How to spot a fake SanDisk SDHC Card

I recently had the misfortune of purchasing a fake 32GB SDHC card for my HTC Desire. I only found out a few weeks after my purchase when I started to notice corruption in some of the mp3 files I was copying over to my card. Once I copied them over, Files on the Android-based phone would sit on the card for a minute or two and then disappear. To confirm it was a fake card, I tried to format it and then copied some large files onto then off the card. This copy process failed when trying to read the files back off the fake media.

Apparently, the dealers in China often rip the cards out of old GPS machines and relabel them with a fake serial number and SanDisk logos.

After looking into the topic, it turns out there are some telltale signs that give a fake card away:

1. The serial number is on the back, not the front so fraudulent sellers can display the card in photos without giving their game away.
2. The SDHC logo is not clearly printed and may appear blurred or smudged.
3. The white writing on the card is a straight white rather than a muted white colour.

See below for a photo of the fake and the real card side-by-side. The real card is on the left, the fake is on the right hand side:

The only guaranteed way of getting a real SDHC card is by dealing with a local dealer who has a legitimate address in Australia and who you can follow up through the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) if you are sold a fake.

You have been warned!
DDK