Thread by @machadolac

I’ve seen many recent complaints about fake 3M Aura N95 masks. After investigating my past purchases I suspect some included fake masks 😡 🧵1/

I’ve tried purchasing the 1870+ directly from 3M or @projectn95 but this mask was never available (this is the one with a red strap, usually named “healthcare respirator”, and it’s the only one that I can properly adjust to my small face without leaks) 2/3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/v…

So over the past 2 years I purchased the 1870+ from multiple other sources, and although “I’ve never had Covid” I suspect some of my recent purchases included fake masks 3/

Here are some of the differences noted between 2 of my recent 3M Aura 1870+ purchases👇🏻

1-Printed illustration pattern in individual plastic packaging 4/

2-Instructions in Chinese in individual plastic packaging 5/

3-Side sealing of individual plastic packaging 6/

4-The chin tab can/can’t be seen when mask is folded 7/

5-The end of the red strap is/isn’t aligned with side of the mask 8/

6-Secure code is/isn’t printed on individual plastic packaging 9/

7- Alignment of staples (they’re not perfectly aligned in every single mask, but I believe those from real masks may tend to have better alignment) 10/

8- Markings are/aren’t located near the center front of mask 11/

9-Number/size/opacity of the seam lines surrounding the mask 12/

10-Size of the “holes” on top panel 13/

11- Markings on the bottom panel 14/

There are other less obvious differences (won’t list them here). I suspect the mask that appears on lower part of pictures is fake, but I honestly can’t tell if both masks are fake😫Unfortunately 3M website doesn’t allow the validation process for this model 15/

I would really appreciate if others can share more info about this, and of course I’ll contact 3M directly to report my suspicions and will update this thread when I gather more info 16/16 FIM.

*noted= noticed (sorry)

For some reason the markings I did on each picture to show differences between masks didn’t appear as expected 😫😫😫 I won’t do the whole thread again, but I hope you can spot all the differences listed even with the wrong marking🙏🏻

@threadreaderapp please unroll