xprodeal Ebay Fake Flash Seller Alert – China
Posted by KittyFireFlash on May 1, 2009
xprodeal is an eBay seller of Counterfeit (Fake) Flash USB drives, MP Players and memory cards. Based in China xprodeal has sold more than 4000+ items and is highly skilled at deception. You must test any item purchased from this seller to avoid the consequences of using a false capacity item! xprodeal is a high volume fake flash seller and evaded detection for quiet awhile.
If you want a refund becareful, xprodeal will ask you to change your negative feedback to positive. You can expect different approaches to getting you to change it. Watch out, the sympathy card as a favorite. Those who answer emails for this id, have onions under their eyes to assist in getting those tears to flow! Beware of excuses such as “defect” or my “big bad supplier deceived me”! Do not fall for “I am just a little guy, my boss will fire me, I need my job”.
Asking you to change your feedback is in violation of ebay policy! See: eBay – What To Do When Sellers Demands You Change Your Negative Feedback To Positive For A Refund Or Demands Positive As A Condition Of Refund – A Guide
If you want to stop him creating more victims – make sure you leave negative feedback upon confirmation of your testing results and put in “SOSFakeFlash” and “H2testw 1.4”. Contact people who left positive feedback and warn them to test. This is a dangerous high volume ebay fake flash seller with powerseller status.
Important Reading:
- USB Flash Drives Best Price Bargains Fair Value To Sell Or Buy 8GB 16GB 32GB
- Genuine Verses Fake Counterfeit USB Flash Drives – A Guide – USB Flash Chips Used – Grades A B C D
- What Are The Real Costs For Flash Chips In China? Guide 2009
Report in to SOSFakeFlash if your testing confirms you have a false capacity device.
We are presenting all the items on file for you to inspect.
To see xprodeal’s negative feedback Please Click Here
April 30th, 2009 – we have 4 eBay listings confirmed fake.
These are the models sold under the eBay seller xprodeal All are confirmed as Counterfeit, recorded with eBayer ID and eBay Item Number – Standard Procedure. Presented as listed at auction. Counterfeit items tied to criminal activity enjoy no protection. If you bought one of these usb fake flash drives from xprodeal, you should test immediately with the software H2testw 1.4 . Do not store any information until you can confirm you have the advertised capacity (minus formatting overhead).
The models sold by xprodeal
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Not yet investigated:
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Should your device not report the true advertised capacity:
- Immediately attempt to move any data you have stored on it to another source. Be advised if you have stored more than the reported size from H2testw 1.4, you will not be able to recover it all – you can expect to see errors in the copy back.
- Immediately report to eBay and PayPal to add your voice against this seller.
If the eBay Item number has disappeared from your won list. Please go to PayPal and search through your transactions for the approximate time frame of your purchase. You will find the details of your transaction and ebay item number. PayPal keeps this information for a long time. Use the email address:
complaint-response@paypal.com
Please include:
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PayPal Transaction Number
- Ebay Item Number
- Date Of PayPal Transaction
- Date Of eBay Item Listing
- Your eBayer Id
- Cite eBay Seller xprodeal
- The results from your testing with H2testw 1.4
- Any information concerning data loss and it’s value to you
You are to inform them you wish to be part of the investigation against this seller and are adding yourself to the evidence. You expect to be fully refunded for the purchase and shipping and if you can prove data loss compensation for it as well. Furthermore, it is a fact that PayPal and eBay are aware of cases pouring in. You are invited to copy:
SOSFakeFlashDrive@gmail.com
on your correspondence.
SOSFakeFlash 
Eric said
196 negative feedbacks for xprodeal this month !
going hard for the big 200 !!! is this an Ebay record ?
lots of revised feedbacks also …
and his feedback % is 97.5%
But of course he is still selling on Ebay ! ahhhhhhhhhhh what else did you expect? LOL
TechChips said
Yep, xprosteal is going for gold!
He might just reach 200 negatives this month.
Is there a snowboarding event using a fake memory card? His ethics would be about the right size. eBay will probably get bronze, paypal silver. Victims will get a boot up the pants if they don’t fight for their rights.
Let’s go go go! For 200+ negatives, there are 12 days left. Break a record, use your negative to suspend this seller, knock out another id in the counterfeit ring.
Eric said
Latest medal count 197 !!!!
Go xpro Go !!!!
TechChips said
Now at 198!
Dave C said
This is very informative, I wish I would’ve read more of the feedback before purchasing a 16gb micro sd from this seller.It hasn’t arrived yet, but after reading this Im excpecting to be disappointed.
Ebay Is certainly flawed to allow this to happen…….But im 100% sure they could care less as they are also profiting from this shill.Its all about PROFIT, not customer satisfaction.
Eric said
199 and maybe he is gone !!!!!!
woooooooooooohooooooooooooooo xprosteal has no items listed for sale …. does that mean he is banned ?
one small step for mankind … and one big boot in his dishonest ass !
Eric said
200 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
fireworks … bells …. hes done it !!!!!
TechChips said
212!
97.4% Now.
To crack a powerseller, means everybody got to vote! 11 days left to suspend xprosteal. Keep it coming….
Eric said
Xprodeal has no items for sale… what does that mean> BTW he is now down to 206 … so people must be changing feedback ?
David Parry said
How do you change feedback, I looked and couldnt see how to do it.
red said
“BTW he is now down to 206 … so people must be changing feedback ?”
I thought the same thing once, but the revised feedback count has remained at 45 for some time now.
I think the ‘1-month’ count is a rolling 30 day month. The 1-month negative count drops most nights. Negatives for the 31st day are dropped. There were 5 negatives on Jan-17. The 12-month count has been steadily increasing though and is probably a better indicator to use than the 1-month.
Eric said
Does anyone know why xprodeal has nothing to sell anymore ? His store is empty. Was this done by Ebay ?
KittyFireFlash said
There are two stages:
1) No listings for sale. Usually result of none performance, seller feedback score dropped below what eBay allows and or seller under investigation.
2) If score continues to drop, a suspension can occur. Deregistered.
xprodeal may be at stage 1. To keep him pinned down, negatives must continue.
Remember he is part of a counterfeit ring, it hurts to have a high score id stopped from selling so keep an eye open eBay patrol, he might have switched selling to another id. This is common behavior.
bid2buying is also part of the Chen Haijian ring. Memory cards and MP Players rolling off the biding line….
Eric said
How can u tell if he has switched ids on Ebay? Is there some sort of trail to follow?
KittyFireFlash said
In switching, we are referring to a ring having an army of id’s.
A seller just uses another id he has that might have been selling something else, or selling fake memory in lower volume.
We recognize a lot of tell tail signs. Dragon Dakel and company will be very much involved in detecting seller id’s and sniffing out the rot. It means less of us here, but something had to be done.
There are trails and clues, but we can not publish on the internet. SOSFakeFlash is not going to give unfair advantage to the targets who need to be stopped. Remember fake flash eBay sellers are readers too! Yes, it is true they read our site. Again we can’t say how we know what we know. Or just who has come visiting.
At the moment victims of xprodeal must do their duty and keep this id from selling anything, that means leaving negative feedback.
If he does get a full suspension, it means xprodeal might not be able to sell anything under the id for up to three months. As we have seen with the 3totrade counterfeit ring, he could easily return for another round.
Could also be xprosteal did not like your enthusiasm. But you have every right Eric to be so happy along with everyone else. Only remember, he is not deregistered and until then it is premature to celebrate that for a while he will not be able to fraud anyone else.
Knocking out the id 3totrade took three rounds in the ring and it is also why we have such high counts for the 3totrade id. We dealt with the Don Of Fake Flash’s flag ship id, at the bottom of the ocean never to sail in fraud again.
Eric said
Kitty Ebay should be paying you to police their site ! I’d certainly vote for you !
Eric said
Even if we succeed in bringing down xprodeal I really won’t celebrate because I know how big the real problem is on Ebay. I feel really so sorry for all the people who are losing data of all sorts … its not only the money … its the data … sometimes irreplaceable photos or other files … I see their positive feed backs and shake my head … knowing quite well that in a few weeks or months they will realize all their information is lost.
The real big problem on Ebay is Ebay itself ! … and until something is done to correct the root cause of this epidemic all we are doing is playing a game of whack a mole … there is absolutely NO downside for these flash fraudsters to stop … NONE !!! … no criminal prosecution !!! … and they even get to keep most of the money !!!! The perfect crime actually.
Maybe China will get involved one day … as they are becoming more and more conscious of their reputation as global trading partners … but until then its Don Quichotte vs the windmills redux.
TechChips said
Tell me about it buddy. It is nuts. Wait till you see what Kitty publishes today!
Yeah, so many people are clueless. True it feels a lot like Quichotte vs the windmills.
Before sosfakeflash there were only forums. Complain here, complain there, useless stuff man. Search engines don’t give much priority to forums, duh! Good for chat but not to fight these bastards.
Kitty saids that China is aware. They look the other way. It is money, our money good foreign currency going into their pot. The other thing is … the problem is corruption at the places that make flash chips. Law authorities are trying to fight back but they don’t know who is involved and if you piss of the wrong people bye bye career or worse.
Still there is something very interesting. A lot of people scream in FB they didn’t get items. LOL! Ha! Can you guess why? When the project publishes addresses, law authorities some times check out going shipments and grab them. Some people in China are fighting. We got to help them because they have it worse than us and they have a lot more to loose.
If ebay and paypal want to be f*ching idots, and people need to get their money back then see
make sure you send it back registered and have proof.
So long as somebody has a tracking number and proof, there is nothing ebay or paypal can do. Might do some good too.
At least this site is a good start, a lot of scammers stopped and people learning more.
red said
“Not a registered user”
TechChips said
xprodeal – suspended!
Good work, everyone! xprodeal known to us as “xprosteal” is deregistered. Question, for how long?
No new victims for now.
Current victims, you can not leave feedback – positive, negative, neutral. You can still record your experience at SOSFakeFlash, on this post. Fight your eBay/PayPal claims. Use the information at this site to help you.
KittyFireFlash said
Amazing what can happen when victims who are frauded fight back!
xprodeal is a member of the Chen Haijian counterfeit ring operating on eBay. He is also skilled at deception. Feedback extortion. Sellers like xprodeal destroy the reputation of eBay. It is really said that eBay refused to take action for so long.
We published the first alert on xprodeal in May 2009. If you are reading this article you are probably a victim of this seller. If eBay would have listened when buyers first reported him, YOU would not be one of his victims. Have courage, fight back, demand your refund from paypal. Let eBay know how you feel.
eBay and Paypal have no excuses. They did not listen. The good news is that eBay members who care about others chose to fight hard to stop xprodeal from selling.
TechChips is right, you can’t see the items you bought on your one list for xprodeal. When eBay suspends a seller, they have the right to remove the listings and all the information about what he sold.
Fortunately that is what the SOSFakeFlash site is for. To document eBay scammers, to write articles and show what sellers sold. So even if eBay tries to erase the fraud, they can’t, not if we can document first for you!
You should still report in to SOSFakeFlash with your evidence for xprodeal. Why? So we can add the counts against him on the black lists we publish. It is a record that can not be erased.
As we often say in the FrankenFlash project, the power of one, becomes the power of many. A lot of eBay members sacrificed their time to send warning messages to other buyers of xprodeal. It paid off.
You do not have to accept fraud.
Eric said
To me this is absolutely absurd !
1. Xprodeal gets to KEEP the money he STOLE.
2. He will open another store under a different name. (if he has not already.)
3. There will be no criminal investigation, prosecution or legal sanctions against xprodeal.
4. Ebay and Paypal really don’t care.
TechChips said
Ahem!
You have summed it up nicely, Eric. At times we get really discouraged with eBay refusing to act.
It is also why SOSFakeFlash asks victims to report in using the Report A Fake tab.
Fact is, this project has a long memory and we add to the database for registered victims.
The fraud is millions and millions of dollars (US). Anyone who thinks SOSFakeFlash and the other sites are not SERIOUS serious is either a fool or very stupid. LOL! We are bloody serious! People who help and have helped are from every walk of life: housewives, causal computer users, to very skilled IT professionals.
Registered users are going to get first dibs, if there is a class action suit against eBay. At issue is the money people lost, but most important to this project is the data. Yep. DATA people lost.
Kitty and the others made it clear, crystal long ago to eBay – if they can’t control the problem, then Ban, BAN, BAN the sale of flash memory on eBay. Fact is, eBay is a weasel. They have no respect for their members, they are not interested in keeping people safe. eBad is only interested in profit and they will protect anybody who gives them revenue. Sick. Fact. True.
So we have to bust their F*cking ass. Keep busting it until they bleed or wake up. It is not fair to people. It is hard to earn money especially with the messed up global Economy. The team at this site can’t find the right words to comfort people who have lost their information for ever! It cost me a lot of time to fix the stuff I lost. I learned the hard way. I also learned a lot more.
What size do you want folks? Gimme your usb flash drive! What is the size you want your operating system to see? I could make it appear to be any size you want! For the moment I have not published HOW at my site, but only because the project asked me not too.
Fact is, if you know where to look on the internet, you can find out HOW!
eBay is only interested in money, they will bend over for any ebay seller who delivers fat listing fees or even volume sales. eBay is not special, this is true of most large companies. They want you to belive they care, they don’t. If anyone thinks they care about you, you are really dumb.
Important every victim of xprodeal files a paypal claim! Let him hurt and hurt and HURT! They also need to write to eBay and give them Sh*t. Use personal webspace, any internet site people can find and drag eBay through the mud. The more dirt the better.
It is the only way. Use the internet to tell the truth. You gotta take a stand. Decide whether you are like eBay, a weasel or somebody who believes in fairness and knows the difference from wrong and right.
People who fought xprodeal – you have guts, you are my kind of people! Good on you!
Eric said
Techchips
In my opinion a very effective way to really get Ebays attention is PUBLICITY … there seem to be many, many people involved in fighting against flash fraud … might there be any who are nationally or internationally known journalists or know journalists … TV reporters, radio reporters etc ? oh maybe someone who has a friend who is in one of the aforementioned professions.
ONE article in the NY Times or USA Today or some other national/international medium with clout … I am sure you can think of others … and the problem will disappear overnight … shine a bright light on Ebay and they will wilt like a Toyota executive …
Some Possible Story Lines: China, defective and dangerous goods, viruses, internet, EBay scandal, EBay flawed business model, fraud on a huge Madoff like scale. Etc.
1. Hacked and dangerous products from China
2. EBay knows about this fraud and tries to hide it.
3. EBay has a flawed business model re: feedback
4. Huge amounts of stolen money
5. Huge amounts of lost data … this is not only about the lost money.
Why the national and international media has not picked up on the fake flash story is a mystery to me. It has a lot of very hot buzzwords … such as defective/illegal/corrupt goods from China, internet security and fraud on a huge scale, viruses … EBay theft , complicity of EBay, high tech scams etc.
Damian.S said
Sorry to say another person that found out to late, purchased a 16GB SD card 20-Jan-2010 on Ebay paid via Paypal and just been contacted today by Ebay to say he is no longer a seller but will have to allow 10 days for him to reply to the dispute before being able to make a claim against paypal… Wish I had found this page sooner….
Lets hope I eventually get refunded.. A shame Paypal and Ebay had not followed your warnings earlier..
Does anyone have advice on where to purchase a decent card for my phone??
Thanks in advance
The_Flash said
Damian.S, if you’re looking to buy from a reputable online shop, what country are you from?
If you’re not looking to buy online, I would suggest simply going to a reputable local retailer in the offline world and purchasing what you need there. 😉
Herman said
Paypal plays the game.
Unfortunately I found this website too late…after having bought a flash drive of 32Gb…which turned out to be a 2Gb one.
I submitted a claim with paypal and this is what i received from them.
1. We will pay you part of the money back (it costed 16Euros)
2. Payment only after having sent the item back to the thief xprosteal. So I have to ship it back, which costs me 10 Euros.
Result:
-> for me : nothing
-> for paypal (or ebay) : they get their commission on ebay sale
-> for the seller: 16 Euros
So, it’s no surprise that ebay keeps supporting such thiefs.
red said
Herman,
Yes, they are thieves!
Did the partial refund offer come from xprosteal or paypal? If you are in the dispute process, then you are communicating with the seller. If you have escalated to a claim then paypal is involved.
Right, with the cost of return shipping, it is not worth your while to return the item. Besides, it is a not a good idea to return it to them.
TechChips said
Thieves is a polite word.
The data and metics will leave everyone stunned. No one in their right mind should buy any memory card, mp player or usb flash drive on eBay. You have a 95% chance of being frauded.
We all learned this hard lesson.
Herman, you said it all.
The winners are ebay fake flash sellers (especially those registered in the orient), eBay and paypal.
The losers are? You and I and everyone else!
Many eBay members are not just losers of money, they lose all their information too. Gone. Goodbye. Forever.
The Global Report – eBay Fake Memory 2008 – 2009 says it all.
It really makes me sick!
De Kuup said
I started immediatly a claim, after reading the comments here. I did an email to paypal with all the comments. Paypal don’t pay you back if you do not send the sd-card back to xprosteal. Had no choice. After paying 10 euros to shipping costs to sent the card back to xprosteal, paypal paid me back. ,
De Kuup said
oeps, did’nt complete my reply…
Paypal investigates nothing, otherwise they would’nt let me sent the item back to that thief.
At this way, ebay dig his own grave…
Roger said
I just have some general comment on some of the comments I have been reading.
1). Relying on a/any flash drive is not good insurance against losing important data. The way to do that is Backup, backup, backup. With current prices of USB drives being $3+ /gb, those concerned about losing important data should consider more cost effective ways of preserving data such as external hard drives, CDr’s & DVDR’s which are all cheaper per gb than a USB drive. USB drives should mainly be used as a temporary storage media such as moving files from one place to another. FYI, a 1 TB (terabyte) hard drive can be found for right around $100 these days making the cost per gb of storage about $0.10 /gb. This is by far more cost effective than a flash drive, and more stable. Even if a hard drive fails, there are data recovery services available that can save the day for you, however, if you use it to back up your computers data files, the chance of both the computer and the external hard drive failing at the same time is remote.
2). I’m reading much about Pay Pal problems so I’ll again share with the group how I handled my case. First I contacted the seller and although I pretty much knew how that would go, I rode it out. Usual story…partial refund for positive feedback and I keep the device ….NO! I made it clear to the seller that there was no negotiating feedback for refund. After a few other emails whereas the seller promised refund but no action took place, I proceded to give NEGATIVE feedback. This really got the sellers attention and again, promises of refund, but no action. I then filed a dispute with eBay. Note, at NO TIME did I ever contact Pay Pal. The seller then re-offered to give refund in exchange for changing the negative feedback and I refused to even try that and I’m still not sure you can even do that. I escalated the dispute.
3). eBay followed up on the dispute and I informed them that the the seller was trying to extort positive feedback in exchange for refund, a clear violation of eBay policy. Note: in all my communication with both seller and eBay I stated that I refused to break any postal laws by sending the fake/counterfeit device back to the seller and again pointed out that fraud and postal laws have been broken in this transaction.
4). ebay sent a full refund to my Pay Pal account and sent me a message stating that the case was closed and that neither I or the Seller was found to be at fault, however, the seller was no longer a registered member. Ebay also sent me a message saying that in all fairness, I should return the device to the seller, which I simply ignored since I had already stated my position on that. I still have the device, I don’t use it, and if some eBay representative cares to come and knock on my door, I will gladly turn the device over to them, but no way will I send it anywhere.
I know this is a lengthy post, but I hope some of my experience in this case might help to guide others.
Randy said
I totally agree with your comment about not relying on flash drives for backup purposes. They can be lost and some of the generic and counterfeit drives do not detect errors properly and can result in undetected data corruption – not something you want to happen to your backups. I recommend people create a windows compressed or zip folder on the flash driveand copy their files into this folder. Windows Compressed folders and zip folder use CRCs to detect data corruption. This will not protect you against data loss but at least you will know that the data has been corrupted.
Congratulation on getting through the obstacles that Ebay puts in place to getting a refund.
Eric said
I had my money refunded by Paypal/Ebay without having to send the fake USB drive back to Xprodeal.
Graeme said
I ordered a 32gb memory card of this guy and then found out about your website prior to the item arriving. In an email to xprodeal I referenced this website and asked if he was delivering me a fake. He kept skirting around the issue saying the item was on it’s way, etc etc. When it eventually came I wasn’t surprised to find out it was a fake. I was pretty furious nonetheless. I followed the good advice of your website and resisted all requests to send it back. I then opened official claims against him in ebay AND Paypal. Whilst paypal decreed I return the item to this idiot, which cost me $17AU, they did find in my favour and credited my account with $42AU.
I also alerted ebay and Paypal to your website and the good news is that ebay is now reporting that this fool is no longer a registered ebay user. RESULT!!!
I’m sure he’ll be cropping up as someone else soon, but this is a good outcome. Well done to your website for alerting people to this issue. Ebay has no place for folk like xprodeal. Good riddance!
mel said
i bought a mp3 player from him and i recieved it but it crashed my computer and died and i email him and he was like i so sorry send item back i will get u new one well that was 3 mths ago and i havent heard from him and cant get my money back iam pist off