Whatcools Ebay Fake Flash Seller Controlled by 3ToTrade

Whatcools is an eBay seller with a history of Counterfeit merchandise selling. Controlled by the eBay seller ID 3ToTrade, Whatcools deals in volume selling.

When 3ToTrade was forced to stop lising Counterfeit Flash USB drives on August 13th, 2008. Whatcools began listing these drives.

Currently eBayers are now fighting whatcools and are testing their drives as they arrive in the Post. As a result on September 3rd, 2008 Whatcools switched to the most devious and diabolical listing possible for selling fake flash on eBay – Private Auctions. To learn more…

We will present the counterfeit drives shortly for your viewing and inspection in this post – but first a word about private auctions.

Some think it is for their protection. It is not for your protection when the sale is a counterfeit flash drive. It is to protect the seller from being discovered. Several counterfeit sellers have done this: wholeselling-auctions, tcua80, tcua88. When eBayers dragged them to the dispute console they did refund – if with a bit of a struggle. One, tcua88, has been kicked off eBay – after having sold thousands – the only thing the seller ever sold – hidden or not.

eBay describes such an auction as:

Private Auction

When a seller creates a private listing, a buyer’s User ID does not appear in the listing or in the listing’s bid history. Only the seller is authorized to view the buyer User IDs associated with that listing. Examples of when sellers use this format include the sale of high-priced items, or approved pharmaceutical products.

Flash drives are not medical products. Private auctions are for high priced items, generally in the range of more than $150 US , usually $200 US and higher. A drive won at $15 US or even $40 US or even $70 US does not fall under the description from eBay.

So Whatcools is abusing this listing type of auction to avoid being detected . Why? Because eBayers are after him and he wishes to continue selling fake flash usb drives. The money is very good. So now

• There will be no information on what the eBayer bought in feedback, either for buyer or for seller.
• There will be no eBay item id on record in the Sellers feedback, for other potential buyers to examine.
• If an eBayer leaves negative feedback you have no real information on what they are complaining or warning about. You can not inspect the item, to see if it happens to be the drive you might be interested in bidding on.

This is a clever strategy. It violates the intent of private auctions. And Whatcools is using it now! If this switch isn’t an admission of guilt we don’t know what is.

Whatcools sold drives advertised at 8GB (really 2 GB) now sells 32GB capacity (at most 7.7 GB). Not one drive investigated for 32 GB held more than 8GB of data.

• October 5th, 2008 – we have 51 eBay listings confirmed fake.

September 21st, 2008 – we have 44 eBay listings confirmed fake.

• September 27st, 2008 – we have 49 eBay listings confirmed fake.
• September 14th, 2008 – we have 29 eBay listings confirmed fake.
• September 7th, 2008 – we have 22 eBay listings confirmed fake.
• September 5th, 2008 – we have 11 eBay listings confirmed fake.

 

You can expect this to grow as eBayers receive in the post and test.

Whatcools behavior as eBayers queue at Paypal for disputes is getting nasty and devious.  A few have been tricked to close their disputes with a promise of a full refund.  Which of course never came…

These are the models sold under the eBay seller id of Whatcools. 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 whatcools, you should test immediately with the software H2testw 1.4 . Do not store any important data on the drive until you can confirm you have 8 GB (minus formatting overhead) for the 8 GB Models or 32 GB for the 32 GB Models.

This is the 8 GB on record.

These are the 32 GB Models sold by whatcools since August 13th, 2008. We are sorely tempted to call them the “Gang of Three”.

Should your drive not report the true advertised capacity:

1. Immediately attempt to move any data you have stored on the drive 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.
2. 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:

Please include:

1. PayPal Transaction Number
2. Ebay Item Number
3. Date Of PayPal Transaction
4. Date Of eBay Item Listing
5. Your eBayer Id
6. Cite eBay Seller whatcools – mention connection to 3ToTrade Seller id
7. The results from your testing with H2testw 1.4
8. 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:

on your correspondence.

This seller has sold hundreds of counterfeit drives. You will find a lot negative feedback (even if we don’t have high numbers of investigated and confirmed fakes), not only for flash usb drives. Whatcools stopped listing counterfeit usb drives to cool off, but due to the pressures on 3ToTrade was restarted early.

To see his negative feedback.

The negatives for the 32 GB models are only starting to come in – you can expect more shortly.

Please read the other articles in this series to see the full picture on The Don Of Fake Flash in The Orient – 3ToTrade. whatcools is one of his satilitle sleeper ids for selling counterfeit fake flash drives.

Check back to see if the Tally increases. If you are a victim of whatcools please follow the steps outlined above and do add your comments if you like.