Whatcools – Suspended For Private Auctions- eBay Fake Flash Seller

Whatcools is an eBay seller with a history of Counterfeit merchandise selling. SOSFakeFlash identified this seller as part of a counterfeit ring. When eBayers began leaving negative feedback to warn other eBayers of counterfeit falsh drives, whatcools responded by switching to Private Auctions. It was an attempt to avoid further detection or damage to his score as eBayers reported the truth in his feedback.

Using Private Auctions is an abuse of eBay’s definition of what qualifes for a private auction listing as used by whatcools. It was to hide the evidence from eBay and eBayers. As of September 24th, 2008 Whatcools is no longer selling any fake flash drives. Whatcools is no longer listing anything for sale! How did this happen?

An eBayer reported whatcools violation of the Private auction listings to eBay. Since September 4th there have been approximately 360 additional fake flash drives listed and sold by Whatcools. Almost all under private auction listings. There are two days when this id forgot to set the private auction category.

So how was whatcools, a powerseller of over 6400+ stopped from selling?

1) whatcools was identified as a fake flash seller.
2) whatcools was investigated, drives tested and confirmed fake by eBayers.
3) whatcools was monitoried for listings
4) suddenly eBayers began testing their drives properly as they arrived with H2testw 1.4
6) disputes poured into PayPal
7) immediate negative feedback was left to warn other Buyers and record the truth.

See whatcools Feedback

8) Switching to private auctions was uncovered and reported to eBay.

FakeFlashStopper reported the facts to eBay and presented all the evidence. Here is eBay’s response:

Hello,

Thank you for your report. We’ll review the information you gave us and
take action based on our investigation.

Because of privacy concerns we can’t discuss one member’s account with
another member, so we won’t be able to share the results of our
investigation with you. I know this can be frustrating, but I hope it
assures you that your account history will also remain private.

We welcome your reports as they help us keep the entire eBay community
safe. You can make a report at any time by using the “Contact Us” page
here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/index_selection.html

Thank you,

eBay Customer Support

Shortly afterwards, no more private Auctions from whatcools. In fact, no auctions at all!

So there is evidence that eBay does investigate and will take action. SOSFakeFlash thinks it is possible that eBay is being overwhelmed. The action plan presented above was not an accident. SOSFakeFlash had suspicions and investigated. Only when there was evidence – proof was further action taken, not before.

The real truth is, whatcools was stopped by eBayers. The victims of whatcools joined together and committed to stop this seller – and prevent even more victims from falling into his fake flash net. It worked. eBay saw the evidence and has taken action. Fake flash sellers CAN be stopped.

Whatcools Private Auction Listing Victims

If you are a victim of a fake flash purchase under the private auctions from whatcools and you found this site, we are sorry you could not be warned. When a seller uses this type of listing there is no way to identify you and warn you. Search this site for information on filing a dispute with paypal. You can leave follow up feedback, if you left postive.

If you have issues in getting a refund, remind whatcools you will copy the Hong Kong Police on your communications.

See:Hong Kong Fake Flash eBay Sellers – How To Get PayPal Refunds posted September 19, 2008. Whatcools will be more obliging.

Whatcools Open Auction Victims

If you are a victim of fake flash purchase from whatcools under an open listing and have confirmed you have a fake, please make sure you file a claim and leave negative feedback immediately! Also advise you are willing to copy the Hong Kong Police on communications!

To All victims of Fake Flash Drive Purchases From Whatcools.

Do not give up in your PayPal struggles. Keep pressing. You can even mention that Whatcools is no longer able to list. While eBay may have taken some action, that does not absolve PayPay from addressing your case and making sure they live up to their promise of Buyer Protection!

A successful victim of fake flash is one who does not give up. Who will enter the boxing ring determined to fight back! They seem to be the ones getting their money back. They are the ones forcing eBay and PayPal to take action and they are the ones helping to clean up eBay from fake flash. By not letting the matter slide these eBayers reduce the number of victims, reduce the number of listings for fake flash. Back in April 2008 eBay was drowning in fake flash listings. It has been decreasing steadily since then. No seller offers a 64GB drive anymore and 32GB drives are decreasing too. So is the selling price for 32GB as there are less eBayers bidding, can you guess why?.

While the super sized drive listing are going down, we are noticing that offerings for 16GB fake flash drives is increasing. Why? Remember that fake flash is based on reprogramming a controller chip to lie about the real size of the flash drive. So you can reprogram the same drive model to pretent to be 32GB or 16GB for a real 8GB factory seconds chip. And if the real flash drive is 4GB why you can make it pretend to be 8GB as well.

SOSFakeFlash recommends you do not buy any flash drives on eBay until eBay changes the rules for the sale these items. Unless you see a seller certifying his drives have been tested, can pass a program such as H2testw 1.4 to prove the advertised capacity and is willing to guarantee this – do not bid, do not buy.

Kaho.chan is another seller who is part of this counterfeit ring. The moment whatcools switched to private auctions, kaho.chan did too. They are controlled by 3torade. That seller id is still active, still listing under private auctions. If you want to help, report the private auction listings to eBay. It often takes a lot of incoming reports to put the fake flash seller on eBay’s radar.

For additional information see:

• Whatcools – eBay Fake Flash Seller – Lies And Deception
• Sinister Counterfeit Connection – Fake Flash Drive Ring On eBay
• 3ToTrade – Whatcools – Shopwithmela – kaho.chan Sinister Counterfeit Flash Drive Connection On Ebay
• Whatcools Ebay Fake Flash Seller Controlled by 3ToTrade
• kaho.chan Ebay Fake Flash Seller Controlled by 3ToTrade

• PayPal Claims And Refunds – eBay Fake Flash
• Hong Kong Fake Flash eBay Sellers – How To Get PayPal Refunds

Advertisement