Counterfeit memory cards continue to be an issue and a friend recently learned that the hard way. The card was purchased from a huge online retailer and when put into a Mark II not only did it not work neither did the camera even after the card was removed. It was a CF card and one of the mating pin connector holes in the card was significantly smaller than the others resulting in a bent pin in the camera because the opening diameter in the poorly manufactured fake was too small for pin entry. I compared it to a genuine Sandisk CF card I own (sourced from always reliable B&H) and the other card was clearly a poor counterfeit, the label itself looked like it came from a cheap printer.
I ran into the same issue several years ago with counterfeit Sandisk SD cards but at least those fakes don't damage the mating connector. I use a lot of SD cards and when I received those, they were clearly fakes. I contacted Sandisk out of curiosity after I had returned the cards to the merchant and got a detailed response from the rep. He stated that many people don't even realize their card is counterfeit until it dies and they try to return it under warranty.
So be careful with online purchases of these very commonly counterfeited products. It is bad enough to end up with a poor quality knock-off product but even worse when it causes damage to an expensive camera. It isn't just Sandisk, the other popular manufacturers are also targeted by the counterfeiters.
Rodger
EOS 1DX M3, 1DX M2, 1DX, 5DS R, M6 Mark II, 1D M2, EOS 650 (film), many lenses, XF400 video
