Seagate 'Spins Up' a Raid on a Counterfeit Hard Drive Workshop (tomshardware.com)
- Reference: 0178707070
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/08/16/2253203/seagate-spins-up-a-raid-on-a-counterfeit-hard-drive-workshop
- Source link: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/seagate-spins-up-a-raid-on-a-counterfeit-hard-drive-workshop-authorities-read-criminals-writes-while-they-spill-the-beans
> According to German news outlet [2]Heise , notable progress has been made regarding the [3]counterfeit Seagate hard drive case. Just like something out of an action movie, security teams from Seagate's Singapore and Malaysian offices, in conjunction with local Malaysian authorities, conducted a raid on a warehouse in May that was engaged in cooking up counterfeit Seagate hard drives, situated outside Kuala Lumpur.
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> During the raid, authorities reportedly uncovered approximately 700 counterfeit Seagate hard drives, with SMART values that had been reset to facilitate their sale as new... However, Seagate-branded drives were not the only items involved, as authorities also discovered drives from Kioxia and Western Digital. Seagate suspects that the used hard drives originated from China during the [4]Chia [cryptocurrency] boom . Following the cryptocurrency's downfall, numerous miners sold these used drives to workshops where many were illicitly repurposed to appear new. This bust may represent only the tip of the iceberg, as Heise estimates that at least one million of these Chia drives are circulating, although the exact number that have been recycled remains uncertain.
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> The clandestine workshop, likely one of many establishments in operation, reportedly employed six workers. Their responsibilities included resetting the hard drives' SMART values, cleaning, relabeling, and repackaging them for distribution and sale via local e-commerce platforms.
[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/seagate-spins-up-a-raid-on-a-counterfeit-hard-drive-workshop-authorities-read-criminals-writes-while-they-spill-the-beans
[2] https://www.heise.de/news/Betrug-mit-Seagate-Festplatten-Festnahmen-in-Malaysia-10530697.html
[3] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/seagate-responds-to-fraudulent-hard-drives-scandal-says-resellers-should-only-buy-from-certified-partners
[4] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/top-hdd-makers-ramp-up-production-due-to-chia-demand
Counterfeit? (Score:5, Informative)
It sounds more like legitimate, but used, Seagate drives that are being hacked to present themselves as new drives.
Re:Counterfeit? (Score:5, Insightful)
> It sounds more like legitimate, but used, Seagate drives that are being hacked to present themselves as new drives.
Think of it as rolling back the odometer on a car. Originally it had 150,000 miles. Now the odometer shows 100,000.
Re: (Score:2)
sure but that's not at all the same as counterfeit. a Honda with its odometer rolled back is still a Honda
Re:Counterfeit? (Score:4, Informative)
Right, but you wouldn't call tha car a "counterfeit Ford"... you'd call it a Ford with a rolled-back odometer.
Re: (Score:3)
Exactly. They are falsely represented as new, but they are real Seagate drives, so not counterfeit.
Re: (Score:2)
Ya. It's exactly that. Headline is poop.
Re: (Score:2)
Imagine actually being able to build a 14TB hard drive but then having to label it as a Seagate!
Total nonsense - it's so incredibly difficult to pull this off there are only a handful of companies that have both the skills and capital to do it
Re: (Score:4, Interesting)
And this is why you should only buy HDDs, SSDs, and thumbdrives from Amazon themselves (not "fulfilled by Amazon", not third-party sellers on Amazon) or some other reputable retailer. Even if you don't get an outright scam with a much smaller actual capacity than advertised capacity, you may be getting a used product sold as new.
Re: (Score:1)
Has Amazon fixed the ASIN mess?
It used to be they just piled everything with the same stock number into the same bins, so even items sold directly by amazon could be supplied by counterfeiters.
Re: (Score:5, Informative)
Or better, don't buy from Amazon. Since they single-bin all supplies of the same product number, even if it's "sold by Amazon" you can still get a fake sent in by a reseller.
Re: (Score:2)
Basically every single computer part I have bought in forever has been purchased from a physical retailer. The chance that a physical product from a reputable retailer here in Australia is fake or dodgy is far less than the chance that something on Amazon is fake or dodgy.
Re: (Score:2)
Here in the US, physical retailers have been disappearing. Fry's and Radio Shack closed entirely, Best Buy reconfigured into more of a cell phone store. Even the online space is regressing; Newegg has been subject to enshittification. Still, I haven't willingly subjected myself to Amazon products in 15 years. They were known for selling books at that time.
Re: (Score:2)
"Best Buy reconfigured into more of a cell phone store." - That's exactly what happened to Radio Shack so the writing is on the wall for Best Buy. About the only online source I trust any longer is B&H and the only physical computer parts store chain I trust is Micro Center, although I have to drive 2 hours for the closest store. NewEgg was the shit until is was bought by the Chinese, now I wouldn't buy from them if you paid me. Amazon is an absolute clusterfuck, has been for over 10 years now, so nope
Is the workshop RAID 1? (Score:2)
If so then the counterfeiting will continue
clever headline! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll give 10/10 for the creative headline. It's also interesting that there's enough margin in 'rolling back the odometer' on these drive to trick buyers that they're buying something new. I wonder who the market for selling these are. North America and Europe?
Re:clever headline! (Score:4, Informative)
As the article hints, the Chia cryptocurrency did that. Cryptominers bought HDDs en masse to mine (excuse me, "farm") this Chia cryptocurrency during the cryptocurrency boom and then dumped the HDDs en masse when doing so was no longer was profitable. This led to a glut of used HDDs, and when there is a glut of used computer components, there is someone in Asia willing to dust them off and sell them as "new".
Re: (Score:2)
Chia is a "proof of space" cryptocurrency, which explains why it used so many HDDs (40 million terabytes at its peak).
Re: (Score:3)
"Spins up" was a stretch but that it was a RAID is pretty funny