My drives are forgeries

E

ep0x73

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 5, 2013
Messages
2,574
The two SE drives I bought from Amazon are fakes, the labels have been switched and I really have [had] GREEN drives.
The firmware confirms it but I spaced off the cover which is not enterprise.

A picture of my drive, a picture of what it SHOULD look like and a RED.
The label is not even square so it was lifted and replaced.



I also still can't figure WTF that piece of tape is doing on the PCB.

2a7xu95.jpg


Edit, wow I totally did not even notice these drives are really GREENS.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model : WDC WD30EZRX-00DC0B0
Firmware : 80.00A80
Disk Size : 3000.5 GB (8.4/137.4/3000.5/----)
Power On Hours : 57 hours
Power On Count : 25 count
Health Status : Good
 
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You bought this from Amazon (the actual store) or from a third party on Amazon?
 
Bought directly from Amazon, they were open box from the warehouse.

It's even worse then I thought.

WCC1T0555448 WDBACW0030HBK-NEWM
3 TB My Book Essential In Limited Warranty 5/15/2015
WCC1T0874741 WDBACW0030HBK-NEWM
3 TB My Book Essential In Limited Warranty 8/22/2015

That is from crystalinfo not the fake label.

Going to pack them up, bitch and get a return label and get my $$ back.
 
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I wonder when in the supply chain the counterfeits were swapped. I'd imagine it happened before Amazon procured them.

I'm not sure how returns/refunds are processed in cases like this at Amazon. Please keep us updated.
 
I bet it was done after. Guy buys some SEs and Greens, swaps the labels, keeps the SEs and returns the Greens as SEs. Unfortunately these types of practices are far too common.
 
Yea it sounds like a returned item some douche swapped labels on and packaged back up as new.
 
Chatted with a guy on Amazon a few minutes ago and a full refund of course with free return shipping. Still does not take out the sting of buying a pair of enterprise drives for a raid pair and they are not even close to being enterprise.
This is certainly the first time I ever bought some computer equipment that was fake, hopefully the last.
 
Without training employees to check for counterfeit/fake returns, it's going to keep happening. At least you didn't get some bricks when trying to buy an iPad from Walmart (or however that story went).
 
Least with drives you can use programs to see what they actually are and not what they claim.
Most computer hardware is not fake but drives can be spoofed as I just found out.
I did not get any "sorry we sold you a fake product here is a $20 gift card" but the guy was nice and said he would forward this to the fraud dept so they can investigate.
Maybe they can nail the bastard who did this as I probably am not the first nor will be the last.
 
One thing you could try and do is raise awareness about this by submitting your stories to some tech news sites, and maybe it'll get picked up somewhere mainstream.

Returns frauds are nothing new though, it's been happening for a long time.
 
WoW!

I never even imagined a scam like that.

Just goes to show ya how low some will go to take advantage of any situation.

Although in this situation I must admit someone deserves an "A" for creativity but it's a shame they don't focus that same creativeness to help, rather than hurt, the general public.

I wholeheartedly agree with Tsumi that submitting your experience to other sites will help others avoid this type of fraud.
 
It could be an isolated incident so I don't want to go tossing it all over the net.
I was just happy to get them and fire them up I did not even notice they did not look like WD enterprise drives do.
It was not until I did some benches then noted they had locking latches and then actually spotted the real serial in crystal
I put it all together. I just had to say WTF.
I just don't see what the point would be or what you would gain from doing label swaps.

I am sure somebody has bought some externals from walmart then put a dead drive inside and returned them and kept the good drive but this seems like a lot of effort.

If somebody thought they can swap a label then return the drive to WD under warranty the tech's would
see this and refuse it.

I got a refund, sure I could have sent both in to WD and tried to get SE refurbs back but the same deal, they would see they are fake then blame me for doing it.

Being dishonest can come back to bite you in the ass.
 
See, your experience is exactly why you need to get it out there. How many people are going to run tests and check the serials after they buy it? Unless they've bought the same model before, they're almost guaranteed to never notice the difference. It's easy to recognize a scam if you know what to look for, but if you haven't thought of it being fraud tactic, what are the odds you'll realize it on your own?
 
Isolated or not others need to be aware of your experience.

I've always had the opinion that everyone deserves all the info they can get to help in the decision making process.

A few simple, short, well written paragraphs can only help, not hurt, the general public.

I know it's opened my eyes. :)
 
Wow. First off thanks for sharing this, I'd never even think of looking at drive info like that.

Slightly off topic, but I never understood why people would bother trying to do fraudulent returns. ESPECIALLY when you're paying with credit cards and having items shipped to you. Assuming those were returns, Amazon knows who they sold those drives to originally and it isn't a giant leap to figure out who might have stuck those labels on there.
 
capt_cope said:
Wow. First off thanks for sharing this, I'd never even think of looking at drive info like that.

Slightly off topic, but I never understood why people would bother trying to do fraudulent returns. ESPECIALLY when you're paying with credit cards and having items shipped to you. Assuming those were returns, Amazon knows who they sold those drives to originally and it isn't a giant leap to figure out who might have stuck those labels on there.
Click to expand...

id say though, the OP is probably the exception to the rule. Most people would hook up the drive, verify the capacity, and think all is well and never look again. I know I didnt look twice at my drive after verifying the label and then capacity in windows. Unless it performed like crap, then ill investigate. but OP (and maybe others buying enterprise drives) are the minority. Most people wouldnt think twice. however, scammers need to know a crooked label WILL be a red flag.

OP, if it werent for the crooked label, would you have still known something was up?
 
capt_cope said:
Slightly off topic, but I never understood why people would bother trying to do fraudulent returns. ESPECIALLY when you're paying with credit cards and having items shipped to you. Assuming those were returns, Amazon knows who they sold those drives to originally and it isn't a giant leap to figure out who might have stuck those labels on there.
Click to expand...

Hard to proove who did the fraudulent return. I mean do they trust the OP or the person who last returned the disks.

OP, if it werent for the crooked label, would you have still known something was up?
Click to expand...

I would have since I always look at the smart data during my burn in testing. However I bet 99.9% of users would have missed that if the label was properly attached. Although some would have found out months later when it was way too late to return to Amazon.
 
Old Hippie said:
WoW!

I never even imagined a scam like that.

Just goes to show ya how low some will go to take advantage of any situation.

Although in this situation I must admit someone deserves an "A" for creativity but it's a shame they don't focus that same creativeness to help, rather than hurt, the general public.

I wholeheartedly agree with Tsumi that submitting your experience to other sites will help others avoid this type of fraud.
Click to expand...

I agree. I would have never in a million years thought up of that and it is so simple...

Lifting the stickers off the drives would not be worth my time in itself though tbh.

Well I am glad you got that sorted out. Maybe Amazon keeps track of the serial numbers and can peg the guy the order originally went to... I doubt it :\
 
Tsumi said:
I bet it was done after. Guy buys some SEs and Greens, swaps the labels, keeps the SEs and returns the Greens as SEs. Unfortunately these types of practices are far too common.
Click to expand...


I imagine with something like that it would be incredible easy to catch you. Guessing that they didn't circulate after being returned in the first place and even then records would easily be able to track all those people down and perhaps file a legal charge. If it was the supplier than they will definitely get dropped and lose all business similar to the crap that happened with Newegg years back.

If I was Amazon I'd make it a point to track this POS down and nail him to the walls for fraud and perhaps ban him entirely from using any and all Amazon services.

Yeah big talk, but stuff like this really pisses me off. It's bad enough having to deal with all the problems that come from foreign manufacturing to then have to deal with this shit.
 
It really depends on their system. If they track individual serial numbers rather than the generic barcode, yes, it would be possible. However, if they don't, it would be nearly impossible to track where the drives have been.
 
mnewxcv said:
OP, if it werent for the crooked label, would you have still known something was up?
Click to expand...

Actually the label was the last thing even though I've seen pictures of enterprise class and they have a much different cover then non-enterprise the label looked as it should.

No the first thing is when I seen the firmware and that it was not the firmware I remember from reviews of the SE so I investigated and found out the firmware is for green and red drives.

SE drives are known for not having locking connectors as they are designed for back planes, both of mine had locking connectors, another head scratcher.

I really just thought somebody swapped the PCB's to get a better firmware or something, not the whole drive.

Bench tests were lower then they should have been but I will say as in my other post for being a green it was not that bad, faster then my old WD black.

One last thing crystal will usually but not always tell you the rpm so watch that as well.

I edited my post to reflect and so there is no confusion these drives were not new, they were open box "like" new.
This will not happen with any sealed drive.
They were in a OEM box so they were bought by an IT place most likely, swapped and then returned.

If I was the first to open the ESD bag and they were fake this would be a serious issue for WD to have fake drives.
 
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Wow, thank you for apprising us! That scam would have completely fooled a dimwit like me.
 
Man, that label on your drive looks absolutely pristine. Is it really possible to remove a paper label and transfer it to a different drive and have the edges appear so perfect? Now, if you told me someone stole a batch of labels from the factory so that they could relabel a pallet full of drives, I could believe that.

The label on the 'real' SE drive is also crooked.

Is there really such a thing as a locking connector on a drive (rather than the cable)? I just purchased some WD Green drives and they slide right in and out of my hotswap drive trays.

What is the firmware rev of the drive you received and what is an example of a firmware rev of an SE drive that you saw in a review?
 
Ah, so they were open box when the OP purchased them. That makes it likely that whoever returned them before the OP did the swap and sticker fakery. It's good to hear that Amazon did a prompt refund. Unfortunately what a hassle and wasted time for OP.

Thanks for the update!
 
I did not want to suggest that WD was putting out fakes or that amazon was selling fakes.

What is disturbing though is they were taken in as open box but apparently amazon does not check to make sure they are legit or if they do they missed these ones.

As to the firmware question, red and green drives appear to be mostly 80.00A80 and SE drives are 01.01A01.

Unlike Seagate WD does not normally update firmware even though it can be unless some problem arises.

That said they have in the past as I have [3] AALS's with different firmware.

If you look closely at the sata connector on drives you will see two small indents, that is where the cables latch into.

the SE drives do not have these indents as they are designed for a back plane.
 
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