And in another episode of "I can't believe they sell these things online", we still haven't fully recovered from the fake tin, but bigclivedotcom delights us again with what is probably the worst fake WiFi repeater in history. This time, the purchase? was made on eBay, and the worst part is that there were some positive comments in its feedback…
Obviously, this is not something new. From counterfeit graphics cards (for example, RTX 3090 sold as 4090) to solid-state drives with two nuts and a USB stick inside, scams are just around the corner. We always like to think we're quick to spot them, but when scams feed a global-scale business structure, it shouldn't surprise us that they appear on the Web so often. In fact, bigclivedotcom didn't even have to try hard to find this... thing... that poses as a WiFi repeater:
The spirit of a WiFi repeater sold on eBay
Once again, the story began in early February with the review of a real repeater for which he paid less than ten pounds on eBay. This was followed by a USB WiFi repeater from AliExpress, whose security profile was not the best. Finally, we get to the latest video… and I could swear that repeater looks like it came out of a Kinder egg. The 'antennas' rotate 360 degrees like the arms of an articulated doll, and when he opened its casing, the only thing he found inside was… an LED light.
That's all. An LED light that uses the 5 volts from USB, and it's also over-powered because it was configured with a resistor of just 20 ohms. The 'ideal' would be to change the resistor value to 220 ohms, but bigclivedotcom believes that the inevitable flicker before it fails is part of the strategy, to convey the illusion of real communication. One final detail? It has positive feedback! Some buyers seem to be convinced that it works correctly. The placebo effect is more powerful than we imagine…
