WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:09.120 the whole thing's a big scam i [ __ ] knew it all this time we've 00:00:06.319 --> 00:00:15.200 been paying hundreds of dollars for big micro sd cards but the greedy 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:19.840 corporations have been hiding the good stuff from us they just pretend there's 00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:24.400 a difference between small ones and big ones so we'll pay more for this kind of 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:27.519 cheap plastic then they unlock the functionality well 00:00:26.400 --> 00:00:34.079 you know what thank you ebay thank you for helping me see the 00:00:32.559 --> 00:00:40.680 light with this one terabyte microsd card for 32.99 00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:48.480 by the way guys just so that you don't have any doubt to 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:55.440 prove that these are real i've actually been buying these things for all of our 00:00:50.879 --> 00:00:58.079 cameras we are going to save a fortune 00:00:55.440 --> 00:01:02.480 or maybe not you could save a fortune with matt 00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:06.720 weldon mac weld makes great underwear t-shirts socks wallets and more and they 00:01:04.559 --> 00:01:12.160 last for a long time they believe in simple shopping if you use code tech 00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:20.400 tips you'll get 20 off at the link below 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:27.280 in all seriousness though guys i i did actually buy a couple of these cards but 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:32.159 only for the purpose of shedding some light on these 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:33.280 fake capacity scams and showing you how 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:37.520 they work so um 00:01:35.520 --> 00:01:43.920 let's rip this open and take a closer look at what arrived in the mail 00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:49.520 so our card in particular here looks like a verbatim card on the outside down 00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:54.320 to even the little uh the little v logo in the corner let's get this this baby 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:57.840 opened up or at least it would mostly look like it if it weren't for this like 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:02.399 weird serif font here that you often find on 00:02:00.399 --> 00:02:07.840 cheap chinese devices which actually sorry side note here like 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:10.879 if you think about it it's so ridiculous 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:14.080 like obviously they weren't gonna pay 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:16.480 for an expensive fawn but it's not like 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:21.040 they paid verbatim to rip off their logo either why can't they pirate a decent 00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:24.879 looking font and then the weirdest thing is like if you look really close the 00:02:23.200 --> 00:02:29.760 letters are fine it's just the numbers like they didn't 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:32.239 have numbers in their font pack and while we're at it why is the year on 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:38.080 here chinese pirates it's like you're not even trying so moving back to our 00:02:36.160 --> 00:02:42.160 packaging here for a second there's some claims here high speed high performance 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:46.959 waterproof shock proof 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:48.959 those are pretty dubious claims and oh 00:02:46.959 --> 00:02:54.959 this is interesting wow that's funny so it claims 2 000 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:58.480 songs in the mp3 format that's actually uh 00:02:55.760 --> 00:03:02.959 probably our first hint and then our second hint is going to be this ean code 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:06.800 down here so it's eight six oh five six three six zero one 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:10.159 zero and if we punch that into google first hit here 00:03:08.959 --> 00:03:16.319 is oh the plot thickens 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:20.560 a 32 gig micro sdhc 00:03:18.720 --> 00:03:24.800 that happens to look well similar it's got the same outer 00:03:23.200 --> 00:03:30.799 packaging here as the one that we got but then our card 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:34.799 has the ripoff verbatim markings and then actually this looks the same too 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:43.280 now there's also apparently uh a listing for like a sandisk usb drive or 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:47.360 something like that but either way it's not looking good for this card you know 00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:51.840 what though i'm gonna keep an open mind so let's go ahead and give it a shot 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:55.840 alright so it showed up and boom 00:03:53.920 --> 00:04:00.400 look at that check this capacity out 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:05.360 976 gigs and uh Anthony has actually already 00:04:03.519 --> 00:04:11.200 preloaded a couple of files on here just to show that it does in fact work i 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:14.400 might need my tinfoil hat back after all 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:18.160 it's a conspiracy it's the corporations 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:18.160 look at this works just fine 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:26.240 so far so let's go ahead and grab maybe a bigger file 00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:30.320 pop this on here oh woof 00:04:28.479 --> 00:04:34.880 oh that is that is not an impressive speed 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:37.120 what how fast is this thing supposed to be 00:04:38.479 --> 00:04:43.919 i believe it says class 10 class 10. 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:48.639 uh is that 10 plus or is that class 10 and 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:52.479 a free adapter that's class 10 and if you have a free adapter all right 00:04:50.479 --> 00:04:58.160 you never know height speed that's higher than high you 00:04:54.800 --> 00:05:00.880 know high height height um actually no 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:04.800 to class 10 is 10 megabytes per second sustained 00:05:01.840 --> 00:05:10.000 per second okay all right all right okay in fairness to them this is indeed 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:13.440 ish 10 10-ish i mean not really but let me get a close up 00:05:11.919 --> 00:05:19.360 i've seen class 10 cards that are a hell of a lot faster than this 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:19.360 yeah that's the minimum write speed 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:25.759 so like class 10 in 2006 00:05:23.280 --> 00:05:29.840 i mean it must be legit right like these guys have got 93 positive 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:34.320 feedback like they've actually got positive reviews here 00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:40.400 in morocco and they've got they've got reviews going back like a year 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:44.720 very good seller delivers what promises best new one terabyte microsd i'm happy 00:05:43.039 --> 00:05:49.600 with the item i was ordered i can recommend this seller 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:50.840 this seems that shopping cost too high 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:54.639 positive feedback um 00:05:53.520 --> 00:05:58.800 okay buy all your codes here ooh that sounds 00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:03.440 legit awesome price seller very helpful would recommend buy all your codes here 00:06:02.080 --> 00:06:07.680 council my order instead i'd have to pay more for taxes 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:13.840 that's the negative review Anthony thinks it's overwriting 00:06:11.520 --> 00:06:17.600 existing data and what what did i say i thought it was 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:20.720 oh yeah i thought it might just be like some weird like caching thing because we 00:06:19.280 --> 00:06:23.919 were copying off of a network drive that clearly isn't it so okay yeah you're 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:28.400 probably right then so oh crap 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:31.440 and naturally the file that i copied is one that we're not going to be able to 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:35.759 play back it's an mov i mean i didn't think 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:42.880 okay so that works oh wow when you copy from the 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:42.880 oh it's even worse 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:49.800 how because we can't check these vms 00:06:50.080 --> 00:06:54.880 i i really like i feel like i'm just watching paint dry right now like i'm 00:06:53.280 --> 00:06:58.800 watching files transfer but like 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:04.160 it's fascinating and i just 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:06.400 i can't look away from it because 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:09.599 i don't know what wizardry this is 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:14.880 is this like a lotto thing 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:19.280 some of them are fake every once in a while they ship a real one so they get a 00:07:16.479 --> 00:07:19.280 positive review 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:25.280 i don't like they don't exist what is going on here 00:07:26.400 --> 00:07:30.960 okay so as we can see if you open up one 00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:34.720 of the files we copied that were originally there yeah because it's 47.4 00:07:33.599 --> 00:07:39.280 gigs yeah and if we open up one of those files they're still there so it wasn't 00:07:37.520 --> 00:07:43.520 overwritten it didn't overwrite it so that was that's my 00:07:41.599 --> 00:07:48.800 my theory out the window and obviously we still have uh 00:07:46.080 --> 00:07:53.280 you know another 920 gigs so allah looks good right yeah uh yeah 00:07:51.520 --> 00:07:57.960 but these copies that we made everything we can't transfer over after future gigs 00:07:59.039 --> 00:08:04.720 it's fake it's fake 00:08:04.960 --> 00:08:10.840 okay so then 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:14.479 what what why 00:08:12.400 --> 00:08:19.360 all right so let's explain what's going on here 00:08:15.520 --> 00:08:21.280 the highest capacity legit micro sd card 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:25.240 at the time of writing actually huh it's convenient i have one right here 00:08:23.440 --> 00:08:30.080 is this 512 gig from what are they called 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:36.000 integral that's right and one of these is gonna run you a few hundred dollars 00:08:32.880 --> 00:08:39.279 so obviously those thirty dollar sd 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:41.200 cards that we bought off ebay are scams 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:45.839 but here's the thing if the cards arrived and they were just 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:49.279 completely non-functioning plastic dummies 00:08:46.880 --> 00:08:54.480 or if they showed up in people's computers as 32 gigs 00:08:52.640 --> 00:08:58.959 well they would immediately leave negative feedback and file for a return 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:02.880 through ebay's buyer protection leaving the scammers with no money for their 00:09:00.959 --> 00:09:06.080 effort in fact they would lose money because 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:11.839 they would have had to send something like even a plastic you know 00:09:08.640 --> 00:09:14.480 empty junk costs something 00:09:11.839 --> 00:09:19.680 so that is why they designed them to misreport you pull up the capacity thing 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:20.560 again and it's like very convincing 00:09:19.680 --> 00:09:26.320 but how are they doing this so this scam is 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:32.560 as old as sd cards themselves be they full-sized ones or micro ones inside 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:36.720 every sd card as you might expect is flash memory along with a 00:09:35.040 --> 00:09:42.000 microcontroller so there are at least two chips even on one of these tiny 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:46.160 little guys and that microcontroller is really really small it manages 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:50.720 communication with a host device like a pc or camera and it has information like 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:55.519 the total size the physical layout the vendor id the 00:09:53.279 --> 00:10:00.640 product id the serial number the date of manufacture and all of this gets 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:06.000 reported to the host device and the microcontroller acts as a go-between to 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:11.440 fetch slash store data from the flash memory on the sd card it's not unlike an 00:10:09.040 --> 00:10:15.920 SSD controller in its overall functionality but it's much simpler in 00:10:13.839 --> 00:10:19.680 design and much lower in both power consumption and performance 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:25.519 so then if you know how to program or that is 00:10:23.040 --> 00:10:30.480 reprogram the microcontroller you're able to modify 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:34.480 what it reports to the host including 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:36.160 the capacity and the vendor id making 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:40.640 some well-made fakes these aren't particularly well made 00:10:37.839 --> 00:10:45.279 very difficult to identify or discover the problem with before your 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:50.240 return window is up so our ean code investigation likely 00:10:47.920 --> 00:10:54.399 revealed the true nature of this beast which raises the question then i mean 00:10:52.160 --> 00:10:59.279 now that we're out our 30 dollars anyway is there a way for us to at least 00:10:56.160 --> 00:11:02.720 restore it to a working 32 gig model so 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:05.120 we can at least get some use out of it 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:08.560 in a word no in more words 00:11:07.040 --> 00:11:14.880 sort of actually so the card as it is will always report 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:21.120 that it is one terabyte in size unless we had the expertise and the time to 00:11:18.160 --> 00:11:25.600 reprogram its microcontroller again but 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:27.440 what we can do is we can create a small 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:31.600 partition on it that we can then use normally though 00:11:30.079 --> 00:11:36.079 there are still some stumbling blocks that we could hit here so there are only 00:11:33.680 --> 00:11:41.120 a handful of factories in the world that make nand flash which means that there's 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:45.200 a chance that this thing is slow but perfectly functional 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:48.880 the issue is that we don't know where it came from so it could be from like a 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:53.279 small chinese fab it could be from a reject bin and a legitimate one or it's 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:58.240 even possible that it was produced during a so-called third shift when a 00:11:55.920 --> 00:12:02.800 legitimate factory that makes authorized goods starts up again at night without 00:12:00.959 --> 00:12:06.240 the brand owner's authorization and produces more of the same goods to sell 00:12:04.959 --> 00:12:11.600 out the back door often without the same degree of quality control 00:12:09.040 --> 00:12:15.279 so to figure out where exactly the flash is there are a 00:12:13.760 --> 00:12:21.279 couple of tools that we can use so there's h2 test w by 00:12:17.760 --> 00:12:23.519 heise hi sensor it's german please tyson 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:28.399 okay probably that one is by far the most useful but f3 is an open source 00:12:25.680 --> 00:12:33.200 Linux alternative and HDD low level format tool by hd guru is also a pretty 00:12:30.880 --> 00:12:37.839 good bet now any partition creation tool that allows you to specify 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:40.959 where the partition is placed on the card is going to help you do this but 00:12:39.760 --> 00:12:46.399 first there's a couple things you got to do you got to get anything important 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:49.839 off of your fake sd card i mean it's just in general get everything off it as 00:12:47.839 --> 00:12:53.440 fast as you can but this whole process is going to wipe it anyway if you aren't 00:12:51.760 --> 00:12:59.440 sure how much usable space you have by the way h2 test w is the way to go takes 00:12:56.959 --> 00:13:03.120 a long time to run though so naturally we didn't run it but Anthony actually 00:13:00.959 --> 00:13:06.880 did some poking around figuring out where 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:11.839 it should be so we're just going to kind of yolo it and make a 32 Gigabyte 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:16.880 partition on the end of the card since earlier testing revealed that the 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:19.200 beginning was unusable 00:13:16.880 --> 00:13:22.240 so how are we doing here so well actually here show them what you've done 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:24.800 in disk management yeah sure so 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:29.600 actually it ended up being the beginning of the card i thought it was the beginning oh yeah because as it turns 00:13:28.079 --> 00:13:34.000 out the higher sector counts that were giving me the um the good rights yeah 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:38.000 were actually the beginning of the drive oh okay um so that's 00:13:36.079 --> 00:13:42.000 cool i guess we'll see if that works out and so this is just unallocated and it 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:46.800 doesn't even show up in any way and this is now a 32 gig 00:13:43.760 --> 00:13:49.440 sd card basically i guess that leads us 00:13:46.800 --> 00:13:53.680 pretty tightly into our conclusion should you buy an sd card that you think 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:58.000 might be fake in a word no 00:13:56.079 --> 00:14:02.800 in more words hell no 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:05.440 instill more words yes but only for 00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:10.399 people that you really really don't like so be on the lookout guys for deals that 00:14:08.160 --> 00:14:14.160 look too good to be true from vendors that you don't recognize because 00:14:11.760 --> 00:14:17.680 remember even names that you know and trust like ebay aliexpress or even 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:23.519 amazon mean nothing in cases where the brand 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:26.959 that's actually shipping and selling the product is not affiliated with them and 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:32.800 remember these guys allow pretty much anyone to sell on their platforms and 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:34.720 not every scam may even be as obvious as 00:14:32.800 --> 00:14:39.839 the one we outlined today some of them for example might have 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:43.760 half of their advertised capacity so you would have to write a lot of data to 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:46.959 them before you would pick up on it or they might use slower flash meaning that 00:14:46.079 --> 00:14:52.880 your uhs two class card wouldn't be able to 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:55.760 record 4k video properly in some cases 00:14:52.880 --> 00:14:59.920 the capacity and the performance might even be the same but then when you go 00:14:57.760 --> 00:15:04.800 and claim warranty service it turns out it was a counterfeit or a reject 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:10.079 that's why we always recommend Linus brand flash memory products Linus brand 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:13.199 flash memory products are upfront about being a complete and utter scam you can 00:15:12.079 --> 00:15:18.800 learn more at the link in the video description we actually may or may not actually do 00:15:16.800 --> 00:15:22.320 something in collaboration with a real like flash memory vendor so 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:27.040 i don't know there might be something down there that might not but what i do know for sure is that this video is 00:15:25.199 --> 00:15:30.000 brought to you by freshbooks freshbooks is the small business accounting 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:33.600 software custom built for how you want to work and it's a simple way to be more 00:15:31.839 --> 00:15:37.600 productive more organized and to get paid faster you can create and send 00:15:35.680 --> 00:15:40.560 professional looking invoices in less than 30 seconds you can set up online 00:15:39.199 --> 00:15:43.760 payments with just a couple of clicks and get paid up to four days faster you 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:48.240 can see when your client has seen your invoice to put an end to the guessing 00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:52.240 games and you can try it for free at freshbooks.com tech tips just enter 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:55.920 Linus tech tips in the how you heard about us section so thanks for watching 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:59.199 guys if you disliked this video you can hit that button but if you liked it hit like and subscribe or maybe consider 00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:02.800 checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:08.440 also down there is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:08.440 join