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Fake Energy Savers and other dodgy products This short article is a warning about fake and scam products that are becoming increasingly common online. They waste money, time and, in some cases, can even be dangerous. Warn your friends and family. By Nicholas Vinen S cams are unfortunately very common these days, partly because it has become easier to promote dodgy or outright fraudulent products online, and harder for consumers to tell what is genuine. As the saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. Keep that in mind when shopping online. Here are some products to watch out for. Fake energy-saving devices It’s very unlikely that you could save electricity by simply plugging a small device into a wall socket, so don’t bother buying these. They are a waste of money and generally do nothing useful. If anything, most of them will increase your power consumption slightly! As with many lies, there is a grain of truth behind the claims. Many of these devices claim to work by “cleaning up dirty power” or improving the power factor of your appliances. Large industrial customers do use power factor correction (PFC), and many consumer devices include PFC components. However, for ordinary domestic electricity users, improving the power factor generally does not reduce the real energy used, which is what you are charged for. So even if these plug-in devices could do the things they claim – and most cannot – they still would not save you money. Some scammers are even using fake celebrity endorsements to sell these products. Dick Smith was recently surprised to find himself supposedly promoting dodgy energy savers online – unwillingly! Don’t fall for it. Dick knows that you cannot save electricity by plugging a small, cheap box into the wall. It just doesn’t work that way. He has never promoted such devices, so if you see an ad saying he has, you know it is a scam. So how can you reduce electricity costs? Unfortunately, there’s no easy way. Real options include: 1. Buy more efficient appliances (but they often cost more). 2. Be more careful to switch things off when you aren’t using them. 3. Unplug “phantom” loads like chargers that aren’t actively in use. 4. Install a solar system. 5. Install a battery system that charges during off-peak/free times and discharges during peak times (even more effective if you have a solar system). 6. Shop around for cheaper electricity plans. 7. Improve your home’s insulation to reduce heating/cooling needs. Fake fuel-saving devices In the same vein as the fake electricity savers, you can find a device called the “Fuel Shark” or similar that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter socket, claiming to reduce fuel consumption or increase engine power. It does neither. All that buying it will do is lighten your wallet. Fake pest repellers Similar to the fake energy-saving devices, these plug into a mains outlet and claim to repel pests like cockroaches, mice etc. There is some evidence to suggest that real ultrasonic pest repellers do work, but the cheap ones are similar to the fake “electricity saver” boxes – just a plastic box with an LED that lights up (if you’re lucky) and not much else inside. So if it seems too cheap to be true, it probably is. Real ultrasonic pest repellers are not exactly high-tech, but they generally cost at least $20 Dick Smith sent us this product that he bought online after seeing an ad claiming he was promoting it! He isn’t. Again it’s basically just a mainspowered LED. The large grey object that looks like a capacitor appears to be nothing more than an epoxy-filled plastic box. They couldn’t even be bothered to include a real capacitor! A photo of the back of the box is also shown, which tries to describe how it works. 12 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au The fake ultrasonic pest repeller that L. Ralph Barraclough warned us about in the April 2024 issue (page 6). All it does is light the LED; there’s no piezo transducer or speaker, so there’s no way it can produce ultrasonic sound. Similar items but slightly different-looking products are still for sale on eBay. These cells are about as likely to store 9900mAh each as I am to win a gold medal at the next Olympics. each, sometimes a lot more. So if you find one for $5, it’s likely to be a fake. Do your homework and don’t waste your money. Batteries with fake ratings Buying rechargeable batteries online can be a real gamble. Sometimes you can find a good product; other times, the capacity may be well below what’s claimed. Often, the claimed battery capacity is simply impossible. Even the best 18650 cell will have a capacity of maybe 3600mAh. So anything above that is likely fake. If you buy a cell with a claimed 9900mAh, expect to be disappointed! Smaller cells will obviously store less energy. Torches and LED bulbs with fake ratings Many torches and LEDs sold online have ludicrous lumen ratings. A good torch powered by a single 18650 cell might put out 800-1500 lumens sustained or slightly more in short bursts. Any claims above about 2000 lumens are probably fake unless the battery is much larger. Similarly, car headlamp bulbs sold online will often claim many thousand of lumens more than they can actually produce. Sometimes it seems like if the bulb isn’t selling well, they’ll just add another zero to the lumen rating. talking about blast-wave physics on a catastrophic scale. As for 600dB, that is well into “extinction-level event” territory, so we recommend avoiding those sirens! Power banks with misleading ratings advertised as “12V 3000mAh”. Unfortunately, that is not how physics works. Three 3.7V, 1000mAh cells in series give about 11.1V nominal at 1000mAh, or roughly 11Wh. The voltage adds, but the amp-hour capacity does not. You do not magically get 36Wh (12V × 3Ah) from three cells that only store about 11Wh in total. Caveat emptor. Fake antennas We published a letter from Peter Felton on page 10 of the September 2025 issue that includes a photo of a 4G 700MHz “Yagi” antenna he bought. It is just a piece of aluminium in the shape of an antenna. The wire doesn’t even connect to the elements – it’s just terminated in the junction box! Other fake products Many people have bought an 6000mAh power bank and complained that it can’t fully charge the 4000mAh battery in their phone. That’s because the power bank rating is measured at the 3.7V battery, not at the 5V output of the power bank. It doesn’t take into account conversion efficiency, cable loss, charging losses and many other things. If you mentally halved power bank ratings (assuming they’re honest – many are not!) you would be closer to the truth of what sort of capacity they can actually deliver to a battery under charge. Even worse, we’ve seen 12V devices, such as units using three 3.7V Li-ion cells in series, rated in mAh as though the cell capacities add together. For example, if the unit contains three 1000mAh 3.7V cells, it might be There are tons of fake or fraudulently marketed products online, including but not limited to radiation blockers, air purifiers, health analysers, anti-snoring gadgets, battery rejuvenators, solar chargers, WiFi boosters, car performance chips, audio enhancers, ground-loop eliminators and mosquito repellers. Our best advice is to stick to known brands from reputable retailers. AliExpress, eBay, Temu, Taobao and so on can be great places to snag bargains (and many of the products sold there are actually good) but you need to know enough about what you are looking for to spot fakes or deals that are simply too good to be true. Products are expensive these days enough without wasting your money on items that could never work, so be SC careful when shopping online. If these live up to their ratings, you won’t just be able to see the cars ahead – you’ll be able to see through them! Just $10 from AliExpress, and apparently loud enough to annoy people on other continents. Similar to when Krakatoa erupted. Australia's electronics magazine August 2026  13 Sirens with fake ratings Car horns and sirens are often sold on sites like eBay or Amazon claiming to produce sound at 300dB or even 600dB. For comparison, a firework going off next to you might produce a sound level of around 160dB. Around 200dB is more like standing next to a major explosion. At 300dB, you are no longer talking about a car siren; you are siliconchip.com.au