A 30TB SSD for $39? What an amazing deal! Except it’s a lie. If you shop online, chances are you’ve seen third-party seller deals listed at Amazon and Walmart. Trusted retailers like Adorama, antonline, and B&H are legit go-to third party sellers with solid deals.
However, online shopping is also a haven for sketchy third-party sellers to scam unsuspecting buyers.
As our sister site, Tom’s Hardware reports a “too good to be true” 30TB M.2 mini SSD for $39 deal at Walmart (opens in new tab) (now removed) underlines this hard truth. Cybersecurity Researcher @RayRedacted bought the same Samsung SSD knockoff from wholesale site AliExpress to expose the scam in a Twitter thread. In this scam, you think you’re getting a whopping 30TB of storage, when in reality, you’re getting flat-out deceived. “Scammer gets two 512MB Flash drives. Or 1 gigabyte, or whatever. They then add hacked firmware that makes it misreport its size,” @RayRedacted explains in a tweet.
With more people looking for great bargains this back to school season, scammers are banking on your frugalness. If you see a deal you like from an unknown third-party seller at Amazon or Walmart, it’s a good idea to check them out first. Besides feedback from verified consumers, search for seller ratings at BBB, Trustpilot, or Sitejabber. That way, you can prevent getting duped and save yourself the hassle of having to return for a refund.
Be sure to check out our back to school hub for real deals on high capacity storage and other essentials.