The Risk With Buying Unbranded USB Drives On Amazon

Amazon is the world's largest marketplace, selling a wide range of products, from technology to lifestyle items. Out of the whopping 600 million product listings on Amazon, only 12 million products are directly sold by the marketplace. As the majority of the listings come from third-party sellers, Amazon has had a long history of fake product listings.

A common scam involves fake USB drives that claim to offer terabytes of storage at dirt-cheap prices. While their suspiciously perfect price-to-storage ratio is the biggest giveaway, it is also why unbranded USB sticks do well on online marketplaces. Tech products like SSDs have gotten significantly more affordable in recent times, so it's not that unusual for the analog-minded to believe a fake listing. However, buying such unbranded products can pose far more serious risks beyond just monetary loss. Fake USBs can fool your computer into thinking they hold terabytes of storage when they only have a few gigabytes.

Claiming unbelievably high storage space is a common thread on most fake USB listings. Unfortunately, many of these products garner 5-star reviews, as computers, too, recognize them as high-capacity storage drives unless you attempt to load data onto them. While there are numerous ways by which scammers fake the drive's storage, a common method is to manipulate the drive's controller. Additionally, some scammers also modify the drive's file table to trick the operating system into believing their false storage capacity.

As these drives typically only carry a few gigabytes of storage, transferring large files can lead to data loss. Normally, computers display a low storage warning if you attempt to transfer a file larger than the drive's capacity. However, as these drives fake their storage, computers actually begin the file transfer, leading to an unexpected data loss.

Another common tactic on unbranded USB sticks is to fake the USB interface. While the blue-tinted USB port might appear to be a USB 3.0 port, these usually sport the much slower USB 2.0 interface. Apart from the slow speeds, USB 2.0 has several more downsides than USB 3.0. As a result, the file transfer process is painfully slow, even for smaller files. Many of these USB sticks contain much slower SD cards connected to a controller to fake themselves as thumb drives. Apart from ripping you off with slow and unreliable data transfers, unbranded USBs can also pose potential security risks. Since fake drives are assembled in questionable settings, these USBs may contain a variety of threats, including malware, making it risky to plug them into your personal computer.

Avoiding unbranded USBs on Amazon can be challenging, considering how easily they can appear in search results. That said, keeping an eye out for a few basic points should keep you safe from fake USB scams. Firstly, if it sounds too good to be true, there is a high chance it is actually a scam. A 512 GB USB can cost anywhere from $30 to $60, depending on the brand and USB interface, as packing such a large storage in a thumb drive is expensive. Listings claiming similar storage at a fraction of this cost are most probably fake. Additionally, try buying from reputable brands, as they have a much higher chance of being authentic unless the listing is a counterfeit. You may check out the largest external USB drives you can buy at each price point. While you can also check for product ratings and reviews, these can be deceptive, as unbranded drives can ingeniously fake their storage.

If you suspect you have purchased a fake USB, you can check for its authenticity with specialized tools like ValiDrive and H2testw. These tools test the drive's claimed capacity by writing data into the storage. While these tools are mostly foolproof, the testing can take some time, depending on the drive's USB interface and storage. Alternatively, you could pop open the USB drive to check for SD cards or other dodgy components to verify the drive's authenticity.