price (around £50) now a days.

[@AtomicShrimp]

Yeah, hard drives are cheaper than flash memory - it's a completely different technology

[@ZeoWorks]

​@@AtomicShrimp For sure, I think those who fall for these scams are people who don't know the difference and really only need the storage for backing up photos or work. It's a real shame that these websites don't moderate and remove these scams.

[@DadgeCity]

Out of interest, I had a look for flash drives on the Currys website and they currently have a Sandisk 256gb one for £28, which going by what you've been saying is a great deal. If it's genuine!

[@ZeoWorks]

@@DadgeCity That is a great deal for sure! All I can say is that Curry's has been around in the UK for a long time so I don't have any reason to believe they have illegitimate practices.

[@bruhnova8917]

can you explain the difference

[@anna-eq4kx]

dear atomic shrimp, i dont often comment but i really wanted to tell you how much i enjoy your videos. i like the variety of topics you cover. you seem to be so well informed in so many topics. also, your voice and manner of speaking is very very calming. my boyfriend has some anxiety issues, so when he is feeling a bit down, we watch your videos together. i also like to watch your videos before bed because they are relaxing. thank you so much for making such great content! you seem like a great guy.

[@ButterBallTheOpossum]

Imagine a student buying one if these to store there college thesis on and losing absolutely everything

[@porovaara]

How does this crap still end up on legitimate vendor sites?

[@AtomicShrimp]

Amazon is a marketplace now, and they don't vet the veracity of their marketplace seller's claims

[@james-5560]

@@AtomicShrimp I think it is based on reactive reports and reputation. If a seller gets a lot of complaints then they get booted off the platform, the same as Ebay.

[@scragar]

@@james-5560 Amazon individual accounts only charge £0.75/item sold(about $1 USD) to sell on Amazon, the scammers have no fear of losing the account as it's free to just register a new one(although it takes time so they've often got a few accounts at a time so when one is shut down they can immediately switch to a new one). Reporting them gets them booted off, but they're not going to stay off for long given there's no significant cost to switching accounts.

[@EggBastion]

Because all too often --they just don't-- _it's not_ *_profitable_* _to_ care.

[@andysutcliffe3915]

They need to really make a clear distinction between we’re selling this, or you’re actually buying this off dodgy Jim.

[@jasperdiscovers]

"Alexa, where's my stuff?" prominently on top of the page 😂😂

[@Yoshendi]

It’s amazing to me how everyone knows the old aphorism “If it’s too good to be true, it isn’t true.” and yet so many people disregard it the second they see a deal they want to believe. It’s understandable, just shocking at the scale at which it occurs

[@Tuulos]

There are some products that are too good to be true yet they're still true, although those tend to be common knowledge in the hobby / work circles for that product category.

[@cpeaky555]

Having read through a lot of these comments I think your next video needs to explain the difference between HDD, SSD & flash drives!

[@AtomicShrimp]

I think you're right

[@-yeme-]

to be fair I know plenty of people who use "hard drive" as a generic term to refer to both HDDs and SSDs despite being fully aware of the difference

[@KingFluffs]

0:51 I have one of those, and there's a reason they're in the hundreds. They're really really good and so quick to send files across you dont even see the "Sending 320 files x time remaining" prompt.

[@tracybeeeee]

If you ever move on to a new model, I'm open to donations as a poor student 😂

[@KingFluffs]

@@tracybeeeee Aha, I'll keep that in mind! I'm too afraid to test it's waterproof capability though. lol

[@tracybeeeee]

@@KingFluffs the sentiment remains appreciated, nonetheless 😂

[@TeddyLucia1006]

3:03 Thank you for taking the time to make this. 10/10

[@ladyericaj56]

I love the absolute randomness of your videos! From scams to cooking, they all interest me! Wishing you and Jenny a very happy and successful 2021!

[@richardxavier5442]

Way back in the 90s, my friend bought a "specially made" memory card for his PS1, that could "store 10 times as much as a regular memory card". He transfered all his saved files from his old (real) memory card to the new one. When he tried loading them, all his saved files were gone. At the time, we thought it was just malfunctioning due to bad luck, but we later realised it was a scam.

[@ZT742]

It’s amazing how many people don’t realise that the computer can show the wrong storage capacity for these devices- although I do work in IT so I suppose I need to see it from a non-in-the-know point of view! I’m sure it’s a coincidence, but you used the same music here as another KZbin rises when looking at knockoff devices!

[@Damaniel3]

People don't know much about flash technology period, nor should they have to. That's why these scams work so well - the average person looks at one of these listings and thinks "if Amazon says it's 2TB, then why would they lie?" And Amazon keeps getting away with it because of that trust, and Amazon doesn't care about the ethics of it because they get that little tiny bit of profit every time they scam another one of their customers. (And yes, it's Amazon scamming their customers, since they gladly allow those scammers to sell on the site in the first place.)

[@LyingSecret]

I am not very good with computers and stuff, but I know all too well about fake memory capacity from when I used to buy microSD cards and make gaming PSP cards for friends.

[@doffynotnoffybrandshorts1313]

Just wanted to say that your videos are the best and they are so enteraning Keep up the good work

[@Claidheambmor]

What an excellent description of this kind of fraud, congratulations on another quality video.

The amount of those devices is getting really scary. Two years ago my hard drive with photos of the last 15 years died. Thankfully last year I was able to replace the controller and got to save all the data. That would not've been possible if the data got destroyed by a device that is trying to trick me. Or worse: my parents! As I "lost" my photos there was a moment of shock but I moved on. But considering how my mother values her photos... This would be a nightmare!

[@YoungDeathWish]

I bought a fake 1 TB thumb drive a few years back. When I got it and plugged it in it read as 32 GB lol they didn’t even try to program it to lie.

[@merlinathrawes6191]

I've tried explaining to work colleagues about flake flash drives and third shift manufacture, but since given up. . The flash chip is a Micron one. probably 16gb.

[@bobriley000444]

what's the most sad for me is there's probably workers doing 10 hour shifts every day making this crap and only getting paid barely enough to stay alive

[@JacobKinsley]

I'm glad you don't just dismiss people who buy these things as dumb and stupid. Storage has gotten very cheap over time and I'm not surprised people think this is legit, just the other day I was blown away at how cheap micro sd cards are, for 64GB (the last time I got one was an 8gb one about 7 years ago which basically lasted forever since I barely used it). I had to warn a teacher about using one and she seemed a bit confused initially but she took it to heart and (without admitting she was wrong obviously, since teachers don't ever do that) just replaced it with a standard 500gb hard drive (which at the time was basically the 2TB equivalent.) Also personally I hate Flash drives because they're so prone to being lost

[@spetsnatzlegion3366]

I’m going to keep looking for funny ones of these until I find one over 10Tb, maybe even 1Pb

[@rebekaharyaflynn2498]

Ahhhhhh the BBC 2 of the internet is back

[@kbjerke]

A long time ago, Bill Gates himself is alleged to have said, "Nobody is ever going to need more than 4K of memory..." How times have changed! Thanks for the video!

[@renakunisaki]

The best part is he didn't even say it.

[@nomethodonlymadness9528]

Are you telling me all that extra RAM i downloaded on my 6 dollar 2TB flashdrive is GONE!?

[@africa_everyday]

It's too hard to detect for none-tech people.

[@AtomicShrimp]

I agree - and it exploits a technology that was designed without the thought that anyone would ever think to subvert it.

[@africa_everyday]

@@AtomicShrimp exactly. It's thriving in Nigeria to an extent that, people look for a tech person to help them to buy a flash drive.

[@COOLGAMER-pi2hd]

3days ago?

[@Suplagen]

@@COOLGAMER-pi2hd bro right? wtf 3 days ago?

[@tomasuy]

@@Suplagen he probably commented it when it was an unlisted video

[@mace2055]

Bought a 16gb mp4 player online that seemed too cheap. Noticed it was dropping files or corrupting them while i was filling it up. Testing showed it was slightly less than 4gb. Got a full refund without needing to return it. Decided to format it for 3gb and used it for a few years with no problems. Wouldn't have trusted it with any important files though.

[@N.Nocturne]

You have NO idea how much I needed this video. I was looking for storage solutions for my phone, especially so since I've been torrenting some pretty large files and don't have a computer. Searching up USB flash drives on our(Malaysian) online shopping platforms turned up product after product nearly identical to those that you showed in the video, at scandalously low prices. I thought, hmm, I've been out of the Storage game for some time, it's possible that tech's come this far without my realization. However I left it at that, since it wasn't an urgent need. Fast forward a week or two and I'm browsing KZbin, the bloody Algorithm recommends this gem of a video to me, and I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me a check about these. TL;DR Wanted to buy these, KZbin recommendations saved my ass and money Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[@jevinday]

The sad thing about this is how many people don't even know that you can't fit that much memory on a little stick like that

[@LazyLifeIFreak]

Ahh yes, I see what your problem! You assumed the comment section actually did a bit of research!

[@TempDevil]

TRUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@christinaMattsson]

I have never heard of this, thank you!

[@AtomicShrimp]

It was worth making this video just to read your comment! (My objective was to inform people so they can avoid this)

[@amethsys]

Me neither

[@aeyde]

c:

[@NonRandomUser]

I once purchased a fake flash drive off a street vendor. Still keep it around (unused, of course) as a reminder to myself that, "If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is."

[@ianconnell8646]

I bought 3 external Hard drives through Amazon, brand being Geraldine. Suppose to be 2TB. However, I had a lot of problems with my laptop HDD and used external hard drives that I already had and struggled opening some of the corrupted files, so when I used the newly purchased fake ones, I wasn't surprised that I had problems opening some of the files. However, I was transferring files and folders in batches and checking them through windows explorer. I then ran a transfer of larger files through the night and then problems occurred. The volume name of the disk had changed to local disk and I couldn't access the disk. Your videos have been an inspiration to me and I am now relieved of huge amount of anxiety, since I now know the supposed hard drives are being emulated by a controller and memory chip. I oppened one of the hard drives and it was exactly the setup as in one of your flash drives. It does appear that there is some memory capacity in there, how much I don't know. But the 3 external HDDs are being returned to Amazon, my only worry is that it may have retained a copy of my files, even though I have formatted the partition several times. I tried to wipe the data, even though it showed no data and it kept freezing at 5%. It would be great if you could produce a video on how to ensure all data is deleted before returning an item

[@veto_5762]

I KNEW IT my mom bought a 2tb external drive for $30 and let me use it for weeks, at some point the device just randomly stopped responding and i have to format it and do checks with chdsk (or whatever is called) to keep it working, some files randomly disappeared until at some point it just stopped working completely, i try to revive it in many ways but it was useless and since it was of my mom i was worried what she would say Now at least i can prove her it was a scam!

[@NevaehBeatez]

I think those people commenting really mean 2TB hard drives. They're actually quite cheap and most people don't know the difference between a hard drive and SSD

[@AtomicShrimp]

There's certainly a lot of that, but some people just can't accept the idea that the USB device they bought, is lying to them about its capacity

[@romjaheim01]

I like the fact you got a caramel wrapper on the box is funny I love those growing up in Trinidad

[@vgamesx1]

Another reason to avoid these fake drives is just because they may use poor quality flash which didn't pass QC or I've even heard sometimes employees may sneek into the factory and do some after hour runs and just sell whatever comes off the line.

[@AtomicShrimp]

Yep, pretty sure a lot of this stuff is fished out of the trash and reworked for sale

[@TomGT59]

I bet it felt good to rip that drive apart.

[@brandonigraet]

I lost 200gbs of footage because I didn’t know of this before…. Sadness……

[@WLHS]

I have a feeling my computer knows I bought fakes from shop , suddenly KZbin recommended you

[@charleshines1553]

If these things were even the slightest bit worse they would be USB Killers disguised as flash drives. Just imagine the endless line of furious customers!!!

[@Fireluigi1]

Someone who doesnt know better might get one of these, store something important in it. And when they need it, its just a black screen or if its like powerpoint, its completely empty. Damn scammers.

[@ayden8901]

Was just gonna go to bed. Guess that can wait:)

[@benson7748]

Yeah your timezone is weird anyway, might as well ignore it This post was made by the UTC+1 gang

[@helza]

Same here 😁

[@helza]

@@Farquad76.547 9:20 pm, yeah a bit early but I'm tired

[@tOSdude]

That drive inside looked very similar to a 16Gb drive I got from Walmart a few years back, so the actual capacity is probably about 14.5 in that one.

[@redwolf92]

these fake memory devices are quite prevalent here in the SEA region, usually sold at the electronic sections at sketchy night markets and even within legit storefronts in malls outlet. what's sad is sometime old people whom aren't that tech savvy who just got roped in by their kids to use smartphones wanted to upgrade their storage capacity went to these seedy dealers for memory card - well, after recording a couple of grandkids videos later and trying to look back at said recordings, turns out its just a couple of corrupted black screen files. well at least its not fake powerbanks, charging cables or even rechargeable batteries - that stuffs basically will kill you.

[@thetouhoubaka]

wait, why wasn't I subscribed!?!!? did i unsubscribe and somehow forgot about it? anyhow you've got a subscriber back. Happy new year btw

[@AtomicShrimp]

KZbin seems to do that sometimes. Weird, but welcome back!

[@speckledjim9895]

I always want my items to be in 'prefect' condition.

[@louisc.gasper7588]

I do gilding once in a while. I bought gold leaf at a decent price on Amazon. I tested it and found it to be brass. I posted a review to tell others about this straight-up fraud. Amazon refused to post the review, saying "fraud" is an inflammatory and nasty word. I disagree with those who say Amazon just doesn't do enough policing; they are complicit in many of the frauds they host.

[@kjazure]

dude I once found a 100 Terabyte SSD m.2 nvme that was seemingly branded as Samsung sitting on a shelf in my local Walmart! If the storage capacity wasn't already a red flag, upon closer inspection, we realized the Samsung badging on the box was ever so slightly different from the actual logos

[@BunkySpewer]

You deserve more likes for these types of topics.

[@thesuperjacobshow8151]

Bought a 2tb from Amazon. Lost some vids. Thankfully I just returned it for a refund to Amazon.

[@Blitterbug]

Dude! Bad luck. Have to say, weren't you a bit sus about the price? I mean, these things are _expensive_

[@thesuperjacobshow8151]

@@Blitterbug The one I ordered was $45 and I hadn't priced external hard drives in years. I just figured things were getting cheeper. I also trusted amazon, because I have been shopping with them for years without any significant problems.

[@Blitterbug]

@@thesuperjacobshow8151 Fair enough; I can see how that may work, as $45 is close to the cost of a 1TB mechanical drive...

[@jmarshal]

I feel so bad. I’ve bought a few of these kinds of drives for friends because they were cute, or themed. Didn’t really care about the capacity but probably would have tried for the highest amount I could afford. They were probably all fake. I hope no one ever used them and just kept them around for looks.

[@nashsok]

Earlier last year I ended up getting 3 back-to-back counterfeit SD cards from Amazon - They were all purchased from the official listing for the product, and upon arrival the packaging was shockingly similar to the legit SanDisk products. It's really shocking just how far marketplaces have fallen in being able to rely on them.

[@revenevan11]

That's the scariest thing to me, I ofc rely on SD cards for a lot, but even when ordering official sandisk or other brand named ones I can't trust Scamazon to not send counterfeits instead

[@Tuulos]

You need to be careful with the upper right corner and check who is selling it and who is fulfilling it.

[@haxboi5492]

Buy from the manufacturer, not from Amazon

[@dajosh42069]

I feel like all of the people calling you stupid, and trying to explain why "(THEIR) 2TB stick is certainly real!" is a PRIME EXAMPLE of; The Dunning-Kruger effect. [The Dunning-Kruger effect is the psychological bias in which, those who know the least on a topic are the most confident about their knowledge in it.] This is plain to read in people's comments saying that he: "...just needed to check the Properties in My Computer! Dumbass!". They have no idea what they're talking about, yet are quite certain that they're exactly right... when in reality, they are literally the ones not only BEING scammed, but defending the scam as legit, because they believe themselves to be just "TOO SMART AND SAVY" to be scammed. Which is another thing to consider. Those who believe that they're just "too smart" and too "wise" to be scammed, are just scam victims in waiting. ANYONE has the potential to be scammed...and believing that it CAN'T happen to you is just the sort of thing that will make you blind to the possibility of it actually happening. Always remain skeptical. Always assume that you can know MORE about ANY given topic. And when it comes to scams....never say never.

[@AtomicShrimp]

Yeah. I still routinely get people commenting on these videos to say 'X amount of time has passed and now this isn't a scam anymore'. Yeah, it still is though.

[@rexius775]

How is there a 3 day old comment when this was posted 19 seconds ago for me

[@AtomicShrimp]

Babatunde is my friend; I share my videos with him before publication

[@its_ariyan]

Hi

[@its_ariyan]

Love ur vids so intersting

[@liserjones8465]

@@AtomicShrimp I love your friendship with Babatunde - his last video with a framed pic of you and Eva really made my day x

[@claracrazy]

haha lol

[@smcdonald9991]

I have unknowingly bought fake items on Amazon many times, not just memory sticks but fake leather items and even a fake branded pen. I say "unknowingly" because the price was not cheap in a way that it would ring alarm bells. I have always reported such items to Amazon. And they have always done *NOTHING* . They have *not* removed them items. One time they even removed my review where I reported a fake item!

[@harm285]

That money sliding video shot is very nice! Thanks for explaining this fake storage matter in detail! I really learned something about storage devices today!