Fake hard drive appears in HCMC

Seeing the price is quite cheap, only VND 300,000 per drive, Mr. Hung, a computer parts salesman, imported two barrels with a total of 100 Seagate 160 GB hard drives. Although the sale is not clear, but he is assured by the goods with proper packaging and stamps.

However, when going home when testing, the entire shipment does not work.

Mr. Nguyen Dang Duc, Dat Viet, Binh Thanh, Ho Chi Minh City Data Recovery Center, said: " In the recent 1-month period, the Center also received a few dozen Seagate hard drives of this type brought by customers. After testing the entire hard drive, it was found that all were 'polished' with old components to look like a new one . According to Mr. Duc, this source of fake drive could be returned to Vietnam by computer parts dealers bought in the form of advance deposit. This item is also sold a lot in the border area with China.

The internal structure is sketchy, most of them are fixed and heavy. The most important parts of a hard disk (HDD) do not have such as: the disk reading needle, the engine that controls the movement of the needle . The board parts are usually fake or old goods are "retired".

This fake HDD digital aluminum face is also taken from old damaged hard drives to attach. Users regardless of the serial number to check the validity of the product on the Seagate home page are difficult to detect.

The mouthpiece of a scammer is often used to trick a cheap ham: " This is a product in the company that goes out, so it sells cheap ". Many buyers find the price too attractive to look at the outside with full packaging stickers so it is easy to "trap".

Meanwhile, according to current prices in the market a genuine Seagate 160 GB drive costs about VND 700,000.

Mr. Hung, Chief Technical Officer of Axioo Company, one of 3 official Seagate hard drive distributors in Vietnam, said: " We have not discovered these fake hard drive models yet. However, to identify hard drives. In addition to relying on the serial number printed on the drive, the buyer can also check directly on the manufacturer's home page. and the name of the distributor is attached below . " In Vietnam market, Seagate's products have 3 official distribution agents: Axioo, Tan Doanh and AceCom. Each distributor is issued a silver stamp, which is Seagate's 5-year global warranty certificate, and below is the logo of the delegating company. Besides, each of these agents is also assigned the number of HDDs with their own number of identifiers.

The following is a series of comparison images between real and fake Seagate drives. Red and blue symbols correspond to fake and real products respectively.

The top and bottom sides of the fake Seagate drive (on the left) and the real Seagate drive (on the right) are no different.

Initially opening the hard drive, there was a difference in the point of communication
between main and board.

The communication port of the fake drive is still traced out from another hard drive.

Images of fake Seagate (left) and real (right) drives after removing covers.

The fake drive only has disc wheels and fixed parts for enough weight but completely
There is no important part which is the needle reader.

A screw used to catch the main board of the CPU (mainboard) replaced the needle.