- Almost 700 falsified hard drives from Seagate were seized in an important raid in Malaysia
- DESCARORY HDD converted fakes into false for profit vigilance units
- Thousands of dollars were generated monthly through falsified hard drive sales
A large -scale raid in Malaysia has revealed the scope of manipulation in the hard disc market.
Seagate, working together with the Ministry of National Commerce, tracked the suspicious online offers in a warehouse near Kuala Lumpur.
The raid discovered a falsification workshop that not only handled its own hard drives, but also those of Western Digital and Toshiba.
Discovery of altered storage devices
This is not the first time that Seagate’s old HDDs are modified and sold as new. The case of chiptomonets of Chia and other reports show that Seagate units are susceptible to falsification.
In the latter case, almost 700 Seagate units were seized, some with capacities that reach 18 TB.
The evidence suggests that the devices were taken from the secondary market, cleaned, equipped with new labels and then sold as if they were newcomers from the factory.
A surprising case implied a desktop HDD turned into a so -called “surveillance HDD, highlighting the deceptive practices used.
The operation came to light when a sales manager noticed unusually low prices in electronic commerce sites such as Lada and Shopee.
Additional investigation showed that scammers restore intelligent values to mask age and the use of units.
The reports indicate that the sales volume was large, with thousands of US dollars generated each month.
Many of these products were listed as high capacity options, which makes them attractive to customers seeking affordable storage, either in desktop systems, portable HDD settings or NAS HDD settings.
Seagate believes that the used equipment may have originated in China, although the tracking of the precise supply chain remains difficult.
The challenge now lies in discovering how big the network is and who is ultimately responsible for channeling used parts in counterfeit products.
RAID shows that organized groups are able to remodel the appearance of units so effectively that unsuspecting buyers can only realize the problem once failures occur.
In response, Seagate has strengthened its associated program, demanding that distributors commit themselves to obtain authorized suppliers exclusively.
Global commercial detection is emphasized as a mechanism to block the purchases of companies that appear in the sanctions lists.
These steps are designed to reduce the possibilities that the counterfeit units enter the legitimate markets, although it remains to be seen if this will make a lasting difference.
The discovery is not isolated. Other brands have been affected, as evidenced by the external devices of the counterfeit union that circulate in the Amazon market without effective intervention.
Despite the alerts, sales continued, and this shows how porous the global distribution chain has become.
For buyers, the risks associated with unusually cheap lists remain, and less than the application intensify, counterfeit devices can continue to pass through unusual channels.
Through computer (originally in German)
