SSD and HDD prices have been rising since last year and have not stopped now. Under this situation, if some ultra-low price advertisements appear on auction websites, I believe everyone will be tempted and even want to take a gamble. Recently, a foreign netizen shared that he saw a 4TB external hard drive on Temu for only 20 US dollars, and decided to bet on it. The result was no surprise. After receiving it, he opened the case and saw that it was not a hard drive at all, but a microSD card reader stuck to the back of the plastic case with hot melt glue, and paired with an ordinary memory card.
Spend USD 20 on Temu to buy a 4TB external hard drive and disassemble the microSD card reader with only one hot melt glue stuck on it
A few days ago, a netizen shared on Reddit’s PCMasterRace subreddit with the title “I got a 4TB external drive off Temu and this is what they sent lmao” (I bought a 4TB external hard drive off Temu and this is what they sent, so funny). Judging from the photo, it looks like an ordinary 2.5-inch external hard drive plastic box. After being disassembled, there is no hard drive inside. There is only a microSD card reader fixed on the back of the case with hot melt glue. There is also a memory card inserted into the card reader:
Image source: Reddit
This netizen himself was very honest. He originally bought it with the mentality that he could afford the gamble for 20 US dollars, so he did not complain at all after being defrauded. What’s more interesting is the follow-up. When he applied for a refund from Temu, he didn’t expect to simply return it. The representative said that the seller knew very well what he was selling, and he also knew that the buyer would find out as soon as he took it apart.
It seems that he didn’t plug in the computer to check later because he thought it might be risky or a malicious device.
I got a 4TB external drive off Temu and this is what they sent lmao
byu/Raw_Stank inpcmasterrace
In fact, even if it is plugged into a computer, it is impossible to reach a 4TB capacity, because the highest microSD card currently available is 2TB, and a 2TB microSD memory card sells for at least 289.99 pounds abroad. This card alone is more than ten times more expensive than an entire external hard drive.
Even if Windows displays 4TB, it does not mean that it is really 4TB. More sophisticated fakes will rewrite the storage controller through firmware tampering, so that the capacity seen by Windows is fake. To verify this kind of firmware fraud, you can use H2testw. This tool will write a round of test data for all available space from beginning to end, and then read it back for comparison. It is recognized as one of the most reliable capacity verification methods in the industry.
Although the things Temu sells are very cheap, not all of them are cheap, foreign media Tom’s Hardware As mentioned in the report, another netizen received a wrong package from Temu a few years ago, which turned out to be a free RTX 3060 graphics card:
Image source:Tom’s Hardware
In the past, this scam method of microSD pretending to be a hard disk has always existed, especially on foreign platforms such as eBay and AliExpress. However, it has become more intensive recently. The reason behind it is nothing more than AI-related. Due to the chip shortage caused by AI, SSDs and HDDs have skyrocketed. While genuine products have become more expensive, fake products will naturally have a larger market.
Source: KOCPC Chinese