- Nearly 700 counterfeit hard drives in Seagate were seized during a major Malaysian raid
- Counterfeiters have converted office HDD into false for -profit surveillance training
- Thousands of dollars have been generated monthly thanks to counterfeit hard drive sales
A large -scale raid in Malaysia has revealed the extent of manipulation of the hard drive market.
Seagate, working alongside the Ministry of Domestic Commerce, has drawn suspicious online offers to a warehouse near Kuala Lumpur.
The raid discovered a counterfeit workshop which not only managed its own hard drives, but also those of Western Digital and Toshiba.
Discovery of modified storage devices
This is not the first time that Old Seagate HDDS has been changed and sold as new. The case of chia cryptocurrency and other reports show that Seagate discs are likely to counterfeit.
In the latter case, nearly 700 Seagate units, some with capacities reaching 18 TB, were seized.
Evidence suggests that the devices have been taken from the secondary market, cleaned clean, equipped with new labels, then sold as if they were fresh from the factory.
A striking case involved an office hard drive under converting into a hard drive of “new” surveillance, highlighting the misleading practices used.
The operation was revealed when a sales director noticed unusually low prices on electronic commerce sites such as Lazada and Shopee.
A more in -depth survey has shown that fraudsters reset intelligent values to hide the age and use of discs.
The reports indicate that the volume of sales was significant, thousands of US dollars being generated each month.
Many of these products have been listed as high -capacity options, which makes them attractive for customers looking for affordable storage, whether in office systems, portable hard drive configurations or NAS hard drive configurations.
Seagate believes that the equipment used can be from China, although the tracing of the precise supply chain remains difficult.
The challenge is now to discover the size of the network and which is ultimately responsible for the pipe of second -hand parts in counterfeit goods.
The RAID shows that organized groups are able to reshape the appearance of discs so effectively that buyers without distrust can only be carried out the problem once the failures occur.
In response, Seagate has strengthened its partner program, demanding that distributors are committed to obtaining themselves exclusively from authorized suppliers.
Global trade screening is highlighted as a mechanism to block purchases from companies that appear on sanctions lists.
These steps are designed to reduce the chances of counterfeiting of legitimate markets, although it remains to be seen if it will make a lasting difference.
The discovery is not isolated. Other brands have been affected, as shown by the external devices of counterfeit unions circulating on the Amazon market without effective intervention.
Despite the alerts, sales have continued, which shows how porous the global distribution chain has become.
For buyers, the risks associated with unusual cheap lists remain, and unless the application is intensifying, counterfeit devices can continue to go through uncontrolled channels.
Via Computerbase (originally in German)
