from Hacker News

10TB portable SSDs on Amazon UK are scams

by AlexMuir on 1/30/23, 10:19 PM with 177 comments

• by foobarbecue on 1/30/23, 11:16 PM

  I saw a "16TB SSD" for $70, figured it was a scam, but was curious so I bought it.

  It turned out to be a metal box with a 60GB SD card inside (although actually, I couldn't even get the card to work properly when I took it out). The SD card was on a carrier board that made it present as 16TB, although I couldn't create any partitions on it.

  I posted a review saying it was a scam and the product disappeared quickly. I got approved for a return, but it said "seller will send you a return label within 5 days." They didn't. I got on chat support and got a full refund without having to return the product.

• by AlexMuir on 1/30/23, 10:19 PM

  Went looking for an SSD earlier - the "SD-card in a box" scam is going great guns on there. Must be selling hundreds a week. Not just the ludicrous 10TB, but also 2TB.

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/LuBanSir-External-Design-Portable-C...

  Note the reviews refer to all different stuff - phone chargers, arm slings, extension cord organisers. What a total shitshow.

• by Buttons840 on 1/30/23, 10:47 PM

  How does a company that consistently sales scam products not get sued into oblivion? Is there some legal loophole Amazon is using, or is it just that they have enough money to buy the legal system outright? Is there a legal protection for marketplaces or something? Is Amazon a marketplace?

• by fancyfredbot on 1/30/23, 10:35 PM

  I was thinking that surely Amazon would lose money selling a fake product which everyone would return, but I guess some people don't realise and don't return it so that selling these ends up being profitable for both Amazon and the manufacturer. At least until someone files a class action lawsuit anyway.

• by dylan604 on 1/30/23, 11:21 PM

  Q: What makes Amazon Marketplace any different from the local flea markets that have been havens for selling stolen goods?

  A: You're not going to get caught selling stolen goods via Amazon.

  At least the local flea markets would occasionally have police stroll through looking for merch and could act upon it then and there if found. Amazon took being a fence to a whole new level that criminals are laughing all the way to the bank from the whole experience.

• by kugutsumen on 1/31/23, 2:58 PM

  ChatGPT to the rescue

  Urgent Request for Action on Fraudulent Products on Amazon

  Dear Jeff Bezos,

  I am writing to express my concern about the increasing prevalence of scams and fraudulent items being sold on Amazon. It appears that these vendors have been operating for some time without any consequences and have consistently deceived customers with recycled reviews.

  As a consumer, I am deeply troubled by this lack of action from Amazon. Not only does this violate consumer protection laws, but it also undermines the trust and confidence that customers have in your platform. This issue is not just limited to the 16TB SSD incident, as other examples such as the ultrasonic cleaning product that was actually a vibrating motor have been reported as well.

  I understand the difficulties in policing a platform of this size, but I believe that it is imperative for Amazon to take more decisive steps to eliminate these scams and protect the interests of its customers. The comments of other customers reflect a similar sentiment, with some even opting to stop purchasing important items from Amazon due to this issue.

  I hope that you will take the necessary steps to address this problem and ensure that Amazon remains a trusted and reliable platform for customers.

  Sincerely,

  [Your Name]

• by ilrwbwrkhv on 1/30/23, 10:57 PM

  Amazon itself is a scam now. Moved away from it a long time back. It is not an Alibaba clone with better English copy.

• by cm2187 on 1/30/23, 11:29 PM

  This is not the first time this makes it to the HN front page. Either no one at amazon reads HN, or they seem to be comfortable having their customers scammed. I find the former highly unlikely.

• by brianmcc on 1/30/23, 11:45 PM

  I'm UK based. Pretty much stopped buying anything of importance from Amazon these days. Argos fills most of my online shopping needs now and often I can even just drive 10 mins to collect my stuff!

  Occasionally I do pause to consider just how spectacularly Amazon has blown it for general online shopping.

• by lazyant on 1/30/23, 11:22 PM

  This is another example of a scam in Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/Portable-Reusable-Ultrasonic-Cleaning-... , the best seller product in its category and it's not anything ultrasonic but a little vibrating motor. The 5-star ratings where for a different product (I don't see them now so at least they fixed that but still allow the scam).

• by jypepin on 1/30/23, 11:02 PM

  Sorry, can someone explain what is happening here? What's wrong with those products?

• by c3534l on 1/30/23, 11:53 PM

  When I tried to report a seller for a similar scam, I was told by an amazon representative that consumers can't report fraudulent sellers, only other sellers on amazon and only if they infringe on their brand. Fraud is not on its own a reportable offense. There's no button that says "report fraud." Amazon doesn't care and won't fix it.

• by JohnTHaller on 1/30/23, 11:01 PM

  Don't forget the thousands of unsafe electrical products with no UL, CSA-US, or equivalent certification shipped directly from China.

• by ROTMetro on 1/30/23, 11:36 PM

  Imagine a local store pulling the 'we're too big to stop blatant fraud in our store'. Funny the double standard large corporations get for the blatant breaking of laws in their stores versus mom and pops.

• by gibolt on 1/30/23, 11:24 PM

  Has anyone found a hard drive scam with multiple levels of fake storage? 10TB drive, containing a 1TB SSD, with a 256gb SD card, that is actually a 16gb micro SD card.

  It has to exist

• by theshrike79 on 1/31/23, 6:43 AM

  Amazon is 100% just a front-end for AliExpress drop-shippers nowadays.

  Don't buy anything unless it's an "official" store for a brand, even the "fulfilled by Amazon" tag doesn't mean crap anymore.

• by Nifty3929 on 1/31/23, 1:17 AM

  Would we be willing to pay a lot more money for a storefront that curates their vendors and vendors products?

  Some of us would, but empirical evidence suggests that most won’t.

  This is the function that traditional specialty retailers like appliance stores and such used to do well. But most are forced to compete only on price now because otherwise people walk in, talk to an educated salesperson, touch and feel the item, find the one they want, and then buy it from the lowest priced competitor.

  If you want some level of curation and accountability for your SSDs, try Best Buy.

• by boomboomsubban on 1/30/23, 11:32 PM

  A previous post looking into these scam drives

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34409772

• by simonblack on 1/31/23, 12:35 AM

  Luckily the prices quoted for these SSDs are ridiculously low. "When it sounds too good to be true, it is."

  What would be far more dangerous is if the prices quoted were close enough to real prices to be credible, but low enough to be attractive.

  Example: Not $70 for 16 TB, but $1500 (say) for 16TB, which is roughly half-price.

  With Amazon, I generally buy readily-available branded items for a lower than usual price. Or else I buy that item from a known and trusted supplier.

• by kgbcia on 1/31/23, 12:11 AM

  Way to many scams on Amazon. I was looking for a cellphone and decided to walk into a store than buy some Chinese phone with spyware.

• by hrunt on 1/30/23, 10:59 PM

  If I take that amazon.co.uk URL and replace it with amazon.com, I get zero scam-looking SSD drives. The only results that are 10TB are 7200rpm portable drives, and the largest SSD drive is an $800 8TB drive.

  I wonder what makes Amazon show all those junk on its UK site, but not on its US site.

• by throwaway67743 on 1/31/23, 1:52 PM

  Since Amazon won't actually bother dealing with any of the counterfeit products they encourage selling, it seems like the only solution is to buy en-mass and return repeatedly (since its a fake item, it's at their cost in most parts of the world)

• by adenozine on 1/30/23, 11:38 PM

  I’ve personally come to assume that 1/3 of everything on Amazon is fake.

  Is there any reputable auditing or investigation where I could read more about the evidence?

  Amazon seems pretty clearly to not be motivated to fix the fraud problem. Economy of scale and all that.

• by imwillofficial on 1/30/23, 11:32 PM

  Can somebody pull the andon cord on these? (Is that still a thing?)

• by fmajid on 1/31/23, 12:44 PM

  It's long past time KYC (Know Your Customer) laws were passed on marketplaces like Amazon, with liability. If the financial industry can deal with it, so can they.

• by gibolt on 1/30/23, 11:22 PM

  Looking forward to the first legit 10TB 'scam' that puts 10 1TB micro SD cards into a case. A manufacturer could probably do it for under $1k

• by hmaxwell on 1/30/23, 11:46 PM

  why spend $70 on a 10tb drive when you can spend $15 on a 16tb drive, https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804901971131.html you get screwed either way may as well go all out

• by daneel_w on 1/30/23, 11:14 PM

  Surely one can trust a "mobble sdud state" portable drive of 10TB capacity for £79.

• by joaofiliperocha on 1/31/23, 9:10 AM

  no shit Sherlock ...

• by zabzonk on 1/30/23, 11:26 PM

  if it looks like a scam, and looks like it costs much less than it should, then it is a scam - if you fall for it, that is your problem

• by NKosmatos on 1/31/23, 12:10 AM

  Oh come on now, they’re shipped by Amazon and the order is processed by Amazon, but the seller is some random Chinese guy. Do your research when buying something, read the fine print, don’t buy from random people and use your common sense. Amazon doesn’t care and don’t have the workforce to go through all these fake listings. If you think you’re going to buy a 10TB SSD for ~80$ then good luck with your life :-)