Fighting flash fraud on Ebay

If these 4GB USB pen drives listed in ebay auctions with a start price of 99p by usbislanduk we don’t understand how this seller can afford to keep selling them at auction as it looks as though the seller will be making a loss overall.

This makes us wonder if usbislanduk bought from a fraudulent supplier – if so these will corrupt users’ files after a while. We suggest this seller tests flash memory items with h2testw to ensure they are genuinely the capacity claimed by the supplier.

We advise everyone who buys flash memory items to test them with the free program h2testw irrespective of where they were purchased – otherwise you run the risk of data loss and corruption.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if testing confirms you have purchased fake capacity flash memory on ebay.

It seems the ebay ID nba189 belongs to one of our fraudster friends in China. This ID was prepared well in advance – the ID was registered in September 2008, but this little gremlin was only activated recently.

The flash drive shown below will have a capacity much smaller than the advertised 16GB. Read the rest of this entry »

These 64GB flash drives from chunyuan-quintessence-collection are counterfeits. Real ones cost more than this to manufacture. They are also fake capacity and will trash your files after a while if you use one.

We advise everyone who buys flash memory items to test them with the free program h2testw irrespective of where they were purchased – otherwise you run the risk of data loss and corruption.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if testing confirms you have purchased fake capacity flash memory on ebay.

The flash drive in this listing by xiajin1977 is the fraudsters’ favourite flash drive, sold by almost every ebay fraudster in China.

It is guarenteed to trash your data after a while.

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.

This listing by mamaseller2009 (registered in China) demonstates just how insane fraudsters can get in attempting to get foothold on ebay with their fake flash sales. Read the rest of this entry »

Every flash drive we have come across with a shiny sticker showing the capacity like these from seller mexoner685653 has proved to be fake capacity. Fake capacity drives trash your files. Although this seller seems to be registered in Canada we suspect that this listing is not from a native Canadian – it has the hallmarks of Chinese fraud gangs.

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.

This flash drive listed by bobo1986200988 on ebay is certain to be fake capacity. It will lead to anyone who bought one ending up with lost and corrupted files. The ID bobo1986200988 no doubt belongs to one of the well known fraud gangs in China who simply switch to new ID’s each time an existing one gets suspended for fraud.

We would like to know why, when ebayers in other countries have to jump through all sorts of identification hoops to register as sellers (and information we have indicates that ebay can monitor activity from particular IP addresses) ebay continues to allow fraudsters in China to set up new seller ID’s so easily.

We advise everyone who buys flash memory items to test them with the free program h2testw irrespective of where they were purchased – otherwise you run the risk of data loss and corruption.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have purchased a false capacity device on ebay.

These 512GB USB flash drives listed by Hong Kong based seller kwh352 are bound to be fake. Read the rest of this entry »

UK ebayer dannythesinger sold only one of these fakes with the listing above but has several more buy it now listings for them. They will have a capacity a great deal less than the advertised 32GB which will lead to file loss and data corruption for anyone using them. Seller dannythesinger may be totally unaware of this.

We advise everyone who buys flash memory items to test them with the free program h2testw irrespective of where they were purchased – otherwise you run the risk of data loss and corruption.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if testing confirms you have purchased fake capacity flash memory on ebay.

This 64GB USB flash drive from brooklyn-deal is bound to be fake capacity. We have never come across one that was genuine and anyone using these ends up with lost and corrupted files after a while. The seller obviously bought these from one of the many fraudulent wholesalers supplying these and may have no idea that they are fakes.

We advise everyone who buys flash memory items to test them with the free program h2testw irrespective of where they were purchased – otherwise you run the risk of data loss and corruption.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have purchased a false capacity device on ebay.

So what do we think about this ebay listing for a 64GB Kingston DataTraveler 150 flash drive from UK seller sparkman898? I think this picture says it all:

Unless you regularly see squadrons of flying pigs traversing the skies above your house you would do well to avoid buying flash drives on ebay – especially at prices far below the cost of manufacture (as in this case) – all you will get is a fake that will trash your files!

Given the recent rise in the cost of flash memory chips you are unlikely to even find a genuine 16B flash drive at this price on ebay, let alone anything of higher capacity.

We advise everyone who buys flash memory items to test them with the free program h2testw irrespective of where they were purchased – otherwise you run the risk of data loss and corruption.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have purchased a false capacity device on ebay.

If the 128GB Kingston DataTraveler 200 flash drives listed by stevenwebster2009 are genuine the seller is risking making a big loss by auctioning them. Buyers should check serial numbers with Kingston to make sure.

We advise everyone who buys flash memory items to test them with the free program h2testw irrespective of where they were purchased – otherwise you run the risk of data loss and corruption.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have purchased a false capacity device on ebay.

We think we may have identified a Singapore based fraud gang operating on ebay. Our observation suggests that xiao.zhu.zhu is a member of the same fraud ring as de-registered sellers super.fast.2009 and fast.shipping.2009. Posts over the next couple of weeks will probably feature a few other suspected members of the singjapan gang. Read the rest of this entry »

Flash memory items from UK seller 3296johns seem rather on the cheap side to us which makes us wonder if they are genuine. 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.

The supposededly 64GB Kingston DataTraveler flash drives listed by UK seller moashar078 are no such thing! They are fake fake fakity fake!! In the short time since registering on ebay (22nd March 2009) seller moashar078 earned a neg for selling fake Sony (less than a month after the ID was regisered!) and has since bought fake flash items from a number of known fraudsters.

This leads us to think that this is deliberate fraud rather than moashar078 being the innocent victim of a fraudulent supplier. We have little doubt that ebay will be forced to remove listing number 320424391335 from this seller as a result of pressure from Kingston.

We wonder if there is a connection between moashar078 and ashjaan143 who has listed the same item at the same price. We expect that item number 320424387809 from ashjaan143 will also vanish from ebay soon.

As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.

In the case of these drives there is no need to waste time testing the whole drive – a test of the first 6GB should be more than enough to demonstrate they are fake capacity and a quick phone call to Kingston will be enough to confirm that no 64GB drives of this model were ever made.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.

We suspect that these 16GB SD memory cards and the 16GB media players listed by crystalpalace1987 will turn out to be fake capacity. We are fairly sure this is yet another gremlin ID set up by fraud gangs in China to con ebayers out of their money.

Their customers will (we think) end up with lost or corrupted data unless they are wise enough to test their purchases properly.

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.

Either the 8GB flash drives sold by kitkit85, a seller registered in Malaysia are a snip at this price or they are dangerous fakes that will cause file loss and corruption.

Without one of the team buying one we can’t tell for sure until buyers report in.That said we do find the packaging a bit suspect.

Genuine Sandisk flash drives usually come in sealed packaging that is destroyed by opening it.

This looks like the pop-open packaging commonly used by fraudsters to us. Also we wonder why the capacity of the drive on the packaging has been airbrushed out.

If you bought one of these from kitkit85 test the available space with h2testw.

You won’t be able to test the whole drive capacity if U3 is present as claimed because this and the file management system take up some of the space. However, if it is genuine the test will run without any errors and you can simply delete the test files.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.

Are these memory cards sold by UK seller ijtdirectltd fake? Feedback for this UK seller seems to indicate that they may be. As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if testing shows you have a false capacity device.

The listings on ebay for USB flash drives from berrysenior09 look berry, berry suspect! We think we have an ebay gremlin here:

We do not think any of the 16GB flash drives sold by Hong Kong based seller berrysenior09 will turn out to have a real capacity of 16GB. 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.

Canadian seller david2008y seems to have bought flash drives from one of the many fraudulent wholesalers in the orient who sell fake capacity and counterfeit memory items.

We think the flash drives being sold by this ebay member will prove to be fake capacity (probably 2GB flash drives programmed to appear to be 16GB when you look at the properties) – the seller may be entirely unaware that these are likely to be fake capacity.

Please folks – if you plan to sell flash memory (USB flash drives/pens, memory cards/sticks or MP players) on ebay do your research first! You cannot buy genuine 16GB items at prices which allow you to sell at this price!! You will be selling fakes which eventually cause your buyers to find their files are lost/corrupted.

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.

The use of private auctions by seller jk_holdings makes us think these DataTraveler flash drives may be counterfeit and fake capacity. 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 think iam_abookworm is a deliberate fraudster with some computer knowledge who knows how to get around automated fraud detection systems. We think that it would be closer to the truth if the seller took “book” out of the ID!

It seems that iam_abookworm didn’t reckon with the real people in the frankenflash project who detect fraud (rather than computer systems most companies rely on!) – we have little doubt that if buyers check serial numbers with Kingston that they will say the cannot verify the drive as genuine.

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.

The flash drive show here is the fraudsters favourite! Why? It is easy to re-program to any fake capacity the fraudsters like – take your pick! Would you like a 4GB fake? Perhaps you’d prefer an 8GB or 16GB fake? If you really want to lose a lot of data our friends in Hong Kong can even reprogram these to 64GB or higher so that you can lose as many files as you like!

This seller also offers the journalist’s dream item:

If the journos in the frankenflash project didn’t think these were fake they would be rushing to buy one from elaishop at this price!!

If you bought a flash memory item from elaishop and ran into problems with it do not beleive any guff about it being faulty! This is deliberate fraud – test your drive with the free program h2testw, report in to sosfakeflash, file a claim with paypal and report the seller to ebay – link to h2testw download page (free program from German computer magazine) is provided on our article about the program

Please report in to sosfakeflash with all the information requested in this article – don’t leave it on the site – send it to the email address – then it can go into our fake flash database so that an alert can be issued on the Internet.

UK ebay member bits.bobs73_123 lists a lot of Kingston flash memory items for sale at auction – over 400 have been sold. We don’t see how this seller can be making a profit at the prices that most seem to sell at if they are geninunely the capacity advertised. It could be that this ebay member has bought counterfeits from a fraudulent wholesaler.

So far the only negative comment has been from a buyer who didn’t receive the item, but this could simply mean that buyers are not testing their items. 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.

Seller pccomp2009 says in the listing:

BRAND NEW & SEALED – DONT BE FOOLED BY CHEAP FAKES!
Here you are bidding on a brand new and sealed Kingston Data Traveler 150 64GB USB Flash Drive. This is a genuine Kingston product so you are guaranteed to get you full 64GB’s worth!

Do we think this is true? No we don’t – we think the seller is fooling people with cheap fakes! Funnily enough pccomp2009 has used the exact wording previously used by dan-software in listings. Dan software and pccomp2009 have something else in common – ending a listing early to sell for less than we think you’d pay for these wholesale if they were genuine.

We expect that pccomp2009 will soon have another thing in common with dan-software -deregistration from ebay for selling counterfeit Kingston flash drives! Maybe pccomp2009 IS dan-software with a new ID? We trust the buyer will check the serial number with Kingston – we would fall of our chairs with shock if they said it was a genuine drive!

Buyers can check the real capacity with the free program h2testw.The computer’s operating system will only show what the control chip has been programmed to tell the computer – never beleive what you see!

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.

Given that the price of this flash drive direct from sandisk is £17.99 we don’t see how anyone could obtain them cheaply enough to sell at this price if they were genuine. We suspect that ebay seller novilive bought these from a fraudulent wholesaler supplying counterfeits. The seller may be unaware of this. A number of sellers seem to offering these at similarly low prices. If you bought a Sandisk Cruzer drive on ebay for a low price there is a good chance it is counterfeit and fake capacity.

You can check the true capacity of flash memory items with the free program h2testw. Fake capacity items look as though they have the capacity stated when you look at them in the operating system due to fraudulent programming so never trust what the operating system says. Test your flash memory items before you save anything to them – you are at risk of file loss and corruption if you have a fake.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.

We suspect that tof3k has been shopping in fake flash land as the buy it now price seems too cheap for this flash drive to be genuine. 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.

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:

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.

We suspect that this 64GB flash drive listed on ebay Italy by seller poerhrt will (like almost all the flash drives sold from China) will be fake capacity and cause file loss and data corruption. 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.

UK ebay member damtowers seems to have acquired a very mixed bag of flash drives somewhere (car boot sale perhaps?) a few of which are shown above. These are being auctioned off on ebay – looks as though some may be genuine but others seem to be fake. As usual we strongly advise ebayers to test all flash memory with the free program h2testw.

UK ebay seller pinkauctioneers has a feedback score of minus 1 and has not bought or sold on ebay for the last year. Whilst we wonder what this ebayer did to end up with a negative score the thing that made us suspect this is a counterfeit is the low buy it now price. Nobody could possibly sell a genuine one at this price so we conclude that it is bound to be a fake. A test with the free program h2testw will no doubt show that we are correct in our thoughts about this item.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.

UK ebay seller ryder705 has listed 20 64GB Kingston DataTraveler 150 flash drives for sale. We cannot tell from the very small picture whether they are counterfeit or genuine but we think they may be counterfeit as almost half of them are listed at auction with a start price below the wholesale cost. Either the seller is willing to take a big gamble by risking buyers winning them at less than cost or they are counterfeits purchased from a fraudulent wholsaler. If you bought one of these you can check whether they are counterfeit by contacting Kingston – genuine ones have individual serial numbers. The program h2testw can be used to determine the true capacity of flash drives.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.

Il venditore digitalsmile65 sta offrendo questo azionamento falso dell’istantaneo di capienza sull’Italia ebay. Il venditore non può conoscere questo ma questo oltrepassa l’azionamento istantaneo non è fatto nella capienza 32GB. Quello indicato qui sembra essere un modello 2GB. Forse qualcuno dovrebbe suggerire le prove del venditore questi con h2testw per scoprire la capienza allineare.

Segnali dentro a sosfakeflash se le vostre esposizioni di prova voi hanno un dispositivo falso di capienza.

UK ebayer streetfiction (feedback score: 1) has listed “faulty” 64GB flash drives on ebay. We do not think they are faulty we think they are fake capacity.

Here is what the seller says:

These USB’s are sold as faulty, some do not like being formatted;
I don’t know what the problem is but when I formatted one it gave me all kinds of problems..
If you just want to store info AND TREAT IT AS A UNWRITABLE DISK it is fine, but if you try and format it, you MAY have a problem.
I am not taking returns, or bad feed back for this item, so I am starting with no reserve.
THIS MEANS; NO ITEM NOT AS DESCRIBED TO PAYPAL.
THIS MEANS; NO NEGATIVE FEED BACK.
IF YOU DON’T WANT TO TAKE THE RISK DO NOT BID.

Buyers will be taking a very large risk! What is the real capacity of these drives? 16GB? 8GB? 4GB? 2GB? 1GB? Less than 1GB? The seller is listing these at auction with a start price of 99p but an enormous postal charge of £9.49! As you can get a real 16GB for about £22 real 8GB drives for £15 or less, a real 4GB for under £10, 4GB for around £7.50, 2GB at around £5 and 1GB for £4 or less (including postage) we don’t think risking a punt on a flash drive of an unknown capacity that you might not even be able to fix is worthwhile!

A seller registered in China tried to fool ebayers that fake 16GB flash drives being sold were located in Ireland. This is one of the little tricks used by fraudsters to lull ebay buyers into a false sense of security – make it look as though the item is in a “safe” country. There is no safe country!! Only the very few safe sellers we have found – you can see the tiny list on sosfakeflash.

Ebay has now removed listings for the fakes sold by sfrankish5872 – so they are obviously aware the drives were fake. Unfortunately this means that buyers are left somewhat in the lurch as they cannot access the item they bought. If you bought a flash drive from sfrankish5872 test it immediately with h2testw.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash If your testing confirms you have a false capacity device. The information provided by buyers about fake capacity devices is stored in a database. Ebay and Paypal are aware of this and it is one of the things that forces them to act against sellers. If a seller is in the database it helps buyers get refunds.

Read the refund advice given on sosfakeflash then pursue a refund through paypal. Do not give up – paypal often puts obstacles in your way – the advice on sosfakeflash will help you overcome these.

Le vendeur monemail-3000, enregistré sur la France ebay vend cette commande 32GB. Nous pensons qu’elle pourrait être fausse – habituellement ceux avec de petits autocollants brillants est capacité fausse. Le vendeur peut ne pas savoir.

Peut-être quelqu’un pourrait demander à monemail-3000 pour l’examiner avec h2testw.

Rapportez dedans à SOSFakeFlash si votre essai vous confirme ont un dispositif faux de capacité.

Just exactly what is ebay member okik_2005 selling in this listing seen on ebay Canada?? The picture shows a 16GB Kingston flash drive (there is no 32GB in this particular model) – the wording in the listing states:

Please note photo indicated the appearance of the USB Only. Never been used.
Features/Specifications:

Capacities – 32GB green
Dimension – 2.30 x 0.93 x 0.35v*38mmx23.6mmx9.9mm)
Operating Temperatures 0 to 60c / 32 to 140 F
Convenient -pocket sized for easy transportability
Simple -Just plug into a USB Port
Practical – no cap to lose, USB connector protected within case
Fashionable – Available in multiple colors by capacity

So – is the flash drive’s colour code dark red or is it green? – green means 2GB not 32GB!
Does it have a cap as shown in the picture or is it retractable as suggested in the description?
Just what exactly is on sale here? One thing is for sure – I wouldn’t bid on this!

If you bought this item you should test immediately with h2testw to find out what you really got.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.

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WordPress is currently engaging in testing new statistic improvements – enhancements for you, the reader! We apologize for the inconvenience. Please use the search box on key words to find information if necessary. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

A 64GB  Kingston USB USB flash drive has been listed by planetmeublesdiscount, an ebayer in France. The price is suspiciously low and we think this is yet another ebay seller who may have fallen foul of  fraudulent Chinese wholesalers. Ebayers in France – please alert this seller that the item is likely to be fake. The ebay member may have bought these without realising they were likely to be fake.

This picture in a listing by Hong Kong based seller ceo1shop for an 8GB flash drive looks very dodgy – we strongly suspect it is fake. The packaging shown is commonly used for fakes and the image seems to have been tampered with! If you bought one you should test immediately with h2testw.

Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.

A flash drive model sold by fraudster pigpingxian as 8GB, which is not yet shown elsewhere, has been reported as a fake capacity drive which failed testing with h2testw. The buyer reported in with test results and full details of the purchase to fightflashfraud. The picture used by the seller and a screenshot from the buyer showing the first part of the test results from h2testw are shown below. Fake fake fakity fake! Avoid this seller!

We have been alerted to the possibility that UK ebay seller silverfire_sales may be a fraudster. This seller’s listing says:
*This item is shipped from China, Import Tax may need to be paid*
High capacity 32GB USB flash drive covered in a metal and high quality faux leather casing for safe and easy portability.

With its attractive design, inspired directly from traditional leather knife holders, this little USB flash drive easily fits into your pocket or on a lanyard / keychain, and will carry your valuable digital files around with you wherever you go.

This suggests that silverfire_sales is using dropshipping. Dropshipping is a system in which the seller never actually sees the items they are selling. Items are delivered directly from the supplier – providing ample opporunity for fraudulent wholesalers to land the flack on the person (in this case silverfire_sales) who lists the item for sale on ebay or elsewhere.

An ebayer tried to warn silverfire_sales about this possibility but got a rather rude response. Here is the message the ebayer sent to this seller:

Hi, I guess this is a dropshipping item. Many such items are fakes. If your items (like most flash drives of 8GB and over coming out of China) turn out to be fakes you could end up with a host of angry buyers and a load of negative feedback. I suggest you get your supplier to send you one so that you can check it is genuine. There is a small free program called h2testw you can test flash memory items with quickly and easily. I test all my flash memory with this program and have found it very reliable. All the best,
Helen

Here is the response from silverfire_sales:
Quit sending spam, no one wants your crappy software other than idiots.

Seems like silverfire_sales either didn’t understand the issue or is a deliberate fraudster. We await developments.

If  you are looking  for a particular ebay seller enter the seller ID in the search box in the right hand panel. Please bear in mind that this blog is about suspected fake flash memory – sometimes a seller may not know their item is fake and (very occasionally) we might be wrong. Proven fraudsters will be found on sosfakeflash.

Please read very carefully – we often say that the seller may not be aware of a problem – if so the seller could be a victim too! Careful reading will show why we consider some sellers more suspicous than others. We do not want to persecute honest sellers who fell foul of fraudulent suppliers! Communication with your seller will often reveal fairly quickly whether or not they deliberately sold you a fake.

Many ebayers in the UK have bought fake flash drives from Chinese wholesalers on sites like dhgate.com – one such ebayer realised there was something wrong but (not having any computer knowledge) listed the 10 fakes he bought from a seller on dhgate.com for sale on ebay as follows:

This is an auction for a 10 x 512gb microvault U.S.B flash drives. These items are being sold as faulty, I dont know whats wrong with them you can put stuff on them but cannot play it back? maybe a cheap fix for some one with knowledge?? Properties say they are 500gb each ?i have loaded one with over 8gb and it didnt say it was full? so i dont know what size they are??

We strongly advise ebayers who buy flash drives from any source with a view to re-selling on ebay to bone up on flash drives before buying so that you know what’s really available. Avoid drop-shipping unless you have previously dealt with the supplier and know they are trustworthy. Always check the drives with h2testw before approving payment to sellers on sites like allibaba.com and dhgate.com – and certainly before  listing them for sale on ebay! Better still, avoid these sites altogether.

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.

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

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 »

Since Christmas a number of UK sellers who bought high capacity drives (mainly 64GB) when visiting other countries (mainly China or Japan) or from sites on the Internet have discovered that the drives they listed for sale on ebay were fakes. These victims of flash fraud bought their flash drives in all innocence with a view to re-selling them on the UK ebay site at a profit. Read the rest of this entry »

fightflashfraud confirmed with Kingston that they only supply ONE model of USB flash drive with 64GB capacity and only five at 32GB. Anything other than these which you see advertised ANYWHERE is certainly a fake. you should report it immediately to Kingston and the police. See this page for information about genuine 32GB and 64GB Kingston drives:
http://fightflashfraud.wordpress.com/what-is-a-counterfeit/how-to-tell-whether-a-usb-flash-drive-on-ebay-is-counterfeit/

All those selling flash drives on ebay with listing which keep buyer IDs private at the end of auctions or when an item is sold on buy it now are automatically considered to be suspect sellers by fightflashfraud. SOME SELLERS LISTED UNDER THE SUSPECT CATEGORY MAY ACUALLY BE INNOCENT OF FRAUD
They may have innocently bought counterfeit and/or fake capacity drives from a supplier. Both fightflashfraud and sosfakeflash have come across this situation. However, those who keep buyer IDs private are fairly certain to be guilty. See the page about suspect sellers for more info.