Fakes, Coming to a Store Near You

fishdan writes to tell us that while most Slashdotters have their own trusted sources for gear there is a growing concern that all consumers should look out for. According to PC World, more and more counterfeit hardware is coming to market each year. From the article: '...batteries aren't the only tech item that counterfeiters love. In October 2004, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Anchorage, Alaska, seized 20,000 suspected fake Memorex USB memory key thumb drives from Asia. And last year, Miami officials seized 900 allegedly phony laptops valued at $700,000. "Maybe it's a laptop, an MP3 player, or a component like a DVD drive--anything in the digital world can be counterfeited," says Therese Randazzo, a U.S. Customs Service counterfeiting expert.'"

Comments

I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

What is wrong with counterfeit electronics? Do they have different functionality, are they shabbily built, or do they just take profits away from the rightful owners of the product?

Re:I don't get it

[Big Nothing]

"What is wrong with counterfeit electronics? Do they have different functionality, are they shabbily built, or do they just take profits away from the rightful owners of the product?"

From TFA:
Bogus cell phone batteries, shoddily made and potentially unsafe, are a specialty of counterfeiters. "It's one thing to buy a fake $30 Louis Vuitton bag on Canal Street in New York City. It's an entirely different matter when you buy a fake cell phone battery and it blows up"

So yes, lack of quality IS a problem - it's not just IP whine.

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

It goes really far down the chain. Nowdays you can't buy certain power transistors from just anywhere. Prized japense power transistors like even 2sc5200/2sa1943 are being counterfeited. the counterfeit devices have a much smaller die and no heatspreader. they are just glued to the package.

This obviously has issues with the entire manufacturing process. anything that needed these parts now must be tested.

counterfeit stuff is almost certainly poor quality, possibly bordering on dangerous. it makes the most sense as you get maximum profits that way.

Further there is no accountability. A defective and dangerous product could harm people, thusly bringing lawsuits. These lawsuits would target, in this case, innocent corporations instead of outright dishonest ones. the lack of a need to care about the consumer at all makes counterfeitting electronics dangerous.

Re:I don't get it

[The Clockwork Troll]

Is that the secret of NiMH?

Re:I don't get it

[darkith]

NiMH batteries are generally pretty safe. They don't really require any onboard electronics, just a peak detecting charger if they're being fast-charged. If shorted, they may get *really* hot or ignite adjacent materials, but they're not as reactive as lithium based technology.

Li-Ion/Li-Poly cells are the dangerous ones. Basically they can reach a run-away condition very easily, and lithium is *very* reactive. They can ignite if punctured, charged too fast, over-charged, or if they drop below a certain voltage and are then charged at normal rates. They will also swell/burst if over-discharged or over-heated. Most Li-Poly/Li-Ion packs include a circuit with a thermal cutoff to prevent over-heating, a circuit to prevent shorting/excessive-discharge-rates, and a circuit that isolates the pack if it drops below a safe voltage (usually around 2.5-2.8 volts per cell).

I did purchase a pair of Li-poly batteries for a cell phone, which were no-name imports. They did not have any cutoff circuitry, and I suspect could have been nasty if they wandered out of spec (either through abuse or a defective phone). I used them with no problems though, but I think I'd reconsider, given what I know now about Lithium cells.
That said, the circuitry required for Lithium cells is becoming cheaper everyday (the functionality is avaiable in a single chip), so I wouldn't be surprised if "decent" third-party units do have the desired safety functionality.

D.

Re:I don't get it

[LarsG]

[grandparentquote]

Sometimes the factories in third-world-factories that produce the "legit" products also produce those "fake" things. Is there something like this in computer electronics manufacture ?

[/grandparentquote]

Depends on what your definition of "fake" is. It is well known that manufacturers of, say, memory chips producing under contract/license for known brands sell surplus and not-tested-to-make-sure-the-chips-are-within-spec stock to the grey market. Which is ok, as long as there is no contract/license agreements barring the factory from doing so and the memory chips sold in this manner aren't passed off as "known brand" chips.

Rebadging does happen, but whether it is done by the factory or by people buying surplus is a different matter.

Intel gave AMD all necessary Information to produce the Intel 80386 Microprocessor in the early 80's then the 486. As intel could make the CPU fast enough for the Demand and outsource to AMD to manufacture them.

AMD started selling the exactly identical chip as Intel (they had the blueprints afterall and were by authorised by Intel to produce them. :)

Suddenly there was Intel 486 Processor versus AMD 486 processor same processor but AMD was undercutting Intel on price.

Enter Pentium haha AMD you cant copy our name any more since it is Trademarked

The Intel/AMD story is a bit different. When IBM put together the IBM PC they had to rush to get it out the door to compete with the myriad of personal computers that were showing up on the market. Instead of taking the traditional route of designing everything in-house, they did something that at the time was very unusual for IBM. They went outside IBM to pick the components to build the machine, including the 8088 from Intel.

IBM was then a powerhouse, and Intel was in comparison small fry. IBM did not want to depend on a single source for the components used in the IBM PC, so in order for Intel to get the contract they had to license the x86 to a second source - AMD.

AMD was at first a second source producer of Intel designed x86 CPUs (8086, 8088, Am286). Intel considered the licence only valid up to the 80286, so they cancelled the agreement in 1986 and lawsuit(s?) ensued. AMD kinda sorta won, and starting with the Am386 in 1991 they have designed and manufactured their own x86 compatible CPUs.

Wow I'm glad he's an "expert"

[Anonymous Coward]

"Maybe it's a laptop, an MP3 player, or a component like a DVD drive--anything in the digital world can be counterfeited," says Therese Randazzo, a U.S. Customs Service counterfeiting expert.'"

Last time I checked there captain obvious anything in the analog world can be counterfeited as well. Basically anything can be counterfeited. If this guy counts as an expert I'd hate to see a n00b.

Act now to stop hardware counterfeiting

[Statecraftsman]

I've decided to offer my own consumer hardware....ummm....authentication service. If you suspect you are in posession of counterfeit hardware(expecially the xbox 360 or an iPod nano), please send it it to:

P.O. Box 12345
Hometown, USA 12345

Please note that due to cost concerns, your hardware cannot be returned. Thanks and if you include your email address I'll let you know if it's counterfeit.

(just a joke...please don't actually send me anything cuz that address is extreme bogusness)

Wait till you see...

[bronney]

what we have in stores for you. Earlier we had soy sauce made from hair juice. Yes, factories in China grinding human hair into juice and mix with water.

Fake down blankets stuffed with shit polyesters.

Now hear this, fake EGGS. Yes you heard right. What mogglers my bind was how on earth could you make eggs cheaper than collecting from chickens. The fake eggs were obviously inedible, but will crack and pour just like a real egg, with yolks and stuff.

The famous fake gucci's and LV's are old news.

Latest that came in from a buddy who works in shenzhen was that he rode in a fake mercedes benz. They copied all contours and instead of the tri-star, it's a 5 pointed-star (China)! Cool eh.

REAL goods, FAKE labels

[NigelJohnstone]

"In October 2004, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Anchorage, Alaska, seized 20,000 suspected fake Memorex USB memory key thumb drives from Asia."

Do Memorex even make USB drives, or do they simply buy them in from Asian and stick their badge on them?

"Miami officials seized 900 allegedly phony laptops valued at $700,000. "Maybe it's a laptop, an MP3 player, or a component like a DVD drive--anything in the digital world can be counterfeited," says Therese Randazzo, a U.S. Customs Service counterfeiting expert.'"

I bet they were *real* laptops and *real* mp3 players, the only difference was the label. What you're saying is they can fake *labels*. But that's just because the USA has become a fake brand country, companies license a brand like Polaroid or Caterpillar, buy in cheap Asian crap, stick a "Polaroid" badge on it and charge loads more money because people think they're buying American.

Who cares if those fake brands get pirated, since its the difference between an overprice Asian product and a cheap Asian product, it's still jobs in Asia.

They should tackle false origin of goods labelling instead, since that's the cause of jobs being lost in USA and Europe. How can an Italian shoe maker compete with companies which appear to be Italian luxury show makers, but are just fake Asian brands with some minor finishing in Italy?

Windows

[Freaky Spook]

I think my copy of windows may be counterfeit. Its really slow and every time I open internet explorer I keep getting directed to hardcore porn sites.

Cisco is plagued by counterfeits

[puzzled]

  A Cisco dual channel T1 controller, part VWIC-2MFT-T1 is $2,000 new list price. A small reseller will pay 70% of list or about $1,400 for it in distribution, while a large reseller might only pay $1,100 or so. Below we see a tinyurl link to an Ebay auction for a new boxed unit at only $227 or 11.3% of list price. I guarantee if you contact the seller you can get six dozen of them for the same price.

http://tinyurl.com/ak9by

  This has gone on and on and on and on for the last two years, destroying the value of used Cisco gear we pull from customers and making it almost impossible to buy a used/refurbished card without running into this stuff.

  I found out about this sort of thing the hard way. I got a *fantastic* deal on six new in the box Cisco 1721 routers. It wasn't so fantastic when I had to explain to my biggest customer that half of the machines they owned couldn't be registered for service because Cisco had them listed as in service in South America. Oh, and they failed, one by one, with mysterious problems not attributeable to hardware or software ... they just acted ... different.

  Foo on all counterfeiters. They should be given counterfeit lifesaving drugs while riding in an ambulance equipped with counterfeit brake pads on their way to a hospital where they'll be cared for by a doctor who is really a drunken paramedic who thought it'd be fun to be a trauma surgeon for a day. If they live through that then they should be placed in a real live jail and periodically offered counterfeit parole papers to sign.

I've got a fake Music CD

[Advocadus Diaboli]

said it comes from Sony/BMG and then it was a rootkit installer. :-)

Counterfeit Hardware

[Anonymous Coward]

I think counterfeit hardware could be the next stage in trojans and viruses.

For instance, imagine you buy a wireless router from ebay, which the seller has pre-installed with trojan firmware and comes with a packet sniffer, bulk mailing software pre-installed, ftp server, password grabber etc. The best part is, most people trust their routers implicitly so don't bother checking them from the outside world. Some people then disable their software firewalls once they have a router available.

Another great idea would be a network printer with a trojan payload.

Elevators too

[whoda]

There was a story about counterfiting in an issue of Fast Company last year. In it, there was an example of an elevator company who got called to service an elevator in a high-rise building.

The elevator company had no record that they had an elevator installed there.
When the technicians got there, they couldn't fix anything, because the elevator wasn't really theirs. It was a knock-off!