Microscope image of a computer microchip on a counterfeit Kingston NV2 NVME SSD. Credit: The RINJ Foundation.
This crucial article is rewritten by the author for our style and republished from the Toronto, Canada Publication, “Feminine-Perspective-Magazine, 1 May 2024″ with written permission. Is Lazada of Alibaba part of the Sink Taiwan Campaign?
Fake computing devices not warships are being used now to sink Taiwan. With the Philippines help, China is flooding the world with counterfeit solid state devices.
By Micheal John OBrien (bio, email)
Thousands of frenzied Filipinos are either buying or selling fake Kingston Technology devices, clobbering the California and Taiwan company and its NAND chip suppliers in Taiwan. Somebody needs to pay attention.
In the Philippines, the sale of replica products is illegal. So too is the sale of counterfeit commodities like microchips. So is credit card fraud—using fraudulent means to collect funds from a credit card. Aside from these aspects there is little to no consumer protection in the Philippines which is a sad state of affairs because the education system and standards are the lowest in the ASEAN region creating a very credulous population hence the population is very vulnerable to scammers.
With a huge USA military force on Ferdinand Marcos’s largest islands, prepared to defend Taiwan, wouldn’t a massive Philippines’ effort to put Taiwan and the USA out of the microchip business seem contraindicated? Somebody needs to pay attention.
Putting Kingston Technology out of the microchip business is one way of diminishing Taiwan’s worth to the United States and its allies which are preparing for war by occupying the Philippines militarily and building up military assets in South Korea and Japan as well as in Guam.
We can’t let that happen. Kingston Technology has 3,000 employees. 53% Of Kingston Technology employees are women and a significant number of those women are RINJ Women members.
Kingston Technology is arguably the world’s largest seller of solid-state devices, a claim it confidently makes. This refers to devices, not microchips themselves. For these devices, Kingston Technology is probably the foremost purchaser of specific microchips globally, particularly controllers. These are contemporary equivalents of U.S.-developed technologies like VHSICs and VLSI, which enable substantial data throughput within a brief period, as well as NAND flash chips.
Kingston produces some of the most sophisticated and complex devices ever conceived in human history. It is regarded as a national treasure and a source of pride for both America and Taiwan.
The attack on Kingston Technology is extremely sinister.
The situation is a dual assault on Taiwan‘s semiconductor and device manufacturing sectors. China is fervently establishing chip foundries and specialized factories on the mainland to produce competitive next-generation devices. Concurrently, China is promoting campaigns to undercut Taiwan’s industries and divert business flow from Taiwan by any means necessary. This constitutes a form of warfare.
The exploitation of individuals committing fraud for financial gain, albeit not substantial enough to justify the risk of imprisonment, may technically fall within the legal parameters of warfare for China. However, the global repercussions could be catastrophic if counterfeit products infiltrate critical infrastructure such as early warning systems, medical facilities, and law enforcement databases. Consider the ethical dilemma posed if life-saving medical equipment, like those used in surgeries or life support systems, relied on counterfeit data storage devices.
The issue of counterfeit SSDs could be considered a serious offense. These fake SSDs have a short lifespan, and when they fail, the data is lost. Whether it’s a terabyte or more, the loss is significant.
The influx of large quantities of inexpensive, counterfeit Kingston Technology storage devices is detrimental to the global microchip industry. China is capable of orchestrating this with the assistance of numerous unsuspecting sellers and buyers in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, as reported by online consumer complaint boards, and globally.
Then there is the arm’s-length sneaky business. Not only is China making these fake devices, printing up fake labels and packaging, but it is recruiting criminal sellers online and encouraging their profitability by scamming the world at a time when the world population is extremely vulnerable.
But there is plenty of plausible deniability for Lazada and there is a wall of obstruction that prevents complainers from getting past the demarcation line. And that’s worse than the North/South Korean line. Lazada says it cannot check every device sold. Well, we told them often enough with very specific evidence and they ignored that intensely. There are hundreds of millions of global brand counterfeits, and many are plainly dangerous—even produced in factories without any adherence to hazardous materials rules and now counterfeit devices are centimeters from the users face in computing devices—or what? Maybe implantable medical devices?
This article recounts the experience of shrewd NGO workers from a global women’s safety organization, who specialize in aiding women and their children in war zones. Despite operating on tight budgets and grappling with outdated spinning-disk computer storage hardware, they meticulously evaluated every facet of the proposed replacement technology. Their investigation deepened upon discovering that numerous unsuspecting Filipinos had been swindled. Additionally, there is the issue of fraudulent insurance that ostensibly protects Lazada in cases of product damage or theft during shipping. This scheme convinced many Filipinos to contribute a part of their retail purchases as insurance, which turned out to be a scam when we tested it.
Why does Lazada allow scammers to sell counterfeit Kingston NVMe SSDs, potentially threatening Kingston Technologies’ business? Consumers lack protection; they purchase these drives for $80 to $110 (CDN$), only to find them failing within days or weeks. With no warranty honored due to the products being fakes, customers are left with nothing but deception.
Despite significant sales driven by low prices and false claims of being an authorized Kingston reseller, the counterfeit product demonstrates subpar performance and poor durability.
Above OKc Mall on Lazada claimed to be an authorized seller of Kingston products when we purchased an SSD from this seller. The device failed 36 hours after we confirmed its receipt. It failed while performing its intended function: storage. We transferred 600GB of data to a 1 Terabyte device, which is within the product’s capacity. In contrast, genuine Kingston devices have been tested under similar conditions—loading, erasing, and reloading files at 60% capacity ten times—without showing any signs of stress. However, the purchased device became intermittent, caused occasional crashes on the Dell computer, and ultimately ceased to function.
Kingston’s public statements about authorized sellers do not include the Lazada sellers claiming to be Kingston partners and spokespersons for Kingston indicated there is no relationship whatsoever.
The scam involving this product has persisted for approximately twenty months. Kingston introduced its groundbreaking NV2 on September 7, 2022. While the exact sales figures for the counterfeit operation on Lazada are not known, it is evident that each store selling the imitation product on Lazada reports high sales volumes.
There seems to be dozens of stores run out of the Philippines, mostly in the Manila area, but in truth, across all of the Philippine’s islands, all stores using the same catch phrases, the same secrecy policies, many offering the same incentive free tiny screwdriver and selling the same fake Kingston NV2 and A400 products. Sales in each case are in the millions of Pesos according to their brag stories.
When a buyer flags a counterfeit product, sellers often swiftly remove the complaint.
Typically, the unsuspecting recipient installs the inexpensive imitation, only to realize its performance falls short of the genuine product’s 3,500 MB/s, or in dire situations, the fake device completely fails. This is an accurate portrayal. The 1TB models of these counterfeits overheat significantly. They utilize basic controller chips from 2017 and pair of 512 GB SanDisk chips, oddly resulting in a total of 931 GB.
The Kingston NV2 was a breakthrough in Fall 2022, 21 months ago.
Kingston’s NV2 is making waves in the IT community due to its affordability and three-year warranty. It features an 88 GB cache, and once filled, it writes at 600 MB/s. Data transfer out of the SLC cache (folding) is completed at 100 MB/s. With the support of the speedy PCI-Express 4.0 interface, its performance is outstanding, surpassing Kingston’s claims by significant margins.
Click images to enlarge. They contain a lot of useful data not mentioned in the article.
The RINJ Foundation, while replacing datacenter drives in Southeast Asia, sequentially bought two NV2s from two separate sellers on Lazada at reasonable prices.
The technician reported, “After I installed the NV2 on a test and development machine it worked for 36 hours after I loaded 600gigs of test data. The device went intermittent and then failed. I had already marked it as received at Lazada. It’s now dead. I sent it to Kingston to try get an RMA and they said it is not ours and sent it back. I sent pics to a different Kingston Lab and they said the same thing. Fake. “
Above Tests and reports submitted by third party Devices MD.
Just two of many fake serial numbers according to Kingston people speaking on condition of anonymity.
- Mar-13-2024-B-Shark Mall-LAZADA-PH ser. number: 50026B7784EA3474.
- Mar-26-2024 OKc Mall LAZADA-PH ser. number-50026B7784EA3476.
There are several Lazada stores either coached or completely run by the same Chinese crime organization selling various counterfeits, targeting mostly Kingston Technologies (Taiwan). Some of these people we noticed are part of the illegal gambling rings in Southeast Asia when we shared information about suspects with colleagues in Manila. Small-timer Filipinos need to get out of this crime ring—and watch their backs.
The clear indicator of fraud was the use of a counterfeit hologram. Both Kingston and Dell software revealed significant problems with this device, and Kingston’s laboratories in Taiwan confirmed it is not one of their products. The image is credited to the RINJ Foundation.
RINJ Foundation image.
The genuine Kingston NV2 product is truly exceptional, offering great value for its performance-to-cost ratio, especially in situations where blistering speeds of 10 GB/s isn’t necessary. This device reaches speeds of around 3,200 MB/s, surpassing Kingston’s promise for the device on Dell’s PCIe 3 technology, far exceeding Kingston’s conservative performance estimates. It’s designed for the more advanced PCIe Gen 4, where it continues to outperform the advertised specifications. This test was done on the very latest variant of the NV2 and could vary across the line.
Photo courtesy Kingston Technology. Photo is cropped for publication. Art, cropping, enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
The genuine Kingston NV2 is rated for sequential read speeds of up to 3,500 MB/s and 2,100 MB/s write according to tests done by TechPowerup.
It’s worth repeating that the genuine Kingston Technology NV2, 1 /2TB NVME SSDs are barn burner product in performance-relative-to-cost. There is absolutely no benefit in buying a fake product. Being in possession and using a fake in an enterprise situation has huge risks attached explained a lawyer.
The NV2, which launched in September 2022, following the NV1, is not able to compete with Kingston Technology’s upper level NVME M.2 socket SSDs, some of which operate at breathtaking speeds, or faster.
The NV2 represents a significant industry milestone, demonstrating that leading manufacturers such as Kingston, known for their outstanding product quality, can also serve the lower-end market. This includes potentially replacing countless spinning-disk HDD backup drives in the near future.
The aging spinning-disk hard drives currently serving as backups require replacement as they near a decade of use. Kingston’s NV2 is under consideration as a potential replacement.
In short, the Genuine Kingston NV2 is a blessing for the storage folks in enterprise operations doing regular backups on file servers and watching as the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) numbers of the old spinning disks grow closer.
Karina Angeles of The RINJ Foundation explains that global RINJ Women policy is that patient and personnel data may not be stored on site and may not be stored on the cloud. The data must be backed up on reliable media in an encrypted state end-to-end and stored in iron safes or safety deposit boxes off site.
Three Year Warranty is not a big deal in the long-term storage sector. But new maintenance practices must be learned once leaving mechanical storage behind.
Without delving into the technicalities, SSD controllers perform a series of complex functions for device maintenance. This is crucial as data stored on chips, whether powered or not, deteriorates over time. The solution to this problem involves transferring the data from the drive to cache and then rewriting it to a new location. This continuous process, tied to specific times and dates, integrates large-scale data sectors to maintain the drive’s freshness in real time. It is advisable to replace the SSD every three years to meet evolving specifications and reliability standards, as this technology is on the cusp of the next generation, according to industry experts.
Data storage is crucial to human development and global values. We need companies’ expertise in this technology.
Data storage technicians who purchase counterfeit NV2s, lured by their sophisticated packaging and labels, face the risk of losing significant amounts of critical data deemed ‘too sensitive for cloud storage’. This is not to imply that insidious data compromise is likely or acceptable—there is no justification for such a breach. However, the loss of substantial data storage capabilities can devastate businesses and institutions, the impact of which remains unknown until it occurs.
“The backbone of any business is data, and when data is lost, it affects the functionality of an enterprise. Damaged reputation—firms that had data breaches usually suffer damaged reputations. Financial implications.—any data breach has financial implications.” Citing Data Loss: Hazards, Risks and Strategies for Prevention
Above Counterfeit 1-Terabyte NVME M.2 connector, form factor 2280. Store selling this item on Lazada is Lazada’s OKc Mall. Order 809835277690962 placed on 26 March 2024 18:29:15 for Karinna Angeles, nurse at the RINJ Foundation Nurses training center.
Photo Art, cropping, enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
Why does Lazada appear to support or even encourage alleged counterfeiters in China, who are reportedly producing substandard imitations of Kingston’s NV2 products and saturating the market with them? This hurts America and could with other efforts underway, kill Taiwan’s chip foundries’ business. For sure a change is already underway.
It appears to be quite late to halt this process—there might be millions of counterfeits globally, and the Alibaba/AliExpress/Lazada network has established a massive scam. They employ individuals who are instructed not to disclose a seller’s address for product returns, which would otherwise involve the police. The organizers behind these players are reportedly trained by experts affiliated with the CCP, who significantly influence Lazada/Alibaba for state objectives. While Lazada generally provides good service, it is sometimes used for nationalistic ends. The operations are predominantly based in China.
Jack Ma may own 83% of Lazada and control most of Alibaba, but Xi Jinping’s CCP brainiacs’ infiltrate and control the mega-retail organization. The CCP at one time felt it necessary to knock Jack Ma down in size because he with a cult-like following had become too popular and more importantly, way too powerful in a nation that has only one God, Xi Jinping. This separation all happened as Xi Jinping also began to sing the praise of reunification with Taiwan.
Nevertheless, Jack Ma is a goodwill ambassador for China and is devoutly loyal to his country, if not its current government. He likely doesn’t realize that thousands of computer enthusiasts and serious systems managers have bought fake SSDs from fake companies on his platforms that span the world with crooks holding out to be authorized resellers of Kingston Technologies. They sell fakes.
The issue with Kingston Technology is merely one example of a corporate dilemma. Numerous manufacturers are grappling with counterfeits that not only siphon off their sales with substandard products but also generate an overwhelming number of warranty claims that are impossible to manage.
It’s quite a disheartening tale. The individuals we’ve encountered in Taiwan and the USA within the microchip industry are among the most upright and honest you’ll find. Yet, they seem unaware of the extent to which criminality can infest the cyber world. People in information technology tend to be pleasant; however, the challenges they face are formidable.
It’s also disheartening to learn that an innovative tech startup in southern China, which emerged at the start of the pandemic, was forced to close down. Despite the efforts of its sixty talented young tech workers, the company couldn’t produce their SSDs cheaply enough to compete with counterfeit products. Such fraudulent practices not only undermine legitimate businesses but also have the potential to backfire, causing significant damage to the reputation and economy of the regions involved.
By Micheal John OBrien (bio, email)
Note: The author served as the President of the Toronto Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) for eight years and is currently a life member of AFCEA in the United States.
Additional Tech Contact for this article is doctor@devisesmd.com