Caveat emptor: Of us searching for an important deal on a solid-state drive might need been jazzed to discover a generic 30TB M.2 exterior SSD for about $18 on Walmart’s web site not too long ago. Nonetheless, the killer deal ended up being a rip-off product that did not maintain anyplace close to 30TB of information. At all times keep in mind, “if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.”
Present SSD costs vary from about $50 to $100 per terabyte. So when a safety researcher, going by Ray [REDACTED] on Twitter, noticed the marketed 30TB SSD on on-line retailer AliExpress for about $30, he was instantly suspicious. As a fast and straightforward mission to show his son analyze {hardware}, Ray bought a unit and tore it right down to see what it was.
After opening up the generic SDD housing, Ray was not stunned to seek out it contained two SD playing cards held agency with sizzling glue. When plugged right into a USB port, Home windows confirmed the exterior storage gadget as two 15TB drives. Nonetheless, even that was not correct.
Board says HUB-TF2 and has two glued down playing cards (trans flash? SD Playing cards?). pic.twitter.com/gKd84tXIXI
— Ray [REDACTED] (@RayRedacted) August 25, 2022
As Ray defined in his prolonged thread, the scammers took two 512MB flash drives (or no matter they’ll discover on a budget) and modified the firmware to report every as 15TB. To assist obfuscate the ruse, the scammers slowed the bus to 0.48 gigabits per second as an alternative of 5 Gbps. So anybody making an attempt to confirm capability utilizing a software like H2Testw will discover it takes 500 days to scan and confirm the whole drive.
Moreover, to increase suspicions for so long as attainable, the counterfeiters programmed the firmware to overwrite saved knowledge at any time when a file exceeded the remaining space for storing whereas protecting the listing intact. This sneaky trick would hold patrons considering all was regular till they tried to load an overwritten file. And all this assuming you will get the drive to work in any respect.
H2Testw says it may possibly check HALF the capability (15TB) in 250 days. Do we have now the time? pic.twitter.com/mRImhnjT7K
— Ray [REDACTED] (@RayRedacted) August 25, 2022
This sort of rip-off is nothing new. Counterfeiters have been promoting low cost, high-capacity SD playing cards on Amazon for years that do the identical factor. The issue was prevalent shortly after the Nintendo Change launch when customers have been searching for bargain-priced SD enlargement playing cards to extend the measly storage of the Change. The twist, on this case, is that they’re now simply taking these identical rip-off flash drives and hiding them in a generic SSD housing.
Walmart discovered of the bogus drive on Friday and eliminated the third-party vendor’s product web page by Monday.
“Thanks for reaching out and bringing this to our consideration,” Walmart’s Director of Company Communications Robyn Babbitt informed Motherboard. “Walmart has a strong belief and security program, which actively works to guard our prospects and assist guarantee objects are genuine. After reviewing this merchandise, it has been faraway from our web site.”
Walmart prospects that fell for the rip-off weren’t amused. A number of patrons warned others to not buy the laborious drive, declaring how they bought duped.
“DO NOT BUY THIS — it’s a rip-off,” wrote one reviewer earlier than Walmart took the web page down. “Walmart ought to get smarter than to promote merchandise like this. I believed I used to be shopping for a 8 terabyte SSD drive, for $28, and this piece of rubbish doesn’t work, in any means, form or kind. This product is a rip-off, and Walmart ought to be ashamed of itself to promote them.”
Ray initially discovered and acquired the drive from AliExpress, which was charging much more than the Walmart vendor. Apparently, all 13 critiques on the reseller’s web site give it 5 stars and sing its praises. As of publication, the bogus SSD continues to be accessible on AliEspress for $32. The vendor even advertises it as a marked-down merchandise that often sells for $66.67.
Purchaser beware, certainly.