Warning KINGSTON DT200 DATA TRAVELER 128 GB USB FLASH DRIVE eBay Fakes – A Guide
Posted by KittyFireFlash on August 9, 2010
The best price for Kingston Datatravel DT200 flash drives on eBay, do you want to know? SOSFakeFlash has published a lot of information on Kingston Technologies usb flash drives. Unfortunately the news is not very good. If you buy any Kingston flash memory items on eBay you are asking for heart ache. You chances of buying a genuine capacity flash memory item are very slim.
In January 2009, SOSFakeFlash published a Guide on Kingston Warning KINGSTON DataTraveler 100 USB Flash Drive 128GB Appearing For Sale On The Internet. The article exposes a lot of the sources for fake capacity.
Things haven’t changed a lot, only the models have. For example eBay seller arielk53 is offering Kingston DT200 128 Gb for only $99 US. This seller is based In the Israel.
Do you believe you can buy a DT200 128 GB for only $99 US? Or for as little as $20 US? If you think you can, you need to read the rest of this guide and fast!
It really doesn’t matter which country. Your best bargain for a DT200/128GB on eBay is from a seller registered in China, Hong Kong, or Singapore. You will of course by a fake, a usb flash drive that looks like a DT200 but will have a tiny memory chip inside. You will find sellers in Europe and the United States offering the same fakes, but at a much higher price.
The black market in Kingston DT200 usb flash drives continues to grow. eBay is struggling to keep up with these sellers. Every day they suspend sellers and remove listings. Unfortunately, most of these fraudulent sellers have sold hundreds if not thousands by the time eBay removes them. eBay members continue to pay the price. Why? Because they do not understand the genuine prices for DT200’s. They run to eBay in search of a bargain. However the only thing they will receive is a fake and the misery of trying to get a refund. Many lose important data they can not replace.
If you bought a DT200 Kingston usb flash drive you need to test it immediately to check out and verify it’s real capacity!
Read: H2testw 1.4 – Gold Standard In Detecting USB Counterfeit Drives to learn how and find the software download links. H2testw 1.4 is free and it is a stand alone program. 96% of readers find the article very helpful according to the poll. It is your best weapon and tool to discovering how much capacity you really have on your usb flash drive and if it is really safe to use and store data on.
If you bought a fake, false capacity you should report in to SOSFakeFlash. It is important as we publish on sellers who sold false capacity. It lets us warn the general public and it cuts down on the fraud. See the Report A Fake Tab.
We recommend you read the following articles if you bought a DT200 Kingston USB Flash drive from eBay or any other internet source:
- 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.
- eBay Erasing Evidence Of Fraud – Protection Of Fake Memory Sellers Increasing. DT200/128GB Kingston DataTraveler Fakes Continue To Be Sold On eBay.
- 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.
SOSFakeFlash 
InspectorTech said
Update to all,
Every day, sellers in Asia list Kingston usb flash drives at really stupid prices. eBay is going crazy, trying to suspend sellers. New id’s continue to appear.
Our monitoring shows these sellers are determined to list fake kingston usb flash drives. It’s hard to believe but people jump to buy them.
Most victims are usually people who have no idea about the prices for flash memory chips.
Everyone is working hard to expose the sellers.
I think people need to really look at the prices for flash memory chips.
http://www.dramexchange.com/#flash
Note Gb, means you have to divide by 8 for the chip size. “b” means bits not bytes.
For memory cards, scam sellers are making fantastic profits! Tests we receive show almost all people get a 2GB capacity. It doesn’t matter what the advertised size is – 8 GB, 16 GB or 32GB – 2 GB is what people get. The cost for a 2GB chip in a memory card? Less than $5 US!
Memory cards are almost impossible to fix.
Think about it.
USB flash drives for 128GB are sold on eBay for less than $25 US. Twilight Zone… 😦
If you have been scammed, this site and mine this advice for you:
1) spend your time getting a refund.
2) make an effort to send a few messages to other buyers for your seller.
3) forget about trying to repair the item, consider how much time it will cost you. remember if you succeed in fixing it, it can’t be trusted for important data! Most fakes use grade d chips. 😕
If you are really upset, angry? Then do something about it.
Project Manager said
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i bought a 128gb dt200 kingston flash drive, it looked 100% genuine, it come with a UPC code LK and SN number of the back packaging, opened the packaging and it was fantastic quality, even had some number engraved onto the silver part of the flash drive port, i thought if it had all of these theres no chance it could be fake but i was wrong, i am a project manager and i lost my whole project as it could not write anything over 2gb and lost everything over 2gb, i have now lost a £50,000 project, with business contact and procedures, i think they are advancing to make the flash drives look more genuine, i paid £75 for this flash drive, i hope the fucker who sold me this flash drive gets shot on the way home as i am £50,075 out of pocket:( 😦
TechChips said
Project Manager,
You have a disaster situation. A lot of people have lost business information to fake usb flash drives.
Yes, the counterfeiters are getting more sophisticated. There is a lot of money to be made.
No, the people doing this, do not care about the consequences.
You can’t really trust any vendor anymore. It is an infestation.
There isn’t anything we can say, Project Manager to take away the pain of your loss.
It might explain why we fight so hard, at SOSFakeFlash and the other sites. We started in 2008.
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?
Not only are home consumers impacted, businesses, governments, and professionals have suffered data loss. A lot of valuable information has been lost to digitally alerted flash memory chips.
KittyFireFlash said
Project Manager,
We fight and expose fraud for people like you. I understand the meaning of data loss only too well.
Do you have any back up copies on your hard disk or did you only store the files on the usb flash drive?
From your comment it doesn’t sound like you have backups, but used the flash drive as if it was an external hard disk.
Please let us know. File loss to fake usb flash drives have ruined quite a few businesses and also a lot of independent professions.
Project Manager said
the flash drive was my back up version, my computer hard disk failed and so did the flash drive, im ruined 😦
forever89810 said
HAHAHA Shame project manager i fuck u!!!!
TechChips said
Project Manager,
Normally we stay on topic, but your case is serious. Did you have a crash with the OS or did the hard disk die? Did you have seperate partitions for data and the OS?
Given the amount of money you lost, there are companies that specialize in recovering information from corrupted hard disks. You might want to consider this. Unlike flash memory chips, the technology exists to recover information. It’s not easy and it is not cheap. There is a possibility though, they could recover your files or at least some of them.
If it is a case of the OS not booting and you had your data on a different partition, you might want to consult a computer repair shop. They could remove the HD and place it in a usb external drive, connect it to another machine, make the data partition visible and extract. If you only had one partition, with OS and data together, it is also possible to connect and extract but a little more tricky.
BTW, SOSFakeFlash reported a very rude comment received about your situation. They are not sure if it was the seller or somebody pretending to be your seller.
If you want to communicate about your seller, use the email address at this site with details. They say it was a really cheap shot, sick.
You might still have some hope depending on what kind of hard disk failure you had.
Some people think it serves victims right if they bought fake flash memory at cheap prices. Personally I don’t agree. Almost all people who have helped or help fight this problem didn’t know anything about the real costs for flash nand memory chips. It was a hard lesson.
As Kitty says, you are the reason why people fight to expose the problem for flash memory fakes.
Depending on your source and the proof you have, you might like to take the seller to court in your country, report to the local police as well.
Project Manager said
iv taken my hard drive to pc world to have a look and they said its completely gone, they said there is no way you can recover the data on the hard disk. i am in the uk what can i do? any help will be much appreciated. Thanks
KittyFireFlash said
@Project Manger
Try an internet search: Forensic data recovery hard disk failure uk
http://www.datarecoverydoctor.co.uk/
http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/
http://www.datlabs.co.uk/
just to name a few.
Read, research, call the companies.
Unlike flash memory, hard disk platters can be disassembled if necessary in a clean room environment. There is traditional hard disk failures and also willful destruction attempts ( to avoid criminal prosecution). It’s a science championed by law enforcement.
General commercial establishments such as pc world do not have the time or technology to engage in a forensic exercise. Good that you checked though, as there is no point is spending the high priced effort if a simple low cost solution was available.
Google and call the companies, if you are uncomfortable, you might like to drive to the company with your laptop. Given your financial loss and urgency, it might be worth while.
BTW, have you documented and started criminal proceedings against the seller? Who was the seller? Ensure you document everything and keep the information for a court of law. Consider engaging a lawyer.
Project Manager said
iv been fired. i cannot take him to court as i will be sueing for damages over £1m and he will not be able to afford this. theres nothing i can do 😦
James said
Urgent Ebay Fake Card Seller!!!
Ebay ID: sky.huchun
Selling Multiple 32GB Cards and 32GB USB Listings!
Selling fake DT150 Kingston Memory Stick!!
I have already Reported His Listings!
Need More People to Report and Leave Negative Feedback on his account ASAP!
KittyFireFlash said
@James,
It is urgent. We need people to report in on sky.huchun
http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=sky.huchun&Dirn=Received+by
eBay will continue to avoid responsibilty. It is a sad fact but members need to learn the harsh truth.
eBay sellers in Asia continue to be the main source for fake usb flash drives, memory cards and mp players.
It’s up to frauded members to fight back. We will assist and issue alerts if we receive information from buyers who use the Report A Fake tab on our main menu bar.
Unfortunately we can’t do all the work.
Everyone is invited James, to help as they see fit.
It doesn’t matter how or what they do. There is just too much information and evidence now against eBay and other sites who sell fake memory.
Seth, while being a fake flash commando, is unfortunately very accurate and realistic.
If you have proof you were frauded for a fake mp player, memory card or usb flash drive purchased on eBay – act and do what you believe is right.
Be passive, be nice, be naive and this site will be around 10 years from now. eBay, PayPal and fake memory seller on eBay will laugh their way to the bank.
If you think you matter and are agaist fraud, challenge your anger. Do something useful and constructive.
128GB Flash Drive - $19,03 - Page 3 - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net said
[…] Warning – Read This Good Luck! __________________ […]
def said
Once a couple of months ago I ordered some 4 GB SD Cards and what I got was a package with a couple of fake
Datatraveler 200 128 GB
I know some of you got this thing as well…
Up to now I couldn´t find any Tool to fix those to anything, most of the big chips ( I assume the memory ) do not have a print
on them but now when I opened all of the sticks I found some with this print
M-HL – 8G
A511-0811001
Sadly Flashgenius doesn´t know those.
The controller-chip in most cases
MW8209
IPM122541-1 or IPM122541-3 or IPM131251-6
09HT0515 or POI-HT9P8
Does anybody know what these chips are and how they can be fixed ?
.def
alinr said
anyone checked dhgate.com ? there are thousands of listings with 128 , 256 , even 500 gb flash drives. give a look and then a thought , pls..i wanted to order, but i thought that i should give a search on google about fake flash drives first, and i landed here .
DragonDakel said
@Alinr
About dhgate.com, see:
SOSFakeFlash DHGate
FakeMemorySentinel DHGate