[sdiy] counterfeit parts anyone ?

[KA4HJH]

>Terry's bad experience on ebay reminds me of a topic I wanted
>to discuss on this list a couple of months ago (after reading an
>article in Elektor) but was too busy for that...
>It was about counterfeit parts, and especially "good deals" on
>the web (and also sellers from Asia and former USSR)...
>And also major PC manufactors who got caught a few years
>back with counterfeit caps for power supplies that kept exploding
>and other horror stories, such as chinese sellers who collect cheap
>& crappy ICs and change the prints on top of them and resell them
>as rare obsolete parts...
>Has anyone any comment / experience / advice on the subject ?

How about an entire electronics manufacturer?

"It seems that Chinese piracy experts not only started duplicating and
selling NEC branded products, they began setting up fake NEC factories and
warehouses, in essence, hijacking the brand and the operations of an entire
company by impersonating the company itself. A pirating first.":

http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3000

I can only assume this is just the start...

-- 

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

"There is no Main Street anymore except at Disneyland--and try and buy a
gun there"--Hank Hill