Amazon will not deny that fraudulent opinions on its platform are an issue. And regardless of years of studies of pretend storage merchandise, listed with falsified opinions to cowl up faux specs and efficiency claims, the scams preserve coming.
On Monday, Review Geek detailed its buy of what an Amazon itemizing claimed was a 16TB transportable M.2 SSD for $70. The drive, like comparable Amazon listings, had dozens of five-star opinions. Yet, a budget SSD turned out to only be a 64GB microSD in a circuit board with a USB-C connector.
This is all regardless of the drive exhibiting as 16TB storage on Windows, which Review Geek suspects is because of misleading circuit board firmware.
The itemizing and field weren’t even sincere about its connectivity, claiming USB 3.0 Micro B to USB 3.1 Type-C. The system actually depends on USB 2.0, Review Geek decided after testing the product with ChipGenius, an app for analyzing USB gadgets. Moving 1GB of information with the SSD microSD card reportedly took 20 minutes as an alternative of the anticipated single minute.
Finally, the field’s claims of compatibility with good TVs, Android, Windows 7, and Windows 10 stay questionable, and assist for “| OS” appears not possible since that is not a factor.
The excellent news is Review Geek did not discover any malware on the system.
The dangerous information is that this is only one instance of the numerous which were reported over the previous few years and stay scattered throughout Amazon.
Cheap “16TB SSDs” abound
After studying Review Geek’s story, I searched Amazon for a “16TB SSD,” and was instantly met with $70-$110 choices with unknown model names, like Generic, SAJIULAS, and WIOTA, the model of the drive Review Geek bought. All had at the very least 3.5 stars, and a few had a whole bunch of opinions.
However, studying a few of these opinions made me query if we have been utilizing SSDs fallacious all this time. A evaluate on one of many remarkably low cost transportable SSD listings declared the product to be “a really colourful throw, however thinner” than anticipated. Another reported that the drive proved “very comfortable and ideal” for his or her 6-year-old. One evaluate pointed to the SSD being a “stunning portrait” that appears nice within the kitchen, whereas one other five-star evaluate pointed to the excessive microphone and video high quality.
I even noticed a evaluate hinting at one of many transportable SSD’s true nature, stating that it is an “reasonably priced 64GB” choice, regardless of the evaluate showing underneath a 16TB SSD.
As identified by Review Geek, scammers have been enhancing present listings (together with new photos, titles, and descriptions) for a product till they’re promoting a very completely different merchandise. That method, sellers can preserve the excessive opinions, and make the brand new product look extremely rated. This additionally explains how transportable storage might get 5 stars for being nice to have a look at whereas consuming dinner.
Whether you name it evaluate merging, evaluate reuse, or evaluate hijacking, it is a observe scammers have used to mislead PC part customers for years and one Amazon has but to eradicate.
History repeats itself
Unfortunately, tales of fundamental microSD playing cards posing as high-speed, high-capacity transportable SSDs have been choosing up steam currently. ZDNet reported on shopping for a $20 instance in May, and TechRadar mentioned the problem in September, noting the takedown of some Amazon listings after its article. In August, we reported on a scammer promoting a 30TB transportable SSD on Walmart for $39.
Regarding PC storage typically, there are numerous studies of individuals getting merchandise completely different from what’s marketed on Amazon. And it isn’t solely restricted to SSD storage. People have reported duplicitous postings for reasonable exhausting disk drives and USB flash drives.
Review Geek’s story is a reminder of how cautious customers should be when shopping for suspiciously low cost tech from web sites. Despite studies and subsequent removals of fraudulent storage gadgets, they preserve popping up.
According to Review Geek, the product it bought disappeared and was instantly changed by one other itemizing earlier than Review Geek reported the fraud to Amazon. It’s unclear if Amazon eliminated the unique posting or if the vendor did it independently earlier than it might be penalized.
As Review Geek put it, it is like a sport of whack-a-mole for Amazon. Amazon’s evaluate course of has led to scrutiny from clients, the media, and UK’s competitors regulator, The Competition and Markets Authority. Amazon has turned to the courts to fight firms and Facebook teams that it alleges promote faux opinions. Amazon has been suing over faux opinions since 2015. however they nonetheless run rampant on the positioning.