Looking for information about a particular seller?
If you are looking for posts about a particular seller the easiest way to see if there is anything here is to enter the seller ID in the search box. Please bear in mind that this blog is devoted to reporting suspected fake capacity flash memory items – sometimes the seller may not know their item is fake.
Please read posts very carefully – we often say that the seller may be innocent of fraud – if so the seller could be a victim too! Careful reading will show why we consider some sellers listing either known or suspected fakes more suspicous than others.
We do not want to victimise innocent sellers who fell victim to fraudulent suppliers. Communication with your seller will often reveal fairly quickly whether or not they deliberately sold you a fake.
Cost of flash chips in media players, flash drives or memory cards
SOSFakeFlash asks that all victims of fake flash purchases read the following article by FlashChipTutor:
What Are The Real Costs For Flash Chips In China? Guide 2009
Please see the current pricing for flash chips. You still need to test but you will understand why you fell into the fake flash pit along with the rest of us. FlashChipTutor is interested in your comments!
Can you beleive your operating system? No you can’t!
We notice that sellers of fake flash drives on ebay (either deliberately or through ignorance)
sometimes show screenshots of drive properties shown by the operating system. This only shows what the control chip tells the operating system. Often this information is false. Do not be fooled by it!!
Read the rest of this entry »
Are ebay/paypal trying to keep users safe? – we don’t think so!!
After many months of alerting ebay to fraud on their site we have come to the conclusion that the claims made about buyer protection are (for the most part) empty rhetoric and that they may be knowingly tolerating the sale of counterfeit and fake capacity flash memory in the interests of profit. We find a recent email sent to ebay members recently particularly suspect. To find out a little about why we think ebay’s so-called buyer protection claims are largely spin – read on!
Read the rest of this entry »
Confirmed A Kingston 128GB USB Flash Drive Genuine Now exists!
Kingston now makes a 128GB usb flash drive! It is in the new DataTraveler series, the DT200 series. There is now one usb flash drive from Kingston that is a genuine 128GB capacity. See: Kingston Technologies Releases DT200 128GB USB Flash Drive To Market
A suspect 64GB Kingston DT150 listed by new ebayer in the USA
No ordinary person in their right mind would take the risk of listing a number of genuine 64B DataTraveler flash drive with a start price of 1 cent! Our conclusion? Seller gormankens78usa has to be one of the following:
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1. Crazy
2. A rich philanthropist who wishes to distribute high capacity flash drives to the poor
3. Someone who has been on a shopping trip to fakeflashland
4. Someone who needs to join gamblers anonymous urgently
We are inclined to think the third option is the truth. We think gormankens78usa should check with Kingston – each of these should have a unique serial number which can be checked with Kingston to see if drives are genuine. We advise anyone who bought these to sell on ebay and anyone who bought one of these for themselves (whether on ebay or elsewhere) to do the same. If they are counterfeit you will find that you eventually end up with lost and corrupted files.
Suspect 32GB flash drive from ebay seller in France
We are fairly certain that the flash drives on offer here from seller lecomptoirdelatlantique are not genuinely 32GB but will have been fraudulently programmed to seem as though they are. Such flash drives eventually cause loss of files and corruption of data. We think the seller bought these from one of the many wholesale outlets which supply fake capacity flash memory. Why? We think the buy it now price is probably too low for genuine ones to be sold at anything but a loss.
As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Is this 16GB Swivel type flash drive from China genuine?
We suspect that these flash drives listed by seller shopbundle (registered on ebay China) will prove to be fake capacity. As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
32GB Kingston USB flash drives sold by UK ebayer at below cost!!
UK ebay member tracy_dleif is either something of a gambler who can afford to lose money on a regular basis or the 32GB Kingston flash drives sold by this member are counterfeit and fake capacity. Above we see an auction listing for a 32GB Kingston with a start price of 99p. This seller previously sold 5 of the Kingston drives shown below at auction – they mostly fetched less than we think you’d pay for them wholesale.
If these were in fact genuine 32GB DataTraveler 150 drives then the seller has made a loss on these transactions. We’d guess the loss on them would have been £100 or more if they were genuine. The seller was alerted to the fact that these were likely to be fake and is not currently listing these for sale. An ebay member contacted one of the buyers who seemed to think that the drive was ok when formatted to NFTS rather than FAT.
We are not so sure. We suspect this seller went shopping in fakeflashland. Genuine Kingston of this capacity all have individual serial numbers. You can use the serial number to check with Kingston whether your drive is genuine or not – we urge all buyers of high capacity Kingston drives to do so – if you got a counterfeit you will eventually find files becoming lost and corrupted.
Another UK seller buying fakes on ebay and re-selling
It seems that bizzy-shop is yet another ebayer who has snapped up fake flash drives on ebay from fraudsters in China and is now re-selling them to other members. We’d be very interested to know how bizzy-shop proposes to fulfil the promised warranty on the item shown on the left!!
As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Another suspected fake flash seller regisered on ebay China
China-based ebay seller rtechrocks685625 has sold a number of flash drive models – all supposedly 16GB. Three of the models from this seller are shown above. They were sold at prices which make us suspect that these are fake capacity items. This seller is a bit more careful than most – spacing flash drives out among a range of other items. This lessens the likelihood of negative feedback reaching a percentage that will cause ebay to suspend the seller. The drive on the far left is one of the favourites with fraudsters – easy to program to whatever fake size the like but usually only really 2GB. As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Another suspect ebay seller of flash drives located in China
We think this flash drive listed by lany52000 is likely (like most coming out of China) to prove to be fake capacity. This seller seems to be careful to space flash drives out between other items. We expect that this is so that any negative feedback is less likely to lead to suspension of the account. As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Suspect 32GB USB flash drive from ebay seller in Malaysia
Here again we see the favourite model for re-programming to display whatever capacity fraudulent wholesalers want the customer to see. We have not yet come across one of these that had a true capacity over 2GB. We suspect these are like all the rest and that the seller bought them from a fraudulent supplier. We do not know whether the seller is aware these are likely to be fakes or is a victim of his supplier but either way we are fairly certain that these will prove to have a capacity nowhere near 32GB.
As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Seller registered in Thailand with suspect ebay listing
We think seller facechat is not offering genuine DT 150 flash drives here. For one thing the listing states there is a choice of colours.
There is no choice of colours for this model – the only genuine ones are the colour shown in the picture.
Two other things make us very suspicious – the seller first showed a drive that is not available in 64GB at all, then changed the picture. The seller is also keeping buyer IDs private – usually a sign of fraud when it comes to flash memory.
Anyone who bought one of these can check with Kingston to find out whether the drive is genuine or not – we think not!
Seems too cheap to be a genuine 16GB flash drive
This flash drive listed on ebay by seller happytianqing, a member registered in China seems too cheap for it to be a genuine 16GB flash drive. We think that this, like almost all flash memory from sellers in China, will prove to be fake capacity. As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Looks like another UK seller buying fakes to resell to others
UK ebay seller memory_king seems to be bidding on fake flash from fraudsters in China and re-selling it at a higher price to other ebayers. The fact that buyer IDs are private suggests that this seller may be aware the flash drive shown here is fake capacity. As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Yet another listing of a familiar 16GB flash drive from China
What can we say except that this seems too cheap to be geniune and that we think denghongmeisell12 is yet another new ID for a familiar fraud gang in China. As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
We suspect these flash drives on ebay Germany are fake capacity
We think these flash drives listed by megameram will prove to have a much smaller capacity than 16GB. Looks like the seller has some other fake models too – including a very obvious and well known 32GB model.
As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
128GB Kingston on buy it now for £60?? Has to be counterfeit!
This listing by UK seller niewyrzucaj24 just has to be for a counterfeit as nobody could sell a genuine one for this price. The real one looks nothing like those in the seller’s picture which shows a model that is only made up to 16GB capacity. As buyer IDs are kept private we think that this seller may know these are fake – when buyer IDs are hidden by those selling flash drives it is usually a sign of deliberate fraud. To see the real 128GB flash drive go to the Kingston web site – you’ll see that it looks absolutely nothing like these!
As these are special order items with a waiting list we will be very surprised if any genuine ones appear on ebay for some considerable time. If and when they do appear they will cost a lot more than this. At present the price direct from Kingston is $547.00 – approximately £340.42 and if you ordered one now you wouldn’t get it until September.
Generic 32GB drives auctioned by UK seller with very low start price
We don’t see how anyone could afford to risk listing genuine flash drives of any capacity over 1GB (let alone 32GB) at auction with such a low start price. Either clares-trading-room is an inveterate gambler or these drives are fake capacity. Of course there is one more possibility – maybe the seller is a rich philanthropist who wishes to distribute high capacity flash drives to the poor through ebay. That would be nice – but somehow we don’t think so.
As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Very suspect 32GB flash drives on ebay Austria
Two new IDs (joeping8888 and cucuzu8888) regigistered in China are offering these two models of 32GB flash drive on ebay Austria, using identical photos. We strongly suspect these are new IDs for an old familiar fraud gang and that these are fakes – drives that have been programmed to show a false capacity to the operating system. Anyone using such drives is likely to suffer file loss and corruption. As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Yet another ID in China listing an old favourite of fraudsters
This model of flash drive is listed by almost every fraudster on ebay operating out of China. We think that chm_2009 is yet another of these. You can’t sell genuine 16GB flash drives on ebay for £10 and make a profit. In fact it’s very difficult to find any you could sell at under £20 unless you can buy and sell in absolutely massive quantities with a tiny profit margin. Buyers beware – flash drives at fabulous prices are fabulously fake capacity and will cause your files to vanish or become corrupted.
As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
UK seller lists obvious fake 32GB Sony Vaio USB flash drive
This item is counterfeit. Sony do not make 32GB flash drives and no Sony flash drive is branded Vaio – the Vaio name is only used for laptops. We have never come across a counterfeit that genuinely had the capacity stated – normally they have a capacity no larger that 4GB at most. This leads to file loss and corruption as once enough files have been saved to reach the true capacity there is nowhere left for them to go. The fact that buyer IDs are being kept private suggests that jesd03 may know these are fakes. As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
More familiar suspect drives from yet another ebay ID in China
Yawn! Yet another listing of the frausters’ favourite flash drive – easy to take apart, easy to reprogram to a false capacity. We expect that the drives listed by junjie_75 will as usual be fake capacity causing user’s files to become corrupted and vanish. We suspect this is yet another ID belonging to a familiar fraud gang. As always we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
A suspected fraudster in China pretending items are in UK
We think subingbing999 is another ID set up by one of the familiar fraud gangs in China. The price of these seems too little for them to be genuine – we think they will turn out to be fake capacity. As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Genuine 32GB flash drive? We think it is very unlikely.
We think it is highly unlikely that these flash drives listed by UK seller gmozz-co-uk are genuinely 32GB. This model of flash drive is a favourite target of fraudsters. This is because it is easy to take apart and re-program to any fantastic capacity they think they can get away with. Up till now we don’t think any of these have proved to have a true capacity over 2GB. We expect the seller was supplied by a fraudulent wholesaler in China. The seller may be unaware that there is even such a thing as fake capacity flash memory. We suggest the seller tests them with the free program h2testw. We think we will be proved right.
As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Suspect 64GB DataTraveler 150 from a UK seller
We see the fine boast “100% Feed Back – Best Seller” in this listing from UK seller mr-memory-man. The seller does indeed have 100% feedback at the moment – as a buyer – don’t think this helps us judge him as a seller! There are currently two listings for this item from the seller – this one-day auction and a buy it now at £74.99. As you would normally expect to pay over £100 for a genuine flash drive of this model we suspect it could be counterfeit. So far mr-memory-man has sold four of these – we advise the buyers to check with Kingston to find out whether the drives are genuine or counterfeit. Each one should have a unique serial number which can be verified with the company if they are genuine.
Familiar flash drive sold by ebayer in China in private auction
Seller greatwallseller used familiar techniques to build up a big feedback score before emabarking on selling flash drives.
It seems greatwallseller is still selling items at a loss to keep the good feedback coming by the look of things. Now flash drives are being sold in private auctions.
All this is typical behaviour for fraudsters in China and we think greatwallseller is yet another one.
As ever we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Seller in Ireland lists counterfeit Sony flash drives on ebay.
The seller who listed these, olezik30, states they are not Sony. As the Sony brand name is shown both on the packaging and on the drives they are counterfeits and therefore the seller is breaking the law by advertising these for sale.
As they are counterfeit they wil not be in “the fine working form” for very long! Fine working form will vanish (along with the user’s files) once the true capacity of the drive is exceeded.
As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
Looks like a job lot of counterfeit Kingston on ebay France
We suspect the ID poiloninou may be a new one for deregistered seller poulienou who sold this type of drive individually in auctions in June before vanishing. We think the seller discovered the drives were counterfeit and did a runner; either that or the seller was removed by ebay. We think this seller has now returned to dump the remaining fake stock on another ebay member. Anyone who has bought Kingston DataTraveler 150 flash drives can verify them with Kingston using the unique serial number – and we strongly advise both sellers and buyers to check their drives with Kingston.
