Odd markings on flash ICs - Are these factory rejects?

I emailed Ted Netz, the NAND flash product manager at SpecTek. Here's what he had to say (with a few minor grammar and formatting fixes):

Hi Adam,

We do mark products this way. It is a type of part we sell that may have a mechanical defect, but often tested electrically good. We sell it as risk product, as is, at a discount and do a 3 bar deface on it so it cannot be returned as an all good device for RMA. The mechanical defect typically will not let it pass our automated scan steps. Typically it fails for coplanarity or could have a missing or smashed ball. Folks are willing to rework the part and are supposed to retest it. However we usually advise customers to restrict these devices to USB apps or lower tier apps only as they may not meet all performance standards. As well, we cannot control the customer rework process so again we will not warranty such a device.

However there is another odd thing on these. The extra characters H16 62 are not part of our marking scheme. We have had folks counterfeit both the Micron mark and/or the SpecTek mark in this fashion to pass off the parts as SpecTek original. The odd thing to me as well is the scribe adjacent to the pin one mark. On the SpecTek marked drive the font is different on 3 of the marks which do not look like typical Micron scribe fonts. Anyhow hope this helps.

Thx -- Ted

So the three bars are a legitimate marking for high-risk no-warranty discount flash with mechanical defects. Customers are supposed to rework and test the chips on their own. However, based on the extra markings it seems like the chips in your drive might be counterfeit. Maybe it's easier to get away with counterfeiting a lower-quality product.