Archive for the ‘Flash Device Education’ Category
Upcoming article about Internet fraud for Which? magazine
A freelance journalist has contacted us because he is planning to write an article about fraud on the Internet for Which? magazine. He is writing it from a consumer perspective and is interested in hearing from victims of fake flash fraud.
If anyone would like to speak to him about their experience, please leave a comment on this post and we will pass your email address on to him – we have not made his email address public and we will not make yours public either!
A Visual Example – Guide Made Easy: Proving A Fake USB Flash Memory Pen Drive Stick Pen To Be False Capacity
A Fake usb flash drive, is a memory pen stick that has been digitally altered – reprogrammed to lie to an operating system about the real size of it’s flash nand storage chip. Once you exceed true capacity of the chip, you begin to loose files. People do not suspect the real reason, thinking it an error in the data transfer. Only when it happens again and again do they suspect there is something more… How can you find out if you have a fake usb flash drive?
MP Players eBay – Cheap Bargains or Fabulous Fraud and Profit? SOSFakeFlash Education Week
Is eBay the place to buy MP Players cheap? Can you get a 8GB or 16GB or 32GB Player on eBay for less that $40 or $50 US? SOSFakeFlash is launching an education week for consumers. Recently they launched an general education week on fake and counterfeit memory devices sold on eBay: SOSFakeFlash Consumer Education Week 20090605 – 20090612. The Problem of Counterfeit and Fake Memory Sold On Ebay
This time they will be show casing sellers who sold false capacity MP Players. Too many buyers fall for seller claims that the units are defective. Most never learn the truth, these items have had their flash chips manipulated to report a size much larger that the chips can support. SOSFakeFlash is inviting buyers to learn more and leave comments on their experiences.
Visit this site during the next week for an eye opening education!
http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/
The information is useful, not only to people who buy on eBay but any where on the internet for MP Players. Become a smart consumer!
Kingston Technologies WebSite Feature To Verify Capacity Offered By Product Line
Kingston Technologies has introduced a wonderful new feature for searching their consumer usb flash drive products. You can select the capacity and see which product lines offer the desired capacity. It is a great search consulting tool and part of Kingston’s effort to combat those who would like to sell cheap imitations (counterfeits) of their products or try to super boost older models to report false capacity to operating systems.
Almost all major brand names are currently under attack from counterfeiters and re-programmers. Two companies, Kingston and Sony are fighting back. Kingston is applying additional effort to aid consumers world wide. They have a serial verification site and now have improved their search feature to show what are the capacity sizes they manufactured for a particular product line.
If you wish to purchase a Kingston usb flash drive on the internet you should always visit a Kingston website to verify they really make the product in the capacity being advertised to you by a seller. Your first step to being a smart and well informed consumer. If you don’t see the capacity offered by Kingston, you can be 100% sure that it is a counterfeit which will report a false capacity.
Such flash drives are very dangerous to use as digitally altered flash drives lead to data loss – eventually ALL FILES are lost or corrupted. To check what is currently available from Kingston see:
http://www.kingston.com/flash/DataTravelers_consumer.asp
If you are a potential reseller stay away from importing any drives like the ones below from Chinese wholesale suppliers!!
They were never make by Kingston. You can not purchase 64GB USB flash drives wholesale (even generic ones, let alone a brand name) at the price shown above. There is no such thing as “Upgrading” a usb flash drive, as suggested in the advert above.
You can not make a 2GB flash memory chip magically grow to 4GB, 8GB 16GB or more with some sort of software upgrade. Translated UPGRADE means “trick the operating system” into believing the usb flash drive can hold more data than it can actually hold.
If you see any USB flash drives with a shiny little sticker for size like the one on the left or the green and yellow “quality control” sticker shown in both pictures, then you are looking at a fake.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS:
Kingston does not use sticky labels to indicate the size of USB flash drives.
Kingston produce quality USB flash drives and are not so miserly as to cut corners with a sticker for the size.
If you wish to be safe consult: http://www.kingston.com/wheretobuy/Regions.asp and find a retailer near you. These are difficult times, support your local sellers and help your own country’s economy.
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.
UPDATE 11/02/2010
Sadly for consumers the counterfeiters in China quickly replicated the casing of the DT200 flash drive and put inferior memory chips (of various capacities up to 4GB) inside and programmed the control chips to display higher capacities. Currently the DT200 is one of the most regularly sold counterfeit (and fake capacity) flash drives sold on ebay. For a look at a fake DT 200 see this article on Nandium’s blog.
SOSFakeFlash Consumer Education Week 20090605 – 20090612. The Problem of Counterfeit and Fake Memory Sold On Ebay
SOSFakeFlash published a series of articles to educate consumers on the problem of fake mp players, usb flash drives and memory sticks sold on ebay during the week of June 5th 2009 to June 12th 2009. It includes information collected by the FrankenFlash Project over a 13th month period. The objective was to increase global awareness about the problem of false capacity devices being sold on eBay and to assist members to avoid buying false capacity items. These devises can be dangerous to files as they will be lost the moment the true capacity of the flash drive chips is exceeded.
Consumers will fall prey to fake flash sellers, not only in the Orient but any country if they make a dangerous mistake. Not understanding the true costs of nand flash drive chips. Many assume that the reason for the low prices on eBay is the result of cutting out the “Middle Man”. Anyone who follows this line of reasoning is in for a very unpleasant surprise. The FrankenFlash project after many months of research reveals the truth in the hope that people will avoid becoming victims in the future. The old saying “You get what you pay for” is stinging!
Published:
Additional Reading:
- eBay Fake Flash Sellers List – 20090603 – Fake MP Players, Memory Sticks and Memory Cards Revealed
- Unpaid Item Strike eBay – What To Do When A Fake Flash Seller Gets Vindictive
- PayPal Orders You To Return Fake MP Players, Fake MP Players , Fake USB Flash Drives, Fake Memory Cards To Get A Refund? Think Again!
- PayPal How Long Do You Have To Claim For A Refund In Disputes? A Guide About PayPal From eBayer’s Experiences.
FAKE 16GB 32GB 64GB – Conversations Between A Fake Flash Seller and A Victim – The Truth About the Scam Exposed
Why are fake usb pen sticks, MP players and memory cards sold on eBay? The false capacity ranging from 2GB 4GB 8GB 16GB 32GB 60GB 64GB 120GB 240GB 260GB 360GB to 500GB sizes.
One size is advertised but the true size is much smaller! You buy a 16GB MP player but only get 2GB or 4GB of storage. You buy a 16GB usb flash drive and get 1GB or 2GB of storage, maybe 4GB if you are lucky. You buy a 16GB memory card and only get 2GB or 4GB. When it comes to usb flash drives and memory cards, the digital alteration of the controller flash chip is deadly – you lose your data! Do the ebay sellers know what they are doing? Is there a reason?
Recently SOSFakeFlash asked for stories, experiences. We received one, an explicit conversation between a fake flash seller and a buyer victim. It dates to the summer of 2008 and nothing since has changed. It is published exactly as received. It might be long but if you want answers start reading!
Presented by Dave:
Hi,
My names Dave and I only recently came across your site – I think it’s great and these people need to be stopped. A long while ago I had a problem with a cheap MP4 player and began talking to the seller on Skype, the conversation became very interesting! I’ll let you read!! :
I will say that it is very long, so you don’t have to read all of it, but if you have the time, you can. If not the middle bit is interesing. I might have gotten a bit harsh at times, but they were harsh to me in first place!
