Fighting flash fraud on Ebay

The picture below shows a fake USB flash drive listed by UK seller  sue-hawk.  This seller was warned the item is fake but seems either not to have understood the significance of the warning or is a deliberate fraudster. At the moment we do not know which for sure. Time will tell. We are inclined to think that this ebayer has simply acted foolishly. Suffice it to say that this flash drive  is not (as advertised by the seller) a 64GB drive and the buyer will lose their files after a while if  he or she uses it.

There seem to be a large number of UK sellers who have recently bought fake flash drives to re-sell on Ebay. If you are a seller who has been warned by another ebayer that your item is fake – pay attention!!

Selling such items is a criminal offence and you could land in prision if  you continue with the sale once you have been warned that the item is fake.  There is no excuse.  If you have been told an item is a fake you should remove it from sale immediately.

It seems that many ebayers in the UK are buying fake USB flash drives and other fake flash memory items in bulk  on web sites such as dhgate.com, alibaba.com and shoponclearance.com.  They are then re-selling these items on eBay without realising their items are fake.  We cannot stress enough how important resarch and testing are if you plan to sell flash memory items such as USB flash drives, SD memory cards, pro duo memory sticks, MP4 players and so on.

If an item shows a company name (such as Sony or Kingston) check their website to see if the item matches what is shown there. If not,  it is probably fake. Whether or not they are branded items you should test them immediately they arrive with h2testw. Do not either release payment to the seller or list the items on eBay unless this test runs without errors.

UK seller p-s-3-world had a very short career on ebay. The seller paid no attention to a warning that an item was fake as there are no USB flash drives over 64GB and continued with the listing anyway. If you bought from this seller claim a refund through paypal immediately. Ebay knows the  item is fake and has removed the listing and de-registered the seller.

SOSFakeFlash and victims have wondered for a long time, how do fake flash eBay sellers in the Orient just keep coming back? Why do some of them have such old start dates on eBay? The FrankenFlash Project finally has some very interesting information about that. Also on why eBay is losing sales.

Read the rest of this entry »

SOSFakeFlash Reports that Fake MP Players are the lastest plague to hit eBay. Harder for Buyers to spot before they leave postive feedback. Why? A 16GB false capacity MP player that turns out to be only 2GB can hold as many as 500 songs. It takes time to load. Most buyers of MP Players just use technology and are not techie. They fall for the “opphs a defective item” song sung by the fake flash seller. The lure of “free shipping” is one of the strongest pulls to end up in the fake flash pit. It appears that eBay fake flash sellers in Hong Kong and China know this so well – they have studied their buyer audience carefully. Here is advice – a Guide from SOSFakeFlash.

Read the rest of this entry »

Based in Ireland seller dudez_wear is selling fake 64GB Kingston flash drives. The seller has paid no attention to the warning that these are fake capacity and counterfeit sent by an ebayer. Ebay ID’s are being hidden by dudez_wear – this is generally an indication that the seller knows the item is fraudulent. Here is a picture:

More fraudsters have been de-registered during the last 24 hours. If you bought flash memory from any of them test your item immediately and claim a refund from paypal if it is a fake. You need to act quickly to get a refund through paypal. It is very important that you submit test results etc by using the report a fake tab on the sosfakeflash blog. It is the collection of  this information by sosfakeflash that has led to quick refunds. If you do not submit this information there is no clear evidence that you bought a fake and less evidence to help victims to get refunds.
The sellers l.c.hayes, pangoal, lazy-juicy and gangsta_memory are no longer ebay members.

Yet another fraudster the frankenflash project was watching is now de-registered (no longer an ebay member). Victims – get your evidence of calltimtim’s fraud to us and claim your refunds through paypal quickly!

Hello eBay, it seems you are finally paying attention. We wonder why you suspended our accounts for warning ebay members about fraud. It’s a pity you were not so quick to suspend the fraudsters!! If you want us to help you then you should restore all the accounts that warnings about fraud were sent from. You should also refund all those who were defrauded! Then we will work with you.

Nice try h-and-f-collections! You didn’t get posted here before because you removed the listing showing an obvious fake after a warning from ebay members that the item was fake. It looks like you may well be a swindler after all!
Now instead of showing a picture of an obvious fake 32GB Kingston you are showing a picture of a real one. However, you say buyers may get a different model – so suddenly you acquired a lot of different genuine models you don’t picture? After listing an obvious fake????
You will be reported to Kingston, eBay and the police as we suspect that you are deliberately committing fraud.
Buyers beware of this seller’s weasel words! Here is a screenshot showing a part of his listing:

Due to fast-moving stock indeed! We don’t think so!! Don’t you mean due to the fact you don’t actually have the genuine one in the picture, just a load of fakes that will cause your buyers to lose their files? The good luck we think buyers need is to read this post before they consider buying!! Ebayers, watch this guy and report him!
UPDATE
Seller has been de-registered from ebay and listings removed. Buyers need to test drives and claim refunds fast.

Ebay seller master-of-sales is de-registered and listings have been removed. He listed what seemed to be factory rejects which should have been destroyed. Whether he understood what he was told by ebayers who warned him or not is unclear. Ebayers were alerted that these 4GB drives might not be functional by packaging commonly used by Chinese fraudsters a while back. This packaging has re-surfaced recently in the UK and elsewhere. Be suspicious if you see packaging like that shown in the screen shot of his listing which you can see in fightflashfraud’s original post.

We at fightflashfraud appeal once again to sellers – if a buyer sends you a question that indicates your item may be fake or faulty PLEASE TAKE IT SERIOUSLY AND INVESTIGATE!
The ebayer warning you could be very experienced in the area of flash fraud – at the very least they will have some knowledge through becoming a victim. Pay attention and test your flash memory item with h2testw!

A 4GB Hello Kitty flash drive currently listed by a Hong Kong based seller comes in suspect packaging that is very familiar to fightflashfraud. This type of packaging was very common on fakes a while back and has re-emerged recently. The fact that at the end of an auction the buyer ID was hidden is further cause for suspicion. The only complaints buyers have made so far has been about items not arriving – but as we are well aware most buyers do not test their drives. Here is a picture of the item in question:

SOSFakeFlash asks what is so special about 935 Choi Ping House at Choi Yuen Estate in Sheung Shui, N.T., Hong Kong? It is the place many fake usb flash drives and MP Players are mailed from to unsuspecting eBay members. The FrankenFlash Project has been monitoring for a long time. Four ebay seller id’s all have something in common, a person by the name of Yu zhikang. The common eBay seller id’s are: fox.town, chaiching28, davidtam000,i.t.smart_electronic . There could be more id’s involved.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you have listed an item and ebayers tell you it is fake please pay attention. There are a lot of knowlegable ebayers out there – victims of fake flash themselves. They may be either sellers who bought from dishonest Chinese companies or end users who bought on Ebay and learned a lesson the hard way. They know what they are talking about and seldom if ever get it wrong. You should immediately end your listing and check your item. The easiest way is with h2testw – if it’s a large capacity drive a test involving the first 20GB should be enough to show it is fake. If your drive comes in packaging like the ones below it is certainly fake – in fact at these capacities there are no drives that look like these anyway!

See the page How to tell whether a USB flash drive to see the only real 32GB and 64GB Kingston – everything else is fake. Also see posts about fake Kingston for info about lower capacity fake Kingston.

SOSFakeFlash is investigating a counterfeit Ring Operating in Hong Kong. To make connections between eBay seller id’s it is critical the fake flash victims on eBay send in the addresses of the sellers. Keep those envelopes! If you have been asked by a seller to return a fake flash item, send the address provided to SOSFakeFlashDrive@gmail.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is what the seller says in the listing:

MASSIVE 500 GIGABYTE, 500GB USB 2.0 PEN DRIVE. now only 60 pounds more than a 64 gig drive……..
3 AVAILABLE……… THESE WERE PURCHASED DIRECT FROM A BIG NAME MANUFACTURER IN ASIA FOR 1 OF OUR DIRECTORS, HE IS NOW ON THE DOLE SO IT IS BEING SOLD. THESE ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN THE UK….. these COST OVER $2,000 AND HAVE NEVER BEEN USED, THEY ARE TESTED AND READ 527 GB (GIGABYTE)

By testing the seller seems to have meant a quick look at the properties (which according to what he says show OVER 500gb? – sloppy programming we think) and loading a few files. He has been advised by an ebayer to test with h2testw and has told this ebayer that the time the test will take to run is over 160 hours – a whole week! The listing will be over by then and some poor sap (or even 3 poor saps) may have paid £199 for something that is neither use nor ornament!
UPDATE 23/02/08
The seller has been persuaded to test the item – results will take several days. We will be most surprised if (as he insists it will) the item proves to be genuine. We think he is in for a nasty shock. The seller has now ended the listing.

UK based seller tunubunu was warned yesterday that the Kingston pen drive listed was fake. The facts that the seller has not responded, is still selling and is hiding buyer IDs suggests that this is deliberate fraud on the seller’s part. Buyers beware!

Despite being told that there is no such thing as a 120GB USB flash drive Ebay seller l.c.hayes has continued with the sale of these. I trust this seller understands that such sales are a criminal offence which can result in a prison sentence.

Despite being warned that there is no such thing as a 120GB USB flash drive davidmiller532 is still listing both these and 64GB drives. All are likely to be fraudulently programmed drives of a much lower capacity (probably no more than 4GB) which will cause data loss for users.

Despite being warned several days ago that the 64GB flash drive listed for sale is fake only_teethin, a seller based in the UK, has not remove the listing. This is the same model listed by many other sellers. The honest ones either removed their listings or are using them to warn others about the fakes. The fact that buyer IDs are hidden is a further indication that only_teethin is a deliberate fraudster.

If buyers report him to the police he could well face a prison sentence, and quite right too – not only does the sale of fake capacity flash drives defraud people out of money; it does something much, much worse – causes the buyer to lose their files.

It seems that ebay seller fox.town, based in Hong Kong, carelessly sent an unhacked 2GB Mp3/MP4 player (rather than one that had been hacked to 16GB) to one of the buyers – so he didn’t even need to test the drive to know it was not a 16GB model as the properties clearly showed it as 2GB.

It seems that fox.town fights dirty. Seller fox.town gave a buyer a refund and is now trying to get an unpaid item strike against the buyer – a tactic that has been seen before. If this happens to you remember that you have the proof that you paid and were refunded in your paypal account. A word of advice about refunds – don’t EVER communicate with a fraudster directly if you paid using paypal. Open a paypal dispute – then they are unlikely to be able to get away with this sort of tactic.

SOSFakeFlash has just released a new guide on Paypal disputes. So many people ask about about time windows and what to do when a claim is closed by PayPal. The information answers a lot of questions and is a collection of articles published. It covers:

1. Paypal on filing claims, time windows and reopened investigations against a seller.
2. Advice – a collection of important articles for you to read. Based on SOSFakeFlash’s experience.
3. Stories – What eBayer’s have experienced and what they have to say.

To read their article: PayPal How Long Do You Have To Claim For A Refund In Disputes? A Guide About PayPal From eBayer’s Experiences.

We at fightflashfraud think we have tracked down the original source of a number of the fake 64GB sold on eBay by sellers including irena-ebai and others who used the same picture. This company also sells fake 120GB flash drives.

Company Name: Nanchang Luotian Media Co., Ltd.
Street Address: Huaqiang Road Saige C 1506
City: ShenZhen
Province/State: Guangdong
Country/Region: China
Zip: 518000
Telephone: 0086-0755-83638891
Mobile Phone: 13692143010
Fax: 0086-0755-83638891

Perhaps the Chinese police might like to do something about these fraudsters?

We now have concrete evidence of fraud by Hong Kong based seller pangoal. The seller registered with eBay on December the 10th and has sold many fake flash drives since registering. We immediately suspected that this seller may be a known fraudster with a new ID. The pictures used by pangoal are exactly the same as those used in listings under a number of other (now de-registered) IDs used by fraudsters. Here is a picture of the drive we have test results for:

As can clearly be seen in the picture it clearly shows the Kingston name. Test results confirm what we knew just by looking at the picture – this is a fraudulently programmed 2GB drive. The 16GB model is red not green!
It says in the listing:
We guarantee 100% customer satisfaction. If your item is not as described or faulty when you receive it we will replace if for you with no additional charge. Many sellers supply grey market, refurbished or factory seconds goods at similar pricing to us. We guarantee that our products are brand new, official and first quality. If an item is used or refurbished it will be clearly stated in the listing.
What it should have said is:
We gaurantee data loss when you use this fraudulently programmed flash drive, worth half what we will rip you off for even if it wasn’t actually dangerous to use.

UPDATE 22/02/09 at 19:31
See comments for what a buyer did to get a quick refund via paypal. If you bought this item (or any flash drive from this seller as all are progably fake) we suggest you follow his example and do the following in this order:

Test your drive with h2testw
Report the item to Ebay immediately – the item infringes copyright and is fake capacity – fraud on 2 counts
Open a paypal dispute immediately after reporting item to ebay
Escalate to a claim immediately after this
Submit your test results along with your ID, item number, seller ID and purchase date (independent evidence) to sosfakeflash using the report a fake tab
Leave the scammer negative feedback so that it’s difficult for him to get away with this again
Comment on your refund experience on this post

UPDATE
This seller is not currently listing any items but is obviously planning to do so in the future. He sent this message to an ebay member who left him negative feedback:

hello
so sorry to take trouble to u ,u had got money ,pls help help us withdraw bad feedback,ok?
pls give us your hand

wait for your good news

cheers

- pangoal

We have a message for pangoal and all peddlers of fake flash – negative feedback is not the only thing your victims would like to give you. They would like to give you a nice long jail sentence – not only were you trying to obtain money fraudulently but users of your fake items will eventually lose all their data. That is something which cannot easily be forgiven.

This is the flash drive listed by a UK based eBay seller. This seller swapped his ID on Friday after being warned that the item was fake and as the listing remained up we wrongly assumed that the seller did this for fraudulent reasons. As someone working in IT one would have expected the seller to be well aware of the issue of data loss. The listing should have been removed immediately and the item tested with H2testw.
UPDATE
We have now been informed by other eBayers that the seller has updated his listing asking that people do not bid on the item and is trying to get eBay to remove the listing and refund his fees. It seems very unlikely that eBay will do so – they are far too fond of money to give it back!

The seller himself has left a comment saying that he has now removed the listing. Our apologies to him for making an assumption about why he changed his ID – we came to the wrong conclusion because the item was still listed.

PLEASE SELLERS! IF EBAYERS WARN YOU AN ITEM IS FAKE TAKE HEED! REMOVE YOUR LISTING AND TEST WITH H2TESTW – THERE ARE A LOT OF EBAYERS OUT THERE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT!

Ebay has removed listings from petermak_hk. This is presumably because they finally cottoned on to the fact that he was selling counterfeit Kingston. If you bought flash memory from this seller you are strongly advised to test with h2testw.

Two more UK sellers have listed fake Sony 64GB Micro Vault drives. They, like so many others, do not seem to understand that looking at the drive properties only shows what the fraudsters who programmed them want you to see. This is very far from the truth. The fastest and easiest way to establish whether a drive is genuine or fake capacity is to test with h2testw. We stress yet again that Sony do not make 64GB drives like the one shown below – if you see a drive like this listed then it is fake:

UK seller idealnumbers_co_uk has listed 5 fake 64GB Kingston on a buy it now at £55 with buyer ID’s hidden. This seller registered a business account on ebay on 26-Jul-06 in the United Kingdom. Until listing this item the seller had apparently only bought 15 items and sold none. The drive shown in his tiny picture (shown at the bottom of this post) seems to be a 2GB drive. The seller has not responded to an ebayer who warned the drive is fake. This seems like classic fraudster behaviour. You can see the wording of his listing and his pictures below. Two people have bought already – three more victims to go! View the listing
Read the rest of this entry »

We at fightflashfraud have learned that the UK website www.usb-memory-stick-direct.co.uk is apparently selling fake flash drives. Seems the problem of fake drives on the Internet is worldwide. When will sellers learn to test their drives with h2testw before putting them on sale we wonder?

Thankfully some ebay sellers take heed of warnings from members about fake flash items. Here is an example:
An ebayer who spotted a fake 120GB Sony flash drive being listed sent the seller a question. The seller posted the question and answer in his listing:

Q: Not a real 120GB see: http://fakeflashnews.totalh.com/2009/01/09/guide-on-fake-sony-32gb-64gb-120gb-360gb-500gb-micro-vault-usb-flash-drives-published-by-fakeflashnews/ 18-Feb-09
A: Hi there … seems i may have been sold some fake goods then! We are investigating the capacity etc and authenticity with the suppliers and the site that you’ve directed me to. Thank you! At least I bought them via paypal so will get my money back, hopefully! Thanks again! I’ve made sure that everyone can see our discussion by ticking the box to allow it …
Read the rest of this entry »

UK based seller umarkal was advised by an ebayer that there is no such thing as a 360GB Memory stick. The selle did not understand that you can’t tell anything by looking at the properties of a drive in the operating system and that there are NO FLASH DRIVES above 64GB. Following the warning from an ebayer all umarkal did was look at the properties and add this screenshot of what the properties showed to the listing:

This does not tell us anything about the real capacity of the drive – only what the control chip tells the operating system. The way fake flash fraud works is by programming the control chip to report a false capacity to the operating system. The seller needed to test the drive with h2tesw to find out the truth.

On 19th February this seller left a comment saying he removed the listing. We have now checked and umarkal has indeed removed his listing. He was obviously yet another innocent seller who fell victim to fraud. We urge sellers to do research before buying flash memory items and to test them before listing them for sale – this avoids all sorts of problems for them as sellers and avoids end users losing their files. We wish this seller well in claiming a refund from his supplier.

UK based ebay seller uk-trader-2000 seems to have been an innocent victim of internet fraud. This seller bought what were advertised as Sony flash drives on the Internet. He bought them from Chinese wholesalers who, it seems, knowingly commit fraud on sites such as dhgate.com and re-sold these drives on eBay thinking that looking at the properties of a drive was enough to check that they were genuine. We have heard from some buyers and see from the seller’s feedback that he has refunded others we didn’t hear from. He is not alone – many ebay sellers have fallen victim to fraudulent wholesalers. We strongly advise everyone to check with Sony, Kingston etc before buying anything with a brand name or trademark belonging to these companies.
This seller is now very out of pocket as a result of his mistake – fightflashfraud hopes he can eventually get his money back – but he may have a long, hard fight ahead! We urge him not to give up. Why should fraudsters be allowed to walk off with our money?

I came across an old post on another wordpress blog that readers of this blog may find interesting.
You can see this post here

Two more UK sellers, danbot_123 and ikhan1985, have each listed a fake 64GB Sony USB drive using the same picture as irena-ebai.

An eBay fraudster based in China who sold fake flash has gone into hiding. Suddenly there are no items for sale from calltimtim. This appears to be as a result of members of the frankenflash project telling this fake flash seller that we are onto him. Here is a picture of a confirmed fake (false capacity) SD card sold by calltimtim.

If you bought flash memory items from this seller you are strongly advised to test them with the free program h2testw which will reveal the true capacity of the drive and how much data was lost or corrupted. You can use this evidence to claim a refund from calltimtim through the PayPal dispute console. If you bought using a credit card the credit card company can do a chargeback to recover your money if calltimtim and PayPal are unco-operative. Please submit a report of your fake to sosfakeflash. There is lots of useful advice about refunds on the sosfakeflash blog and you can see pictures of confirmed fake USB flash drives from this seller there.

It seems that fightflashfraud’s suspicions about China based seller doctorxu88 were correct. The seller is now deregistered and listings have been removed – very unusual as the seller had no negative feedback. If you bought a flash drive from this seller you need to act quickly to get a refund.

Seller arifqammar, based in Ukraine, has listed a number of “32GB” Kingston DataTraveller USB flash drives on Ebay. The drives pictured appear to be 4GB models. If you bought a Kingston DataTraveller from this seller please test it immediately with h2testw. Please report your fake to sosfakeflash using the report a fake tab.

Seller nixilixi has not responded to the ebayer who pointed out that the flash drive pictured is a fake. Sony is not mentioned in the wording of the listing but is shown on the drive package. Does this seller not realise that selling fraudulent items like this is a criminal offence and that doing it so publicly provides all the evidence needed for a conviction and a prison sentence. Is it worth is for a few quid?

It seems that the UK based ebay seller gangsta-memory (an ebay member since 6th December 2008) is living up to his choice of ID. It amazes fightflashfraud that so many fraudsters choose ID’s like this which seem to reveal their intentions. This seller was warned about the fake flash issue about a week ago but apparently chose not to respond to the ebayer who sent a message. We at fightflashfraud are left with the inevitable conclusion that gangsta-memory is a deliberate fraudster as the choice of ID suggests. We advise you not to buy from this seller. If you have already bought from this seller test the item with h2testw (free program) – we think it will fail the test. If so, please report the item to sosfakeflash by using the report a fake tab and open a paypal dispute with the seller.
Here is a picture of one of this seller’s obvious fakes:

It shows what seems to be a 2GB drive in a listing with the title: Brand new 64GB flash drive memory stick, UK SELLER – fightflashfraud has news for you and your buyers, gangsta -memory. There is no genuine 64GB USB flash drive that looks like this!

Here is the experience of an eBay seller who discovered the drives he bought from dhgate.com were fake:

I found DHGate.com around Christmas time and thought what a bargain, cheap gear from China, must be because its direct from the suppliers, how wrong i was!
Read the rest of this entry »

SOSFakeFlash at the request of victims who bought False Capacity MP Players, Memory Cards and USB Flash Drives has just released a list of Safe Sellers on eBay. Sellers who sell true capacity items and stand behind their products!

See Safe Ebay Sellers For USB Flash Drives – MP Players – Memory Cards – Genuine Capacity/

This is a new program lauched by the FrankenFlash Project. eBay members may nomiate sellers. eBay sellers may apply. The list is dynamic and will be updated. A similar program will be launched for internet sites soon.

Read the rest of this entry »

The image above shows the fake 64GB Kingston sold by tannedweekend on February 12th. This seller was warned by an ebayer that this drive was fake but did not respond to the ebayer’s message or remove the listing. If you bought this item from tannedweekend please test it with h2testw. Although the listing does not mention Kingston the picture shows the Kingston trademark name DataTraveller. This type of drive from Kingston is colour coded – Green is for 2GB. This type of drive is only made in capacities up to 16GB – if you see a drive being sold that looks like this which is advertised as having a capacity of over 16GB then it is fake. Please report the matter to Kingston and if it is being sold on eBay you should also report it to them.

Ebay member rexiho1987; registered on ebay since 4th Nov 2008 has 4 listings for fake 64GB flash drives. Although the listing does not mention Sony the photograph is a smaller version of the photo previously used by irena-ebai and the original picture clearly shows the words Sony and microvault. An ebayer has sent a message to the seller warning that the drives are fake. Here is the seller’s picture:

Here is the original picture used by irena-ebai:

Is this an innocent seller (in which case why make the picture so tiny that you can’t read what it says on the packaging?) or a fraudster trying to obscure the evidence? We await developments.
UPDATE 17/02/06 AT 5.54PM
Although this seller never responded to the ebayer who warned the drives were fake, rexiho1987 removed the listings before there were any bids. This could either be because rexiho1987 knows they have been caught out or because the seller found out that the ebayer was right. Usually honest sellers respond to an ebayer who warns them so fightflashfraud suspects that it is simply that rexiho1987 realised the game was up. The seller is welcome to respond to this post.

Ebay member cklives listed and sold a fake 64GB drive showing a registered trade mark belonging to Kingston for £40. The capacity of the drive pictured in the listing appears to be 2GB. This member ID was created on 13th January so (at least on the surface) it would appear that this is an inexperienced member who simply does not understand the fake flash issue. An Ebay member sent cklives a message about the drive as follows:
You obviously are not aware of this but DataTraveller is a Kinston trademark name. Kingston flash drives of this type are colour coded and the largest capacity of genuine ones is 16GB. The one in your picture is a 2GB model. Fraudsters re-program the control chip to report the drive as a higher capacity (in thi case 64GB) you will find information about this on sosfakeflash. The easiest way of verifying the true capacity of such drives is to test them with the h2testw – a free program you can download from the Internet. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news – but selling it is likely to result in a very angry buyer and negative feedback which I am sure is the last thing you want.

cklives replied as follows:
its not kingston….and ive tested it and it is 64gb

The Ebayer replied:
If it’s not Kingston then I’m sorry to say it’s counterfeit. Legally only Kingston can use the DataTraveller name – anyone else using it is liable to prosecution. If it shows the DataTraveller name and it’s not Kingston it is counterfeit. Both selling counterfeits and sending them by post are criminal offences and could land you in Jail. I wonder exactly how you tested it, because counterfeits (in our experience)are never the capacity advertised. I strongly recommend that you test with h2testw. If you do this I am 99.999% sure you will find I am right. With something programmed to such a large size this is the only practical way to check a drive’s capacity without destroying it.

One can only hope that cklives took the ebayer’s advice and tested the drive. If the seller genuinely did not understand the issue we hope he does now and has refunded the buyer’s money.

UPDATE 8TH MARCH: Ebay has removed cklives listings and de-registered the member – so presumably the seller did not volunteer refunds to those who bought these fraudulent items.

A seller, who thought he was selling genuine Sony drives but discovered (after selling a number of them) that they were fake, has been in contact with Sony. He bought them on a site called dhgate.com which seems to operate in a similar way to eBay. He has kindly provided a copy of his correspondence with Sony for your information. He sent this email to Sony:
Hi
I have recently fallen victim to the fake ‘Sony’ 64GB USB Drives scam and thought i would report when i have purchased the items from so you may be able to take some action. They were from a chinese web-site called www.dhgate.com
A number of the drives are widely available in various sizes, obviously all fakes.
I’m not sure if you can take action given it is based in China, but i thought i would let you know anyway.
Thank you

Sony responded as follows: Sony Japan are aware of the problem

The seller is now pursuing a refund from the sellers zhenhao9588 and chengxang188 whom he bought from on dhgate.com. His report of fakes on dhgate.com is not the only one we have had. Sellers beware of buying flash drives from this site, it appears there are many fakes on sale here and on other sites, notably alibaba.com.

An ebayer in the UK arkadzik is trying to re-sell a fake 16GB USB flash drive (a known reported model for which we have test results) and possibly other suspect items bought from notorious fraudster chaiching28 despite being told that the flash drive bought from this seller is fake. Also looks like arkadiz listed one flash drive bought from powerrangolee and one from phonebase113 – also known fake flash fraudsters whose models are on record.
UPDATE ON 15/02/09 at 7:23pm
Presumably, as the fake items are still on sale, arkadzik doen’t care about defrauding other ebayers. The honourable thing to have done would have been to remove the items from sale, test them with h2testw and claim refunds through paypal from the fraudsters they were purchased from.
UPDATE On 15/02/09 at 9:39pm
Another ebayer got in touch with arkadzik today and it seems that arkadzik is now trying to rectify the situation. Unfortunately there is now a mess arkadzik needs to sort out because two people bought fake items. This mess could have been avoided if arkadzik had paid more attention to the first ebayer’s warning.
We at fightflashfraud strongly advise anyone selling flash memory items to heed any warning from other ebayers and test their items with h2testw before anyone buys – otherwise you may have an unholy mess to sort out!
UPDATE On 16/02/09 at 4:18pm
Seems as though arkadiz was just pulling the wool over the ebayer’s eyes in indicating he would end the unsold item and refund buyers. The unsold fake 16GB drive was re-listed and is currently for sale by auction or buy it now. We say to arkadzik – be sure your sins will find you out!

Seller pangoal, an eBay member since 10-Dec-08 in China, has listed a “16GB” USB flash drive using exactly the same pictures as well known and fully documented fraudsters such as wusimz. This seller is probably part of the well known fraud ring operating in Hong Kong China. Many of the ID’s used by this ring of fraudsters are presently de-registered from eBay. They register new ID’s and start again, then when things cool down they start listing under the old ID’s once much of the evidence of their fraudulent activities is no longer visible.
The pictures used by pangoal clearly show a 2GB Kingston not a 16 GB one and can be seen by entering wusimz in the search box even if this seller’s listings suddenly disappear, as they are exactly the same.
The question fightflashfraud would like an answer to is this:
How long is eBay going to allow such obvious fraud to continue?
Those who have been trying to combat the sale of fake flash devices for months need your help if you see a listing like this one from pangoal please question the seller and comment about the reply you get. Please also report the item to eBay immediately. If enough people join in we may eventually be able to make eBay a safe place to shop – eBay obviously isn’t going to do it!

When fraudsters make packaging for their fake Sony memory they tend to make mistakes like putting G instead of GB on the packaging for USB flash drives – such as in the picture below.

Another clue that the flash drive pictured is a fake is the fact that Sony have never made 32GB, 64GB or higher capacity drive like this! Always check Sony’s website to see whether the item you are interested in even exists before considering a purchase.
You can simply place your cursor over this link to a Youtube video and click the play button in the little window to see this video by an ebayer talking about some tell tale signs on the packaging of a 4GB Sony Pro Duo memory stick.

The problem of fake flash usb pendrives on eBay is an epidemic – often referred to as a plague. It kills data. Sold by unscrupulous ebay sellers these false capacity drives have caused so much harm to eBay members. It’s not just about money. It is the files – gone forever!
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Did some idiot tell you your lovely new flash drive is a fake but you know it isn’t because the operating system tells you it is exactly the advertised size? Not only that but you put some files on it and it works?
You just bought a shiny new 16GB flash drive on Ebay or elsewhere on the Internet, waited with anticipation for it to arrive – and when you stuck it in the computer and looked at the properties this is what you saw:

The only thing the properties box shows is what the operating system “thinks” the size is. This is not the same thing as showing the TRUE capacity of a drive!
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