Flashchiptutor’s Flash Drive Facts

Consumer Awareness – MP Players – USB Flash Drives – Memory Cards – Flash Drive Education

Report A Fake

To report fake – false capacity memory for mp players, memory cards or usb flash drives purchased on eBay:   Report Fake Flash Memory – eBay

6 Responses to “Report A Fake”

  1. Richard Grimmel said

    April 14, 2009 at 5:50 am

    Fake sold on ebay france:

    http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200330993146&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:DE:1123

    Thank you for your site!

    Reply

  2. Marc Berman said

    April 27, 2009 at 5:22 am

    I find this article very interesting and I am sure there are many many fakes out there in the market. Have I just been lucky? I have purchased now a total of 5 x 16 GB USB drives from 5 different sellers on ebay (all asian). I have paid between $ 9.50 – $ 16.00. I have tested all the drives thoroughly and have no doubt they are of genuine 16 GB capacity. If the wholseale prices mentioned in this article are true, somebody is taking a big loss somewhere.

    Reply

    • FlashChipTutor said

      April 27, 2009 at 9:57 am

      Hi Marc,

      What kind of “tests” did you perform? Did you test with a software like H2testw 1.4? That one will write out 1GB files to the stated capacity, read them and then verify them. It is the acid test.

      The prices come from wholesalers in the orient. A lot can depend on the grade of chip, A, B or C and D. The prices were for grade A. We’ve got an article that explains chip grading.

      You can also find out more about your usb flash drives generally without taking them apart by using the information in the article “About VID PID Repairing Counterfeit Flash Drives – Steps To Succeed” available at the http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/ site.

      It would be interesting to see the controller chips reported and the testing results.

      To come up with a 16GB flash drive, it does not mean you have a 16GB flash drive chip inside. It can mean you have 2 x 8GB or in some cases 4 x 4GB chips that work together under the controller chip.

      It’s hard to say at the moment if you did get a bargain and someone took a loss or if you really have 16GB. At the prices you mentioned it is not possible to have a 16GB chip in the drives unless someone is willing to take a serious loss.

      Reply

      • Marc Berman said

        April 28, 2009 at 12:36 am

        Hi again,

        I did test with H2testw 1.4, I also managed to load 15.8GB of data on to the drives.

        As all the drives were in good working order and tested, I did not bother to take them apart. If Indeed they contain 2×8GB chips or indeed 4×4GB chips, as long as the performance is not compromised, I do not see this as being a problem.

        A good friend was unfortunate enough recently to purchase a fake 32GB Kingston data Traveller. The chip was only 2GB but the quality of the casing, printing and the packaging was very authentic looking. I do agree you need to be careful when purchasing but at the same time, it is not fair to stereotype all the sellers on ebay, check the feedback both positive and negative. $15 seems to be todays market price for a genuine 16GB drive.

  3. FlashChipTutor said

    May 1, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    To Marc

    I’ve contacted SOSFakeFlash and mentioned your comment. One of the things you say is to check feedback. If you see their site you will learn that a lot of exhortion is used by sellers demanding people to change their feedback if they want a refund. Looking at feedback is helpful. If a person bought from a powerseller it is difficult to see the negatives as they have so many listings. I’ve tried and it is a lot of work.

    SOSfakeflash said that postive feedback means little. It is the negative feedback that counts. I’ve never seen a real 16GB for sale locally or even on the internet by discount sellers you can trust. Newegg is a site that offers heavy discounts, see

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2013240522%201309425474&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&Order=PRICE

    I asked sosfakeflash if they could check their database for you, to pfind prices people paid on ebay for 16GB flash drives that turned out to be fake. They said that right now they are very busy, but the request will be considered soon.

    I told them about “stereotyping” ebay sellers. They asked for sellers who sold genuine usb flash drives but got little information,only three sellers ebayers ever recommended. To me that is pretty bad. You would think people would let them know about real sellers.

    Did you look at their list of sellers on ebay that sold fakes? Or looked at their reports?

    If they send me information 16GB flash drives, I will be happy to publish it.

    Marc if you know of any ebay seller who offers 16GB usb flash drives at $15 dollars that are genuine real capacity, please let me know, so I can post here and send to sosfakeflash.

    Reply

  4. Nancy said

    May 4, 2009 at 4:59 pm

    Marc where did you buy your flash drives from? 16gb at $15 is a great price.

    Reply

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