UK ebay seller damtech2 seems to be a slippery customer.

In the picture above we see how the listing for item number 220434861463 looked yesterday. An ebay member thought it looked a bit too cheap to be genuine and sent the seller a question suggesting that he check with Kingston to be sure they were genuine. The ebayer got no response from damtech 2 and when we looked at the listing for this item today this is what we saw:

Now why do you think the listing changed overnight?? We won’t bother saying what we think… I am sure you can guess! let’s have a closer look at the seller’s picture in the revised listing:

Hmm – we think the revised picture is very interesting indeed – what do you think? Would you trust “trusted UK seller” damtech2??

In the listing damtech tries to reassure us about the low price of the item:
Try one of our high capacity USB flash drives. We are able to provide these at a much reduced cost as we carry our own stock and purchase directly from the manufacturer cutting out the middle man.

Hmm – surely he means direct from a fraudulent wholesaler doesn’t he?? – after all the listing was originally for a Kingston flash drive!

Kingston flash drives like the one shown in the listing originally all have individual serial numbers and can easily be verified with a phone call.

If the seller had contacted Kingston (as the ebayer who contact damtech2 suggested) and they were genuine would he have changed his listing?

We had a look at the seller’s refund policy:

All returns will be accepted within 14 days no questions asked, the item must still be in the same condition as it was delivered still in the original packaging and seal not broken. If a return is made after the 14 day period a restocking fee of 15% will apply. Buyer is responsible for costs associted with returning the product. In the unlikly event there is a fault with the product, please contact the seller to arrange the return. All returned goods are checked for operation and refunds / exchanges are only granted if the item is found to be inoperable after the examination. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE REFUNDS OR EXCHANGES MADE WITHOUT THE SAFE RETURN OF THE ORIGINAL ITEM.

So what do we make of this? Easy – if you send the drive back with the packaging intact you will not get a refund. Why? Because the drive is not inoperable – it will only become inoperable once you have saved enough files to exceed the true capacity – and you can’t do this without opening the package!

UK seller lists obvious fake 32GB Kingston flash drives

We thought you might be interested in the body of this listing for fake 32GB Kingston flash drives. Here (in an attempt to instil confidence) UK seller rameses2008 tells you that you can verify the drive with Kingston – and indeed you can! Guess what? Kingston will verify it is a fake!! There are no Genuine 32GB Kingston drives that look like this – only 2GB ones. Buyers – test all flash memory items with h2testw!

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

UK seller disposes of fake 32GB Kingston on ebay

This listing has the following wording:

YOU ARE BIDDING ON A 32GB HACKED MEMORY STICK WITH ONLY 4GB REAL MEMORY
BOUGHT IT IN WHOLESALE AND INSTEAD OF THE REAL 32GB IT ONLY CAME WITH 4GB
THAT MEANS IT SHOWS 32GB BUT CAN ONLY HOLD 4GB
I HAVE ONLY TESTED ONE OF THEM AND THAT CAN HOLD UP TO 4GB!
SO I AM SELLING THEM OFF FOR A LOSS SINCE THE SELLER ONLY GAVE ME A PARTIAL REFUND, HENCE THE PRICE
WILL SELL THE WHOLE LOT FOR £40 CONTACT ME IF INTRESTED
NO REUTRNS WILL BE ACCEPTED
HAPPY BIDDING

Unfortunately even if buyers of these can rescue these USB flash drives they are likely to end up with a poor quality and unreliable drive that cannot be trusted with important files. Sad as it is for a seller to find they have a bunch of fakes on their hands we don’t think they should be sold on even where the fact that they are fake capacity is clearly stated. Most computer users will not have the knowledge to make them useable and will therefore eventually end up losing files.

Please sellers – just take it on the chin if you find yourself with fakes – it is your responsibility to do your research properly before buying things to sell on ebay!

Price of 16GB flash drive on ebay too low for it to be genuine

Here we have another example of a flash drive listed with a buy it now price too low for the drive to be genuine. Seller xruifang could not make a profit selling genuine 16GB flash drives at this price. We therefore conclude that these are fake capacity flash drives that will cause users’ files to be lost or corrupt once the true capacity (likely to be 2GB or less) is exceeded. If you bought one of these test it with h2testw.

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

An ebay member in Belgium re-sells fakes from known fraudsters

Seller djsmokey74, registered in Belgium bought fake flash drives from a number of well known fraudsters, many of whom are currently suspended from ebay. It looks as though this ebayer has already sold on 9 fakes bought from known fraudsters.

Not a single buyer left a negative about their fake capacity flash drive. However someone noticed as ebay removed six of the listings, thus burying the evidence of this seller’s activities!The seller bought fakes from known fraudsters appolly, zhangfengping8888, disubs, barrylamshop and jinyu_zheng.

The one shown in this listing appears to have been purchased from appolly. Looks as though djsmokey74 made a tidy little profit (unless the buyers realised later and claimed refunds) as he sold at around double the price paid for several of the drives. If you bought a flash drive from this seller you will begin to lose files if you use it. Test it immediately with h2testw – you will find your drive holds nowhere near 16GB!

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