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c2offer Wholesale Site Get Resellers Into Trouble With Flash Memory Fraud Fakes. A Flash Memory Lesson For eBay Sellers. Important Mesage eBay Sellers!

Posted by flashchiptutor on February 26, 2012

Are you a seller importing flash memory from the internet site c2offer? Have you researched your product carefully before negotiating with an c2offer seller? Did you contact the brand names to determine if the c2offer seller is authorized to sell their products? Did you validate some of the inventory purchased from a c2offer seller, the serial numbers with the brand names? Did you test some of the items to ensure the advertised capacity, is the capacity on the flash memory storage chip with H2testw? Where you smart enough not to believe the reported size indicated by an operating system?

If you did not answer “YES” to these questions you are at risk of becoming a fake flash memory importer and reseller. You will get into serious trouble with your buyers and internet sites exposing fake flash memory sellers. You could be reported to local law enforcement, your inventory seized and criminal charges issued against you.

Recently sites in the FrankenFlash project, reviewed some of the listings at c2offer. We are publishing a few of the most obvious fakes here to help you begin your early lessons on detecting fake usb flash memory. Our intention is to give you an opportunity to not become a fake flash seller and avoid internet exposure. Not every reseller sets out to fraud intentionally, some do but not all. The prices being offered at c2offer are tempting, hard to resist, especially if you are economically stressed and are looking for a way to pay your bills and keep food on your table. All are reasons to convince yourself that the items offered are ok. It looks like easy profit, the answer to everything. Is it?

There is a nasty consequence of being deceived by an c2offer flash memory seller. It can lead to a nightmare you will not escape.

Review these items, then review the brand name sites and the usb flash drives they offer or made. What are or were the historical prices charged? Did the brand name make them? Did or does the advertised capacity even exist?

Whenever you have doubts, there is a golden rule:

Contact the brand name. Ask them about the usb flash drive, the model, the capacity, the pricing. Don’t hesitate. They will be eager to tell you and answer your questions.

Brand names are not out there to stop you from becoming a reseller. They don’t mind you carving out a piece of the pie for yourself. It is good for them, you are pushing their product to market.

They don’t want you to be mislead. They want you to understand the true costs and what realistic prices should be. So you can expect them to be helpful. They want to be proactive too, to keep you from acquiring fakes. If you buy fakes, you hurt yourself, you hurt them.

Brand names are not your enemy. Fraudulent sellers at internet wholesale sites are your potential enemy. They are very skilled at what they do.

yuan5588558 c2offer seller is listing Sony 128GB USB 2.0 Flash 128G Thumb Stick Pen Drives for only $5 US.

128GB SONY USB 2

Sony never made this usb flash drive. This metal usb flash drive is one of the most popular fakes sold on eBay for several years. It is sold by sellers in Western countries and also eBay Asia. This flash drive is not only a counterfeit but also fake capacity.

It has been sold in advertised capacity from 8GB to 512GB. Having a flawed usb flash drive controller chip, low level reformatting software can reprogramme it to many different sizes. The chips used in these fakes rarely have an actual capacity of more than 4GB. China has a large inventory of old flash memory chips in low sizes, they are no longer in demand. You will find these low capacity flash memory chips used in fake branded Sony flash drives. Buyers will lose their information as soon as they exceed the real capacity of the flash memory chips.

c2offer qsxcvb2010 seller is listing sony brand new usb flash drive 640gb counterfeits for only $14 US. We documented this fake:

To review the complete catalogue on file with FlashDriveFacts:

These fakes are very old and usually have a very small flash drive capacity. Most do not have more than 512MB storage. Many frauded buyers and seller try to repair them and are very disappointed when the real capacity of the flash memory storage chips are revealed.

We have a very large catalogue of these fakes offered in many sizes. You can find them everywhere in China at Tourist shopping malls. This Sony flash drive fake is a standing joke in the tourist shops. The sellers offer them with pride and wink. The real message?

“There is nothing we can’t fake. These are our famous classics. Any child in China can recognize it, can you?”

c2offer zhoujielun awaits resellers who want to buy DT310 Kingston DataTraveler USB flash drives for a total wholesale cost of only $20 US. There are three kinds of people who buy them:

1) People who know they are fakes and see an interesting profit. You will find many eBay sellers using their less important ids or even special ids created just to list, sell and then close before eBay can catch up with them.

2) People in desperate financial circumstances looking for an easy way out. Their need to get money in a hurry clouds their judgement, their common sense. Sad.

3) People who think everything is cheap. Over confident they think usb flash memory is no different then selling toasters or coffee makers. They are interested in pushing product, product with the best profit potential. They don’t understand what they sell and don’t care. They think they are great sellers, proud of it too. When they get caught or exposed, they make the loudest noise according to SOSFakeFlash. SOSFakeFlash no longer bothers to respond to their threating emails, instead they ignore the sellers, collect and file the emails as additional evidence against them for a court of international law. Do you know why they don’t bother with hot air sellers especially on eBay? When these sellers list DT310 fakes on eBay, eventually eBay turns on them, suspending their ids. eBay stabs these sellers in the back as soon as Kingston Technologies finds out who their are.

Kingston DT310 256GB USB 2

If the reseller is an eBay id, there is only one result. Ending up on SOSFakeFlash’s lists.

eBay Sellers Who Engage In Flash Memory Retail Fraud. SOSFakeFlash Preparing New Lists Of Fraudulent Sellers. Did You Buy Fake Flash Memory On eBay Or An Internet Wholesale Site? Education To Avoid Being Scammed For Flash Memory.

DT300 fakes continue to be found at Chinese wholesale sites. c2offer yuan5588558 seller offers them for $5 US.

NEW KINGSTONE DT200 256GB USB2

DT310/256GB flash drives have been retired by Kingston Technologies. They no longer manufacture them. Can you still buy and import them? c2offer duijiangjuan seller is willing to offer you one,

DT310 256GB USB 2

DT310 256GB USB 2.0 Flash Memory Stick Drive duijiangjuan for only $3 US.

Can you buy 256GB flash memory for this price? The internet site, c2offer will make you belive you can!

Import them, sell them and face the legal consequences of flash memory fraud in your country. Kingston Technologies along with your frauded buyers will prosecute you. If you are reported to SOSFakeFlash for having listed on eBay you can expect to be documented and even have your address and telephone number published. If there is one internet site tired of DT310 fakes, it is SOSFakeFlash. Forget about trying to change your eBay id, this site will find your new id and they will republish. For some sellers they have published a seller more than four times!

The DT310 Kingston DataTraveler counterfeit on eBay has claimed more victims then any other usb flash drive ever sold on eBay. Frauded buyers for DT310 fakes on eBay are the most militant and least sympathetic to sellers. This counterfeit has ruined more eBay seller reputations then any other usb flash drive. FlashDriveFacts recommends you do not buy this model from any internet wholesale site regardless of the price, unless you first contact Kingston Technologies to verify the seller and site is selling a genuine DT310.

FlashDriveFacts has learned that only 2% of sellers on file have had their addressing information published so far by SOSFakeFlash.

Will the remaining 98% be published? SOSFakeFlash refuses to tell us.

The only thing we know is that they reserve the right to publish, whenever they decide the time is right. This is chilling as far as we are concerned. It means they can issue a google map pointing to a sellers location whenever they decide. Mostly SOSFakeFlash targets eBay sellers. Can you blame them? It is a good question. Frauded buyers are the driving force behind SOSFakeFlash. Should they discover a seller purchased their DT310 inventory at $3 US a piece, we would expect buyers to be enraged.

The interview at FakeFlashNews:

eBay China Resumes Flash Memory Fraud With A Vengeance. If You Want A Cheap Bargain For USB Flash Drives, MP Players Or Memory Cards On eBay, Expect To Be Scammed. SanDisk, Memorette, Samsung, Transcend, Kingston Are All Losing Their Quality Reputations Thanks To eBay

is the most candid interview from KittyFireFlash for SOSFakeFlash. It is disturbing and the most revealing so far. We have not seen anything more direct or head on.

Our question is…..

What is the correct response to resellers who buy from sellers like duijiangjuan and who then list DT310 memory sticks for purchased for only $3 US and then resell them on internet sites? A real DT310 that was true 256GB capacity never sold for less than $700 US. It was not possible. It is not simply an issue of counterfeiting a brand name, it was the fact that flash memory capacity at 256GB capacity was very expensive to produce.

We contacted SOSFakeFlash about DT310 prices and about internet listings from Wholesale sites in China. We can’t print what they told us. It would be worse than rude.

%$#@@@@!!!! is the nicest thing they said.

eBay sellers continue to list them. Do not become one. Avoid listing DT310 Kingston usb flash drives purchased on internet sites on eBay. It is too dangerous to you as a seller, to your buyers. Guard your eBay seller reputation. Do not get caught up in this fake flash memory war.

Sellers such as top_banana, rated as a top eBay seller dares to list DT310 usb flash drives as faulty for £10.99.

top banana DT310

If there is one thing FlashDriveFacts will agree on with other FrankenFlash project sites, it is that eBay sellers who sell fake flash memory as faulty are low. Worse than sellers who try to con people with listings stating real capacity for fake DT310 usb flash drives.

eBay seller will try to evade responsibility:

256gb USB Flash Pen Drive
SPARES/REPAIRS ONLY

THIS IS A FLASH DRIVE FROM CHINA

IT DOES SHOW 256GB OF DATA ON YOUR PC BUT I ASSURE YOU ITS NOT

PLEASE NO RETURNS ON THIS

BRAND NEW SEALED

They know they bought fakes.

They will try to trick you into believing you can repair them.

The truth is simple. They know they bought counterfeit and fake DT310 flash drives. Possibly from duijiangjuan on c2offer. They want to get their money back because they will not have the opportunity on c2offer. The objective of eBay top sellers is to make you bid, buy and help them to get their money back. The fact you become a victim of a DT310 fake is of no consequence to them. You, in the opinion of eBay sellers are the ones who should reimburse them for their foolish mistake. You are the ones who should be foolish enough to pay. These eBay sellers expect that you are willing to subsidize their mistake.

top_banana knows they are fakes. If this seller was to be a true top rated seller he would not have endangered buyer data by listing them. He would not have listed. He would have taken legal action against the internet seller in China who sold him the fakes. He would have tried to enlist the support of Kingston Technologies in his legal action. A seller who deserves an “eBay Top Rated” would have destroyed not listed DT310 fakes.

The original purpose of FakeDriveFacts was to publish facts, to archive and catalogue fakes. When we see eBay sellers such as top_banana with a top seller rating daring to sell DT310 fakes to unsuspecting buyers we suddenly understood the passion and determination of sites like SOSFakeFlash. eBay sellers such as top_banana should be suspended and driven off the internet.

We contacted SOSFakeFlash and they confirmed that most buyers can not spot nor understand the cryptic message top_banana put in his listings. They assured us, FrankenFlash Project memory inspectors understood, that eBay would and that Kingston Technologies definitely knows what top_banana is really saying.

Can you buy real genuine flash memory items to resell from c2offer? We seriously doubt it. If you see an attractive offer on c2offer for flash memory, inspect the listing(s) with care. Then begin contacting the brand names to see if the items are genuine capacity. If they confirm the c2offer seller is ok, then you can bid, buy and import to resell. Otherwise, avoid.

Promoting awareness for flash memory on the internet is not an easy thing to do. There is progress but there is still a long way to go.

FlashDriveFact’s catalogue of fakes comes from frauded eBay buyers who submitted reports to SOSFakeFlash using their Report A Fake. They helped us to build our catalogue as an internet reference on flash memory fakes. The objective is to help both frauded buyers and people who are interested in selling flash memory avoid counterfeits and fakes.

We are always on the look out for new items to add. If you have one not listed at our site, please send in all the details and photographs to sosfakeflashdrive@gmail.com.

Lets help both buyers and sellers to be responsible, informed and able to avoid fraud. We have the largest global internet repository for fake flash memory items. We know there are many items not yet in our library. Help it to grow. Fraud will have a harder time.

Posted in Advice, Flash Drive Education | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Changing Trends In The Sale Of Fake Memory On eBay For USB Flash Drives, Memory Cards And MP Players. SOSFakeFlash Advises Do Not Buy From eBay Sellers With Low FeedBack Scores. Avoid Sellers with Scores Under 300+ To Protect Yourself From Potential Fraud. Learn Why.

Posted by flashchiptutor on March 3, 2011

eBay is still the best place to be frauded with false capacity flash memory items. Listing appear daily for obvious fakes and counterfeits. The battle rages. Frauded buyers on one side, eBay and fake flash memory sellers on the other. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Advice, eBay, Flash Drive Education, Wholesale | Tagged: , , | 580 Comments »

Buying MP Players, USB Flash Drives And Memory Cards On eBay During Holiday Season – Warning! You Might Be Giving Fake Flash Memory As A Gift! Data Loss Is Not A Gift! Do Not Buy Sony, Kingston or Sandisk On eBay! The Nightmare Of Holiday Giving For Upgraded Flash Memory. Fake Memory Hurts!

Posted by flashchiptutor on December 7, 2010

SOSFakeFlash is warning buyers to avoid eBay during the holiday season. Too many fraudulent sellers are waiting to sell fake memory products. Buyers are likely to discover their fake memory purchase too late – after the holiday period. They risk loosing out on the 45 day claim window to raise a dispute against a fraudulent seller.

A lot of people are looking for unrealistic bargains as money is still very tight. Buyers look to eBay for bargains. Unfortunately eBay is the last place to find true flash memory capacity, it seems.

According to SOSFakeFlash 95% of all listings for MP Players, memory cards and usb flash drives are for fakes – false capacity, digitally altered to lie about their real capacity.

SOSFakeFlash – eBay Fraud Flash Memory Upgraded Digitally Altered Capacity. Status Report November 2010. Best eBay Prices For USB Pen sticks, Memory Cards, MP Players. Warning – 95% Of eBay Listings Are For Fake Memory.

eBay buyers become victims of fake usb flash drives, mp players and memory cards when they believe flash memory is cheap. They are overloading SOSFakeFlash’s email at SOSFakeFlashDrive@gmail.com. SOSFakeFlash is reporting difficulty keeping up, unable to provide personalized attention for individual frauded buyers – there are just too many.

SOSFakeFlash is predicting a record number of frauded eBay buyers will be reporting in January 2011. Unfortunately for many, it will be too late to file a claim with eBay. Fraudulent eBay sellers are notorious for shipping fake memory items late to ensure the 45 day claim window is exceeded. If the buyer is not buying for themselves but giving as a gift, the discovery is guaranteed to be after the 45 day window.

To give fake memory as a gift is the worse experience for an eBay buyer. Not only do they risk loosing the possibility of getting a refund, the person receives the item to and who looses data as a result is likely to have a very hostile opinion toward the person who made the gift!

SOSFakeFlash is advising buyers who discover they purchased fake flash memory and have exceeded their 45 day claim window, to contact their credit card company, report the fraud and have a reversal for the purchase. Most credit card companies are eager to protect their members from fraud. If eBay refuses to refund a buyer they have a second option if funded with a credit card.

Please do not buy mp players, usb flash drive or memory cards on eBay to give as gifts, unless you test for real capacity first. If you value your friend, do not inflict them with with unintentional harm. You can’t replace their missing files.

Buy from a local reputable seller. Pay a little more and give flash memory gifts you can be confident in giving to others.

Review SOSFakeFlash eBay seller lists to see how many sellers they have caught so far.

Be a smart consumer, do your research for flash memory products. You can consult brand name sites to get a feeling for realistic prices. The highest discount you might find is about 10% to 20% less. If you don’t purchased from an authorized reseller, you will increase your risk considerable in acquiring fake flash memory. Counterfeiting brand names is big business, upgrading flash memory chips to lie about their real size is very common.

How Can You Spot Fake Flash Memory Chips? What Is the Key Factor That Determines If MP3 MP4 Players, USB Flash Drives Or Memory Cards Are Fake Capacity?

Posted in Advice, News | Tagged: , , | 204 Comments »

Selling Kingston Technologies USB Flash Drives On eBay? Watch Out! eBay Is Suspending Sellers.

Posted by flashchiptutor on June 12, 2010

Are you selling 64GB 128GB 256GB Kingston DataTraveler USB Flash Drives On eBay? Becareful! If you bought your inventory from a wholesaler on the internet, especially one based in Asia, you could be in big trouble.

If the seller is not authorized by Kingston, the probability of you buying a counterfeit false capacity usb flash drive is extremely high. Especially if you paid very low prices. There is a very low profit margin on selling usb flash drives. Did you know that? 80% of the cost is the usb flash drive storage chip.

There is only one sure way to verify that you did not buy a fake. Kingston etches serial numbers on the usb connector. Read this guide to learn more : Kingston USB Flash Drives. How To Check You Have A Genuine One And Not A Counterfeit – Easy Guide. Kingston Technologies Fighting To Protect Consumers And Itself From Counterfeits.

You should also test the usb flash drives you buy with a software called H2testw. It is free. To learn more about how to use it and why read: H2testw 1.4 – Gold Standard In Detecting USB Counterfeit Drives

eBay is suspending sellers who offer Kingston Technologies usb flash drives at unrealistic prices according to SOSFakeFlash. Kingston is increasing pressure on eBay.

Don’t lose your hard earned reputation. Open some of your inventory, check for serial numbers and test the real capacity of the usb flash drives!

Additional Reading:

Crises on Ebay For Fake Flash Memory Products Sold In 32GB 64GB 128GB 256GB – SOSFakeFlash Reports

Kingston DT310/256 Counterfeits Sold On eBay!

256GB Kingston DataTraveler Leather USB 2.0 256 GB – The Most Famous Counterfeit Fake Sold

Kingston Technologies Under Attack From Fake Flash Memory Seller Piranhas In The Orient. DT200 Counterfeits 8GB 16GB 32GB Flood Global Market.

Current Prices For Genuine Kingston DataTraveler 200 128GB USB2.0 Flash Drives DT200/128GB And For Fakes – A Guide

Buying A Kingston DataTraveler DT200 128GB Flash Drive On eBay? What You See Might Not Be What You Receive. Have a look.

Posted in Advice, DataTraveler | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Hacked Flash Memory Or Faulty – Do You Know The Difference?

Posted by flashchiptutor on April 19, 2010

Is there a difference between faulty flash memory chips and hacked flash memory chips? Yes, there is.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Advice, Flash Drive Education | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

How To Indentify Counterfeit Kingston Datatraveler USB Flash Drives

Posted by flashchiptutor on March 9, 2010

Did you buy a Kingston DataTraveler USB flash drive? Do you suspect it is a counterfeit or false capacity?

Read: Kingston USB Flash Drives. How To Check You Have A Genuine One And Not A Counterfeit – Easy Guide. Kingston Technologies Fighting To Protect Consumers And Itself From Counterfeits.

Posted in Advice, DataTraveler, Guides | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Why You Should Not Buy Flash Memory On eBay. Great Bargains?

Posted by flashchiptutor on January 10, 2010

eBay members continue to be foolish. They bid and buy on mpx players, memory cards and usb flash drives on eBay. They do not know the cost of flash memory and fall prey to eBay sellers in the Orient. SOSFakeFlash continues to investigate and issue alerts against fraudulent eBay sellers. They continue to be overwhelmed by victims seeking assistance.

Can you buy a flash usb penstick for only £12.49?

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Advice, News | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

eBay Seller jiejie5544 Violates International Postal Laws Selling Fake 32GB Memory Cards On eBay

Posted by flashchiptutor on August 31, 2009

eBay insists that listings and transactions comply with the laws of the countries where both the seller and the high bidder reside. Confirmed fake flash seller jiejie5544, violated international law by marking his fake 32GB memory cards as a gift on the CN 22 customs declaration form.

Reference: Ebay & International Law – Listings And Transactions – Postal System For Counterfeit Fake USB Flash Drives, MP Players, Memory Cards

Shipping envelope back:

jiejie5544-1

shipping envelope front:

jiejie5544-2

FakeFlashNews just confirmed that jiejie5544 is part of a counterfeit ring:

eBay Fraud – 32GB Memory Cards New Counterfeit Ring Lee Kin Ming Discovered By SOSFakeFlash

Notice the poor quality of this 32GB flash card:

jiejie5544-3

It you are a potential seller for 32GB memory cards, be careful. 32GB capacity is not cheap and any self respecting manufacturer will not offer such a sloppy presentation with stickers attached willy nilly. There is pride in manufacturing genuine capacity memory cards. For sellers of fake and false capacity memory cards, it is another matter. Who cares? It isn’t real capacity anyway. You should not violate international postal laws marking the items you sell as gifts, you could face prosecution in your country. Resist any pressure from potential customers, obey the law and sell safe.

If you bought a memory card like this on eBay or at any internet site, test it immediately for genuine capacity!

For eBay buyers of this memory card read SOSFakeFlash’s alerts:

Posted in Advice, No Name Fakes | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

So You Want To Sell On eBay For USB Memory Flash Drive PenSticks – MP Players – Memory Cards? Can You Make An Honest Profit And Sell Cheap?

Posted by flashchiptutor on August 21, 2009

Do you want to make a lot of money on eBay fast, selling mp players, memory cards and usb flash drives? If you buy from wholesaler internet sites in China, beware! To many eBay sellers are quick to buy and begin counting the profits as soon as they list! Why? Frequently they buy as low as $5 for a 16GB usb flash drive and sell as high as $25! Sometimes much more. Sounds great doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, most sellers do not bother to do their homework and research the true costs of nand flash chip technology. If they did, they would probably decide to bake cookies to sell at a fund raiser then sell on eBay. The sad fact is, the profit margin is very small for selling true capacity items. Only if you can move in volume will you make a modest profit.

SOSFakeFlash has been forced to introduce a zero tolerance policy for false capacity and or counterfeit flash items sold on eBay because the situation is so bad. Just one investigation with evidence and you as an eBay seller could end up on their fake flash sellers list, even have an alert published on the internet! They have never retracted or removed an alert yet from the internet and they are unlikely to. A seller is required to submit proof that he has refunded every single buyer in full (postage and handling charges too) along with an apology to every buyer. If there is data loss as a result, also compensate the buyer for the loss equivalent to the importance of the data and it’s reconstruction (when possible) – pretty stiff terms don’t you think? No, crying “I am a victim too!” will not get you off the hook, unless you are prepared to do what is required.

Be safe. Be smart. Do your home. Research the items you wish to sell. Test them at random to make sure your supplier doesn’t send you a “mixed box” (true capacity with fake capacity mixed in). If you want to sell a brand name, don’t buy from an Oriental wholesaler site please, unless they are authorized by the brand name. You will only end up with counterfeits and fakes. If the seller says they are authorized, contact the brand name to make sure. It is worth the wait and a few emails. Better than getting into the cross hairs of the battle raging on eBay and losing your seller reputation for ever.

Recently FakeFlashNews published an article we think you should read. It is being published here. You can learn a lot from it. Also see a sample of what SOSFakeFlash will do to an eBay seller caught selling false capacity items. Read on the grading system for nand flash chips and also the current prices in 2009.

Published at FakeFlash News:

Ebay offers very low bid and buy prices for memory cards, mp players and usb flash drives. It gets members excited. Often in a very short period of time, they will buy many items in a period of only one to two weeks. So cheap, so affordable!

Only when the items begin to arrive and the consumer starts having problems with mp players that refuse to load songs after a certain point, or memory cards will not transfer pictures to a PC or error messages begin to appear when attempting to access a file on a usb flash drives do they suspect something is wrong!

Of course there is something wrong! The devices have a low grade memory storage flash nand chip. It is not the size advertised. It can’t be. The price paid was too low for the true costs of the advertised size for the storage chip!

Fake flash sellers sell digitally altered items, reprogrammed to “appear” an advertised size. When victims test or take the items apart, they are able to prove they received an undersized flash nand storage chip from the eBay seller!

One of the best and most recent example is a devious fake flash seller, ebidetrade001 on eBay. FakeFlashNews is republishing an article from SOSFakeFlash. It sums up the experience and conclusions of eBay members who have been frauded for over five years.

From SOSFakeFlash:

ebidetrade001 is an eBay seller of Counterfeit (Fake) Flash USB drives. Registered in Hong Kong, ebidetrade001 is using private auctions to hide his fake flash sellers and using multiple auction listings. More than 500+ items have been sold.

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

FakeFlashSellers01Don’t forget to leave the calling card of “SOSFakeFlash” and “H2testw” in your feedback to help others. Do not change your feedback to get a refund – you will only create more victims. With Private Auctions the only way to defeat the fraudster is make your negative feedback count!

A Victim observes:

I gave this guy the benefit of the doubt because i thought it might have been his supplier who chipped the drive.
However all of his answers to communications through eBay and PayPal dispute show the classic signs of a scammer, as described on your site.

He has now hidden his auctions of this type of item, but all of his other items (e.g. 0.05 cent styluses, etc.) remain in clear view.

After buying this drive I now find him reported as suspect. Pity I didn’t find this site before I bought the item.

Using chipgenius and iflash, I have successfully reflashed this drive to it’s correct 3.6GB capacity and I guess 3.6GB for $14.00 is still cheaper than I can get one here in Australia, but it still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

This is the first bad experience that I have has on eBay after more than 200 transactions. I won’t be buying any flash memeory product on eBay ever again.

This is not an unusual reaction to a fake flash experience on eBay, it is the standard reaction. The victim, learned a lesson we all learned the hard way. In taking up the challenge to repair the usb flash drive and succeeding, it is not unusual to end up with a only 3.6 GB instead of 3.9 GB for a 4GB flash chip. It means that the nand storage chip was a reject. Read Genuine Verses Fake Counterfeit USB Flash Drives – A Guide – USB Flash Chips Used In USB Flash Drives – Grades A B C D

In paying $14 AU our victim paid a premium of about 33% for the privilege of acquiring a fake usb flash drive according to the costs in: What Are The Real Costs For Flash Chips In China? Guide 2009 for this usb flash drive:

3274

If only there would be a way to post the information on the cost of nand flash chips on eBay! Just how quickly would the buying and biding stop for most of what is offered in usb flash drives, MP Players and memory cards! eBay would lose one of the most important sources of revenue, eBay members would finally be spared from nightmares resulting from fake flash acquistion. Fraudsters in the Orient and elsewhere would be out of business soon. No demand, no supply.

not yet investigated:

3275

ebidetrade001 addresses:

LAW KWOK CHUNG

ROOM 501, TIN LONG HSE.
TING PING EST.SHEUNG SHUI
N.T.
HONGKONG

zhang yuan lin

12A, Lijingge, Yunjing Haoyuan, Chunfeng Road,
Luohu District
Shenzhen
Guangdong Province
518000
China

To understand about Fake Flash Sellers Read:

Important Reading:

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Advice, Articles, eBay, Flash Drive Education, News | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

PayPal Telephone Numbers – eBay Fake Flash USB Flash Drives, MP Players Memory Cards

Posted by flashchiptutor on July 1, 2009

eBay buyers who file claims against sellers of fake usb flash memory sticks, MP Players and memory cards often find themselves drowned in email robotic responses that have the intellegence of a peanut.

This is because responses are cut from templates, no real intellgence is required. Contacting Paypal by telephone requires a person respond to you. The results can be varied but it is better than an email robot. You should explain the situation and not let the person brush you off or give you a story – demand escalation or that they contact a supervisor immediately you feel they are not helpful.

If you need to settle a claim, try to call. Use toll free numbers if you can. Eric has contributed telephone numbers he found for you to call and a link with more information.

Please use this post to leave additional telephone numbers in your country and also email addresses. Use other Paypal posts to leave comments on the status of your cases. Let’s try and build a complete reference list to assist eBay fake flash victims around the world.

Eric:

Here is a link to all sorts of PayPal phone numbers and contact information (there is more info for U.K. and Australia on the page but I just posted the North American #s):

http://www.italkcash.com/forum/e-currency-e-gold-e-bullion-paypal-epassporte-etc/2191-paypal-helpline-get-thru-paypal.html

PayPal Phone Numbers: America & Canada

1-402-935-2050 (Toll Number)
1-888-215-5506 (Toll Free Number)
1-888-221-1161 (Toll Free Number)
1-408-376-7400 (Toll Number)
1-650-864-8000 (Toll Number)
1-402-935-2284 (Toll Number — Banking and Check Issues)
1-402-935-2212 (Toll Number — ACH Processing & Check Services)
1-402-935-2255 (Toll Number — Account Review Department)
1-402-935-2257 (Toll Number — Account Review Department)
1-402-935-2223 (Toll Number — PayPal Compliance)
1-402-935-2250 (Toll Number — PayPal Compliance)
1-402-935-2000 (Toll Number — Customer Service Department)
1-402-935-2007 (Toll Number — Customer Service Department)
1-402-935-5181 (Toll Number — Debit Card Services)
1-402-935-2116 (Toll Number — Escalations Department)
1-402-935-2129 (Toll Number — Escalations Department)
1-402-935-2238 (Toll Number — Management, Escalations Department)
1-402-935-2239 (Toll Number — Fraud Prevention Department)
1-402-935-2251 (Toll Number — Manager, Resolutions Department)
1-650-251-1101 (Toll FAX Number — Never Fax w/o a Case Number!)
1-408-376-7514 (Toll FAX Number — Never Fax w/o a Case Number!)
1-402-537-5755 (Toll FAX Number — PayPal Chargeback Department)
1-402-938-2337 (Toll FAX Number — Compliance Department)
1- 303-395-2802 (Toll FAX Number — Compliance Department)

BTW the people who answered my calls at PayPal were both based in the USA … and as I mentioned they were both very polite and helpful … but of course not everyone may have had the same experience.

Additional Reading:

If you have more telephone numbers or email addresses, please leave them in comments on this post.

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Kingston Technologies WebSite Introduces New Feature For Viewing Kingston USB Flash Drives To Verify Capacity Offered By Product Line

Posted by flashchiptutor on June 12, 2009

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 of their products or try to super boost older models to report wild unrealistic capacity sizes to operating systems. To consumers these are known as counterfeits and fakes!

Almost all major brand names are currently under attack from counterfeiters. 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.

You are invited to try it out. We did. 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 fake counterfeit and potentially very dangerous to use. Digitally altered flash drives, lead to data loss.

http://www.kingston.com/flash/DataTravelers_consumer.asp

For example if you use the search feature to see which drives are 128GB

KingstonFlashDriveConsumerSearch

You will get this:

KingstonFlashDriveConsumerSearch128GBResults

Nothing comes up. Why? As of June 10th, 2008 Kingston does not yet make a usb flash drive of 128GB. When they do, the search tool will show you the model that offers it. So if you don’t see anything, they do not make a 128GB flash drive. In fact nobody does right now. So any size beyond 64GB at the moment is an obvious fake!

If you search for 64GB:

KingstonFlashDriveConsumerSearch64GBResults

there is only one usb flash drive that will come up right now, the DT150 64GB DataTraveler usb flash drive. That means any other drive or model is an Obvious fake!

If you are a potential reseller:

64gbsonyasakingston

Do stay away from importing any drives like these from Chinese internet wholesaling sites. They were never make by Kingston. You can not purchase a usb flash drive at this price for resale at these capacities. There is no such thing as “Upgrading” a usb flash drive. You can not make a little usb flash drive chip magically grow to hugh capacity with some sort of software upgrade. The upgrade translated means “trick the operating system” into believing the usb flash drive is a bigger size than it really is or the data it can actually hold.

64GBlarge2

If you see any usb flash drives with 64GB stickers or any other sticker for size, understand this, Kingston does not put sticky labels to indicate the size of their usb flash drives. They offer quality usb flash drive products and are not so miserly as to cut corners with a sticky for the size of the flash drive product they offer.

If you search for 32GB:

KingstonFlashDriveConsumerSearch32GBResults

You will see a number of different usb flash drives presented to you. Your next step would be to select the model you saw on an internet site to read up on the product.

This new quick reference feature will save you time and help you spot the most obvious fakes masquerading as Kingston usb flash drives.

For additional reference information on Kingston usb flash drive counterfeits see https://flashdrivefacts.wordpress.com/ there is a category devoted to Kingston. Also see the guide section for a lot of useful information to help you spot a counterfeit and how you can verify if your Kingston usb flash drive serial number is valid.

In if the seller is offering a usb flash drive that matchs at Kingston you need to exercise care. Read those guides.

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 countries economy.

Buyers who ended up with Kingston counterfeits and fakes regret it. Most found them on eBay. Others at internet sites that are not authorized distributors of Kingston products. Read: kingstonusbcf.com Said To Sell Counterfeit Kingston Flash Drives

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FakeFlashNews Publishes On The danger of drop-shipping for both sellers and buyers on ebay

Posted by flashchiptutor on May 24, 2009

Are you interested in using drop-shipping to sell MP Players, memory cards and usb flash drives? You need to be very careful!

There are a lot of fake MP Players, memory cards and usb flash drives being sold on eBay – it’s been a problem for over five years. The FrankenFlash Project is struggling to free eBay these devices that cause so much pain to buyers when they lose data. The problem is not only on eBay it is everywhere now and drop shipping plays a serious role in spreading the plague of false capacity nand based technology around the world.

Many sellers use “drop shipping” and do not carefully inspect their merchandise. As a result they are paying the price when buyers learn they received fake and counterfeit false capacity items. All sellers need to be careful about what they sell, whether on eBay or elsewhere.

Recently FakeFakeNews published an article everyone needs to read – sellers and buyers alike. Read: The danger of drop-shipping for both sellers and buyers on ebay

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PayPal Orders You To Return Fake MP Players, Fake MP Players , Fake USB Flash Drives, Fake Memory Cards To Get A Refund? Think Again!

Posted by flashchiptutor on April 1, 2009

Are you thinking of obeying PayPals demands to return fake MP Players, Memory Cards or usb flash drives purchased on eBay from a fake flash seller to get a refund? SOSFakeFlash has published many articles on why you should not. We think you should read the latest article just published by FakeFlashNews.

eBay Refunds For Fake Flash USB drives – Returning For Refunds. How Many Addresses Do Fake Flash Sellers Have – A Buyer’s Confusion

After reading it please consult PayPal How Long Do You Have To Claim For A Refund In Disputes? A Guide About PayPal From eBayer’s Experiences. and read all the helpful articles published in that guide to assist victims of fake flash purchases on eBay!

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Sony MicroVault Genuine USB Flash Drives – Archive Of Retired Models To Avoid Fakes And Counterfeits

Posted by flashchiptutor on March 26, 2009

The Sony Microvault brand name is famous, trusted by consumers. Seized by fraudulent sellers,this brand name is used to lure unsuspecting buyers into buying counterfeits and fakes. The dark side of flash drive selling they scam and fraud – hurt both Sony and the general buying public. Advertising capacity as high as 64GB these fakes are as generally 512MB and lower in real size. Current at time of publishing the highest size produced by Sony for Micro Vault is 32GB. These imitations cause data loss. They ruin uninformed resellers on the internet who do not do their product research. eBay is the most popular site for distribution to unsuspecting buyers.

Extremely old models are not found at most Sony sites for inspection. To assist buyers and resellers the FrankenFlash Project has to put together a visual archive to assist in research and to preserve information. We have a list of models, their codes and photos. It will show you the true evolution of the Sony micro vault flash drive. How counterfeiters have used early packaging and attempted to make their imposters seem genuine. The earliest capacities are presented because they provide very important clues for the fakes that will be presented in a new series of articles to be published at FlashDriveFacts.

Covered are the following capacities: 16MB 32MB 64MB 128MB 256MB 512MB 1GB 2GB 4GB 8GB

Read the rest of this entry »

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USB Flash Drives Best Price Bargains Fair Value To Sell Or Buy 8GB 16GB 32GB

Posted by flashchiptutor on March 21, 2009

Are you looking for a bargain price for a usb flash drive? To Buy or to sell? What is the real cost from a wholesaler in 2009? Want to be sure you aren’t paying too much? Or that you might be cheated or scammed?

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Advice, Articles, Flash Drive Education | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 42 Comments »