Scam capacity external HDD on amazon by seller "Shiwaki"

[Nagby]

Hello,

so this is pretty much what was showed in LTT video Fake Chinese SD Card Scam!

 

I saw this external HDD of 2TB for 35.99€ (price changed since)

I was indeed skeptical with this price but I thought that Amazon was safer than Aliexpress/EBay for this kind of scam so I took it.

But this was indeed a scam, as seen from the fake label on the drive

 

And once I got around 250GB of the drive filled, it started making noises and stoppped responding (but the drive is still working and accessible once unplugged and replugged).

 

This seller on amazon has other external hard drives with similar price/capacity ratio and sketchy spec sheet

https://www.amazon.fr/Shiwaki-Disque-Externe-Portable-Storage/dp/B07TCZLCNH

https://www.amazon.fr/Shiwaki-Disque-Externe-External-Stockage/dp/B07VG38Z2S

https://www.amazon.fr/Shiwaki-M%C3%A9tallique-Portable-Ordinateur-Universal/dp/B07TF48V7H

 

Now my question is : Is there a way to report this scam to amazon? and how?

For now I could just ask for a refund and give bad review, but the only kind of "report" I found was for sellers to report their products being sold by other sellers.

 

Thank you.

[Faisal A]

No. If you could thousands of fake GPU listing wouldn't exist

[Nagby]

Well I asked for a refund to the seller and for now they offered to give me 15€ back, but since I wouldn't have bought a 250GB drive I would only accept a full refund.

I also sent a mail to amazon seller performance, I will update this topic when I get news.

Hoping this could help people in similar cases in the futur.

 

[Spotty]

If the seller won't resolve it (probably not since they're scammers) email Amazons customer support and tell them you got scammed.

If you want to buy another 2TB external drive I would recommend sticking to the brand name drives from reputable dealers. They won't be much more expensive than what you paid for that drive.

[LunaP0n3]

"WARRANTY VOID IF ANY LABLE/SCREW IS REMOVED OR BROKEN" [What warranty?]

One sure way to spot fakes is to look for spelling mistakes. I'd say they've hacked the drive firmware to misreport the capacity and model number, and you can't magically make a 2TB drive out of a 250GB one.

As for the clicking and the drive lockup, I'd say the drive is being told to write to sectors that physically aren't there.

What little of the model number it reports seem to indicate a Seagate 2.5 inch drive.

Still, this is the first I've heard of a scam like this.

[Nagby]

I got my full refund, but the product is still on amazon

here are the responses from the seller to my refund requests (automatically translated from french, but the syntax is still weird in french) : 

Dear Nagby,

We are really sorry to hear this situation.
 
Considering that it will spend a lot of time for you to return this package, we want to solve the problem quickly and more efficiently.
 
We are ready for a partial refund of 15 € directly deposited in your account, you do not have to return this parcel received. Please inform us by answering this message if this solution is ok for you, please.
 
Thank you!
Regards,
Shiwaki FR

Dear Nagby,

We are sorry to hear this situation. We apologize for the inconvenience.
 
To solve the problem, we have already made a full refund without the return of the package received, you can confirm the refund later on your Amazon account.
  
It is not necessary to return the defective item. Please throw it directly.
  
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us by replying to this message. Please do not rush into giving us a negative feedback, please contact us, we are always ready to address and solve any problem
  
Thank you!
Regards,
Shiwaki FR

 

[WereCatf]

1 hour ago, Nagby said:

I got my full refund, but the product is still on amazon

It's the same thing on eBay and everywhere else, really: they don't particularly want to kick sellers out, even if those sellers were selling scams, nor do they want to make it easy for people to report such scams so they can legally pretend they didn't know about it -- you know, all about "plausible deniability."

 

It's scummy and everything, but there's not much one can do about it.