Bogus Sony flash drive turns up in Oz
2005-06-03 14:33:39
We’ve seen a lot of counterfeit merch in our day, ranging from the obviously bogus (Rolexx watches) to off-brand cellphone batteries that look and act just like authentic Nokias — until they blow up in your face. But this is the first time we’ve heard about a counterfeit USB flash drive. Adam Anderson, a software developer in Australia, says he picked up something that looked like a Sony 2GB Micro Vault flash drive, and after trying to use it, discovered that it held a mere 128MB — and sported a trojan to boot.What’s really interesting is that the drive reports that it has 2GB in Windows Explorer, but reveals its true size if you check its properties. We’re not sure why a counterfeiter would go to the trouble to build this level of deception into a bogus product and yet be careless enough to list the capacity as “2GMB,” but we consider ourselves warned: we’ll steer clear of anything that looks like this (unless the vendor is offering it for a very, very special low price, for you only, my friend).