Alert – fly_sky9898 – Ebay Fake Flash Seller

fly_sky9898 is an eBay seller of Counterfeit usb flash drives, recently discovered. As Of September 25th over 300 drives have been sold. fly_sky9898 started listing more counterfeit drives on September 9th, 2008. They are the older classic fakes, reprogrammed to appear to be 16 GB.

Rolling off the eBay listing line with alarming speed, we found 50 avaiable for sale, under bid or buy now. A previous listing spreed of fake drives occured in August, 2008. If you bought a drive from this seller test immediately!

Alert – mp4man aka khaldon70 – Ebay Fake Flash Seller – UK India

mp4man previously known as khaldon70 is an eBay seller of Counterfeit usb flash drives targeting the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. He listed hundreds of counterfeit 16GB and 32GB drives – many buyers are at risk for data loss.

When eBayers began reporting counterfeit drives to the seller, he immediately changed his seller id from khaldon70 to mp4man. He did not stop selling. As negatives poured in, mp4man aka khaldon70 made his feedback private. He is no longer listing on eBay. If you bought a usb flash drive from either seller id you are at risk of data loss. Despite the obvious evasion this fake flash seller has tried you can still pursue a claim and report him. To learn more…

Alert – epc*vauxhall – Ebay Fake Flash Seller – UK

epc*vauxhall is a an ebay fake flash seller who targeted the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. Based in the UK, epc*vauxhall sold many 32GB fake flash drives in a very short period of time. The listings rolled off the assembly line by the hour. Current estimates are between 320 to 720 drives. SOSFakeFlash is unable to review the completed listings due to the clever use of an asterik in the sellers name. It confuses the eBay search engine. The seller is not currently listing. These auctions continued to churn off the assembly line after August 18th, 2008, – despite the warning issued by an eBayer (code name – Teacup ).

Kaho.Chan – eBay Fake Flash Seller – Tricks eBayer

kaho.chan eBay fake flash seller tricks eBayer into closing PayPal dispute with the promise of a full refund. Many eBayers fall into this trap, being honest they expect others to be honest and as an eBay seller honorable as well. Saddly this is how the world should work, but it does not. If you are disputing with a fake flash seller who makes a very profitable living from selling counterfeit drives – that alone should warn you. SuperNova’s story hightlights what happens if you trust a fake flash sellers words.

PayPal Shields EBay Fake Flash Seller 3ToTrade – Odyssey of IronCliff

eBayers continue to battle eBay fake flash seller 3ToTrade. 94 counterfeit drives have been investigated and confirmed fake as of September 14, 2008. PayPal has been warned repeatly – eBay too. SOSFakeFlash is convinced that both companies have serious issues in addressing fraud – their communication channels to dialogue with customers almost non-existent. It is a small wonder then, why counterfeit flash drive sellers have had a wonderful life on eBay for so many years. They pull the strings and both companies dance in confusion.

Many eBayers with fake flash drives actually believed in PayPal and eBay. Remember IronCliff?

See: PayPal – How Investigations On Counterfeit USB Flash Drive Sellers On Ebay Could Be Raised

Here is the sad ending of the next chapter for IronCliff.

Whatcools – eBay Fake Flash Seller – Lies And Deception

eBayers continue to battle eBay fake flash seller whatcools. The lies and deception are amazing. This seller does not seem to be aware that eBayer know exactly what he is up to. He does know that for some reason, usb flash drives are being tested properly the moment they arrive.

He knows his seller score is being damaged. Negative and Neutral feedback is pouring in. Still he tries to deceive his buyers.

3ToTrade – Don Of Fake USB Flash Drives In The Orient

3ToTrade sells counterfeit usb flash drives. This is no innocent eBay seller. Highly skilled at manipulating eBay, PayPal and Buyers – this Powerseller remains crowned as the “Don Of Fake USB Flash Drives In the Orient “. Offering the new generation of counterfeit USB Flash drives with enough genuine capacity to squeak past testing of even the suspicious buyers, he evaded detection for a long time.

Why we have given him the title “Don Of Fake USB Flash Drives In The Orient”, will be revealed in this article and others in this series. The depth of his fraud is astonishing.

Update September 2nd, 2009 – Read: eBay Fraud – Heng Fung House – Home To eBay Counterfeit Ring – Lei Sio Hong. Connected To The Don Of Fake Flash In the Orient – 3ToTrade. SOSFakeFlash Investigation.

Shopwithmela eBay Fake Flash Seller Controlled by 3ToTrade

Shopwithmela is an eBay seller of Counterfeit usb flash drives. A fairly recent id that appeared on Ebay in March 2008. Controlled by the eBay seller ID 3ToTrade, Shopwithmela has sold many fake flash drives. Currently not active in selling fake flash at the time of this post – this eBay seller id is hibernating attempting to repair it’s powerseller score.

PayPal – Reasons To File Dispute For Counterfeit Flash Drives Purchased On eBay

Why should you file a dispute with PayPal against a seller of counterfeit flash drives on eBay? As we have said many times – eBay and PayPal can do litte against a counterfeit seller if people do not report or file complaints. We advise avoiding direct contact with a seller if you have tested and found you bought a fake. Here is why.

3ToTrade – Communication with The Don Of Fake Flash – HarryEvidence

HarryEvidence has been battling 3ToTrade for his refunds for fake flash drives. The following is a selection of email communications in chronological order as presented to us by HarryEvidence. It does not begin at the early stages but when things started to heat up.

What is This Fake Flash All About?

Exactly when it began, is a mystery to all of us. What is clear is that it was detected on eBay back in 2005. This can easily be verified by querying the internet. As the demand for higher capacity drives grew and as they were very expensive, someone found a way to reprogram controller chips on flash drives. Or that is what people think. The truth is more likely that people saw an opportunity to make money by using the genuine tools for programming the controller chips in an illegal manner. Purposely choosing the wrong parameters to report the existing flash drive size as higher than they really are.

Fake Flash Sellers eBay Report 20080902

eBay Flash Drive sellers, wonder if they sell fakes? Do you wonder which eBayer countries have been stung by fake flash USB drive purchases on eBay? Not certain which seller to chose? Well you are not alone.

We can’t really tell you about the honest sellers – we know they exist but they are being drowned out by the counterfeit flash drive sellers on ebay. We can tell you who has been caught with their hands in the counterfeit fake flash cookie jar.

Fake Flash Sellers Stopped eBay Report 20080902

This report lists eBay Sellers identified with the selling of counterfeit drives on eBay and who have been stopped. The information comes from the FrankenFlash Project’s sub group: eBayers Against False Capacity Drives.

For the first time information kept in-house and confidental is being released to the public. Note that if a seller was a victim, the seller is identified as such. See the article: Bay Sellers Can Be Victims – How Does This Happen? for details.

Unfortuately, those stopped do start again when they think the coast is clear to begin once more – it is a never ending battle and little help has come from eBay or PayPal directly so far. The best we can do at this point is leave a bread crumb trail for them to follow. It seems to help, to a degree.  Fakessellersstopped20080902.pdf  Future reports may be released, at best on a monthly basis.

Buying Flash Drives On eBay – How To Protect Yourself

Are there a lot of fake flash drives on eBay?

Sadly, the answer is YES!

Does eBay know about the problem?

YES, the internet is drowning in evidence dating back to 2005.

Why doesn’t eBay stop the traffic in false capacity flash drives?

That is something everyone is asking and has been asking for a number of years. Nobody seems to have the answer, but we can guess at reasons.

What is known, is that if enough people file disputes for a fake drive,  it makes a difference. The red lights begin to flash at the dispute console. Some Sellers stop selling entirely, others stop listing these fake drives. The problem is, there are always new Sellers waiting to take their place.

Are there steps you can take to protect your self from becoming a victim of a false capacity drive?

YES!

Read on for a defense in bidding on flash drives.