Bodily examination of those items has revealed delicate indicators of earlier use, together with minor dents within the housing, worn SATA connectors, and misaligned stickers — particulars that may escape informal inspection.
Seagate has confirmed not less than one occasion of fraudulent resale following a buyer help inquiry, the report mentioned. In a notable case, the corporate declined to offer guarantee service in Europe for a drive whose serial quantity was already registered to a US buyer, confirming suspicions about serial quantity reuse throughout areas.
Serial quantity manipulation: a brand new layer of deception
In a troubling improvement, investigators reported that fraudsters at the moment are modifying HDD serial numbers to additional legitimize used merchandise. They seem like reusing real serial numbers from genuine Seagate drives nonetheless below guarantee. This technique permits the altered drives to move on-line guarantee checks — not less than initially.
Nonetheless, this method carries inherent dangers for the fraudsters: If the identical serial quantity is used a number of occasions, Seagate will seemingly detect duplicate guarantee claims and take corrective motion.
Seagate’s customary coverage grants a five-year guarantee on retail variations of IronWolf Professional drives. Usually, the corporate accounts for the time required for distribution and grants barely greater than 5 years from the manufacturing date.
“However within the case of counterfeit drives, the guarantee precisely matches 5 years from the printed manufacturing date, elevating additional suspicion,” the report added.
