Contact
sosfakeflashdrive@gmail.com or leave a comment for the readers to answer.
We are part of the FrankenFlash Project and to do the work being invisible is important. More information will be coming but the urgency for counterfeit flash awareness matters more. It is the priority.
Many people have lost money, some a lot. But….
It does not matter what price paid for the drive – who can put a price on data copied to it? Documents. Photos. Memories? If the source data has been deleted – these files are gone forever. The loss will mean different things to different people.
We are unable to reveal exactly what the data loss can mean or where it has occurred. A lot has to remain confidential. People’s jobs are at stake. Some could face court martials. There is no reason to make people victims a second time – the experience was traumatic enough.
It is frightening to learn just who has been a victim of counterfeit flash drives. Causal users to the most savvy about technology, together they tumble in the fake flash pit. Quiet a few have been rescued by the fake flash angels. No, we can’t elaborate on what that means – only almost all are victims of fake flash drives. It is not just buyers of fake flash on the warpath, sellers are too. Both are working together. Why? If you are a victim of Fake Flash it would be easy understand. If you have not been a victim, think of how you would feel if someone took a hammer to your hard disk or shredded or snapped all your data cd’s, dvds and old floppies – how would you feel about the loss?
See The post What is This Fake Flash All About?
What keeps us going?
“Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed people
can change the world.
Indeed, it’s the only thing
that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead
china-fake-flash
polls-fake-flash
 |
SOSFakeFlash 
Mary said
Hi folks – here is a copy of a message I sent to ebay about this:
I bought (and paid immediately for)a USB flash drive from ren-ren-buy under 24 hours ago. It has vanished from my won item list. The seller is still an ebay member but all listings have suddenly vanished.
What is going on? Did ebay remove the seller’s items? Did the seller remove the listings? What happens if my item does not arrive or it does arrive and turns out to be a fake capacity drive? As the listings are gone I can’t even report the item or open a dispute about it if there is a problem. Please advise.
matthew steele said
ren-ren buy was selling counterfeits my guessing is ebay have banned him or suspended his account
i would put in a claim via paypal as item not recieved explain seller is no longer valid – & escalate into a claim & youll have your money back -if you do recieve pls check stick with the h2testw
matthew steele said
whilst ebay have trashed out a few of the ring members new ones are beginning to appear – the mastermind behind the ring must be quite thick as his flow of false feedback & new names that are bought in only exposes the larger power sellers.. I want you all to look at fiona-1986 how did our mastermind register another uk member – feedback for fiona shows another transcend 32gb counterfiet seller cool.park who is currently selling item 270357170821 – fiona has also highlighted other gang members once again elect-republic ( 473), crispy_garlic ( 612), low-cost-area ( 160), vanilla-market ( 170) , simply-item ( 306).
johnson3843 ( 38) can also be added to the new members list & yes the above members leave feedback in the same way.. if ebay had listened to me almost 3 weeks ago they would not be in this mess now – i gave them clear insight what this bunch was up to & they not only ignored but have ripped off the uk & world ebayers of there hard earned money with these counterfeit sales. now all please take note to this ebay Notice & yes you can LOL
eBay is committed to the fight against counterfeit products because:
Trust in our site is undermined by the presence of counterfeits
It’s illegal
Buying a counterfeit is a bad consumer experience
Honest sellers face lower average selling prices
At eBay, we’re constantly looking at better ways to prevent counterfeit sellers from trading on our site, including:
Proactively removing blatant counterfeits
Removing items reported to us as counterfeit by over 18,000 brand owners
Removing counterfeit sellers from the site
Working closely with Law Enforcement to prosecute offenders
Enforcing selling limits on items favoured by counterfeiters
Restricting seller activity in certain categories
Providing free tools for Right Owners to efficiently identify and report items
Key Stats:
Counterfeits are a global challenge, with some estimates claiming they account for over seven per cent of world trade
In 2007, 2.2 million potentially counterfeit listings were removed across all eBay sites
We also eBay suspended approximately 50,000 sellers and blocked 40,000 previously suspended sellers from coming back
Virtually 100% of the reported listings judged to be counterfeit are removed, 95% of them before the listing ends, 90% within 12 hours, and the majority of them within 4 hours
eBay spends over £10 million annually on maintaining a safe site and has over 2,000 employees around the world to help with the fight against counterfeits
In 2007, we trained 7,000 law enforcement officials and assisted in over 66,000 investigations and in the arrest or conviction of over 500 individuals
Paul said
Hi,
I appear to have two 16GB SDHC cards from phonebase113 which won’t format in my camcorder and at least one seems to contain the Win32:Small-LYJ trojan (Avast’s name for it). I can’t find any reference to this on your site but I do see reference to viruses in his -ve feedback. Is this something new and do you have any advice?
All the best,
Paul.
KittyFireFlash said
To Paul
We’ve heard about viruses too, but have little information on. We do know that reprogramming is a “back alley” kind of operation, probably farmed out to people on a piece or lot basis. There are a lot of desperate unemployeed people or those trying to earn a little extra cash on the side. The tools often come from download sites that are not screened for viruses.
We are not condoning what the reprogrammers are doing. It is possible that many do not fully understand the ramifications of what they are doing. They are not the ones making the big profits, the distributors and sellers do.
We have had reports a few odd reports over the months where fake flash sellers received flak from buyers not getting their orders and where the sellers complained back saying their “computers” were down for some time due to viruses entering the system. Hmmm…
When it comes to viruses – it is good to get a second opinion – run an online scanner. There are flash positives sometimes. Programs that interact with low level hardware are often flagged this way. It depends on what the settings are for a computer.
Are you able to remove the virus with Avast? I’d be very careful here. A low level reflashing of the memory card should wipe it. See the other posts on repairing advice.
If I had a report of a trojan on a memory card or usb drive I would remove it quickly from my computer. I would only try a repair perhaps on a machine that was not important to me. The hours trying to clean a machine and the paranoia panic that goes with it isn’t worth the pounds lost to a fake flash purchase.
Not all reprogamming or hacking is quality work.
Has anyone else had virus and trojan cleaning experiences to share?
PS my little fleet of fake flash usb drives that were repaired are used as ambulances – clean up kits for infected computers that have to be taken off the internet. I don’t trust them for important data storage. File transfer and high risk situations are their new duties.
matthew steele said
The Hong Kong ring is no more now just spotted the last few which are no longer registered – thanks to sosflash for highlighting the issue with the transcend stick – & finally ebay for realising they had made a mistake although i got no apology from them for my short suspension – more fraudsters to fish now – but thanks all the crew for your hard work
matt
gazduire said
never bought from ebay and will not buy soon, i consider is pretty risky, for less few bucks does not worth the risk for me… especially with flash drives.
Anton Bolfa said
Help me please, want to purchase wholesale usb-flash with a volume higher what 16 GB and to that is now at the market. Send a heap all with suggestions to 128/240/360/500 GB . Give the addresses of company which do not cheat. Help quickly buy in from 3000 to 60 000 $ in a month.
—
FlashChipTutor said
To Anton
The FrankenFlash Project is not involved in sales and we do not keep track of companies that are genuine.
Please read up on:
There is no such thing as a real usb flash drive (pen stick) in the capacities of: 128/240/360/500 GB . There will not be for a long time. 128GB is on the drawing board but will not be available for a long time.
Right now the highest available to consumers are 32GB and 64GB. These sizes are still being worked on to improve them. They are also expensive. The bigger the size the more you can expect to pay. The higher the flash chip is in size the higher the price. The largest flash chip made right now is 16GB and so you need four of them to get a 64GB flash drive.
People unfortunately think there is a lot of money to be made selling usb flash drives (pen sticks) – the sad truth is for genuine ones, there is not a very high profit margin. It is small. It is made up for by selling in high volume.
Anton, please contact the brand name manufacturers for assistence on who you might deal with and who might be a good provider. You might want to consider becoming one of their authorized distributors.
One should NOT confuse usb flash drives (pen sticks) with SSD – Solid State Drives. SSD are flash drives which are in fact hard disks, only using a different technology than the old mechanical ones we are familiar with. More info is planned as education at the new site in the next months. SSD flash drives are made in much larger capacites. They can be as they can be the size of hard disks. Pen sticks can not, they are small and thin. SSD flash drives in high capacities are not cheap either.
It is a myth that there is a lot of money to be made selling usb flash drives – or at least the genuine ones. We know from honest sellers. Some right now, are being forced to sell them below cost to try and recover at least part of their investment. Why? Because they bought at higher prices and could not move their stock because of the all the fraudsters and scammers selling cheap for fakes! So they are trying to leave selling flash usb drives as soon as they clear their stock. The cost of being honest, is having lost a lot of money.
Anton please contact genuine brand names to discuss. Find out what you could expect to make as an authorized reseller. You probably will not make more than $5 per flash drive. Not sure. You can see what happened to one honest seller in this article:
The flashdrivefacts site is trying very hard to keep people out of trouble or getting into it. Instead of chasing fake flash sellers as a rule, it is trying to be preventative and to educate people about the truth. To stop or reduce the problem BEFORE it happens for both buyers and resellers.
To Everyone
The ultimate goal of the FrankenFlash Project is? A fake flash free world. It is a wonderful technology. A needed and useful technology but it should not be abused by people out to make a quick profit at the expense of others and causing what we call “Data Poison” . This reprogamming plague has caused so much harm – financial loss and data loss. So far within the eBay world over 60 countries have been impacted. It has hit government institutions, many small businesses and computer users like you and I.
Selling flash based items can lead to a modest profit but it is not going to lead to hugh profits.
Anton Bolfa said
Hello Said
Thank you for a help and bezopastnost’ but all the same then say where to search the honest salespeople of USB with whom to trade, where not deception . Who have such salespeople tested ! you can help me quickly salespeople are then needed to 64 GB but again boishsya to get on thieves.If it is possible send the copy of answer on my mail
DS said
Just a question, the contat info you provided for paypal:
complaint-response@pay pal.co.uk
Europeanservices@pay pal.com
service@pay pal.co.uk
I assume it’s UK only, is the same address valid if I want to contact the “main branch” of paypal? Or is th main branch located at UK?
KittyFireFlash said
To DS
It is best you check inside your PayPal account for your local address. The general address is complaint-response@paypal.com
We get addresses from victims. Contacting PayPal is not something they have made easy to do. Check your account to find information for your region. If you don’t find telephone numbers send them a message asking for them. Keep the emails as documentation proof. Their email robots are not that bright and if they fail to respond in a timely manner you will need proof. Post the info for your country if you like to help others.
harcrid said
I bought a 16Gb USB Drive Pen Memory Stick on 19th.March, 2009. It arrived on 31st.March and was a fake, not able to store or tranfer Data. I requested an £11 refund from Guople who promised a replacement ASAP. It hadn’t been received by 20th.April so I have complained to PayPal. When I tried to leave Feed Back on Ebay today it says that Guople are no longer a Registered Ebay Trader. A success, but appolly are still offering same items.
KittyFireFlash said
To Harcrid
So you noticed that too, about guople and appolly? Well there are previous incarnations with exactly the same calling cards:
appolly
caipemz
dengkimz
guople
lxmei98
mdongdisk119
pangoal
wusimz
Guople is now in the suspended most likely “retired” id list. But you are right appolly is still tredding water under powerseller status. Only eBayers can pull him under by contacting buyers to test and race to the paypal dispute console and of course adding another NEGATIVE IN FEEDBACK to wall him in.
To Everyone
When eBay suspends a seller – deregister and you can’t leave feedback, you can always leave your negative feedback here at SOSFakeFlash. Use the search box and type in the sellers name and if there is an alert on him, comment away!
If there isn’t one yet, do two things: find a post to leave a comment on and of course report your fake to us.
We can and do issue alerts on sellers even if dated. Why? You would be suprised how people find them and report in, months after the purchase. You don’t forget the ebay seller who sold you a fake very easily. Especially if and when you start to lose your files. They are lighthouses. Sign posts preserving the truth.
Randy said
Looks like Fake Flash Drives are now appearing on Amazon.com. Will be interesting to see if they handle the situation better than EBay/Paypal.
This site refers back to SOSFakeFlash :
http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/33110.aspx
Interesting post about the 64GB Kingston drives being repackaged 2GB Kingston drives.
Anton Bolfa said
Hello Said.
Thank you for that you talk where deception, but there is a question and where to purchase and ukogo to purchase then usb .Ya already to you zadoval question but you answered me nothing. Say for whom in kitae it is then possible to buy a commodity?
kittyfireflash said
To Anton
We have given you suggestions in previous replies to your comments. SOSFakeFlash is not a sales and marketing organization. S O S – is rescue, advice and warning to aid consumers and sellers in avoiding or addressing the consequences of having purchased these MP Players, memory cards or usb flash drives.
The response to you in https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/contact-us/#comment-1543 did provide you with information. Your interest is in massive import and sales. You need to decide if you want to sell brand name or generic. If brand name items begin contacting these companies to discuss the possibility of becoming a reseller in your country and to determine the realistic profit margins. If generic, you have a challenge ahead and a lot of research to do. You will have to research available sellers in the orient, buy only 1 or 2 items per seller and then test to see if they deliver true capacity. If you chose this option be careful as under some id’s the offering are mixed – true capacity and also fake capacity. One of the most important factors that can help you is price.
You may wish to write to famous chip manufactures such as samsung and hynix and ask them what the realistic prices are for flash drive chips. Tell them your interest in selling locally and mention that you wish to avoid being caught in the black market for fake chips. You could ask them if they recommend any Fab’s in China with whom you might do business – direct. You expressed an interest in very high volume 3,000 to 5,000 unites etc per month.
In setting up a new product line for sale locally, there is effort and research involved. Part of doing business. We have our hands full just trying to help and educate people who have become victims of these fakes. We are not merchants or sellers of this technology.
Perhaps resellers who might read at our site, will leave advice or comments to assist you.
To Resellers
Do you know of safe suppliers in China for Anton? Do you have any recommendations for him?
Jim said
I bought 6 mp players on ebay, all from hong kong sellers and not one of them has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KittyFireFlash said
To Jim
Depending on when you purchased, please race to file disputes with PayPal. Make sure you do this before your time runs out and do not bother contacting sellers or you might lose out.
If items are not arriving from Hong Kong, Grin, thank your lucky stars. SOSFakeFlash is not in a position to say more, just be grateful that you were spared!
To Everyone
Do not expect us to answer any questions on why MP Players or Memory Cards or usb flash drives are not showing up at your door. Just sigh with relief, make sure that you file your claim with paypal in the 45 day window and live a fake flash free life!
Skip buying these items on ebay. Save up to buy genuine items locally from retail stores and please… stop looking for unreasonable prices! If you want it all for nothing, that is what you can expect to receive. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but the recent data review indicates if you expect a super bargain on ebay – you WILL BECOME A FAKE FLASH VICTIM!
Don’t moan about not receiving your fake. Just file a claim and leave appropriate negative feedback and be grateful that “something” tried to protect you from harm!
Ora said
When I put my ebay name ora9634 in Google I see you have a negative notice on me. I didn’t know these 8gb drives had only 1gb and I removed them from my listings as soon as I tested them with h2testw-1. How can I get this negative notice removed from google? I have already lost $1500.00 on these bad drives. I had no idea they were defective.
kittyfireflash said
To Ora
A request for further investigation has been sent regarding your id ora9634. About https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/report-a-fake/#comment-183 have you reviewed the details on this and the timeline?
C Gueths said
Ora Waterford (ebay seller Ora9634) finally did admit that he received my original flash drive back & proceeded to send me a replacement which (not surprisingly) didn’t have 8gb capacity on it either. I asked the seller and even took the time to tell him how to test the drive himself but he kept insisting that he had tested it and it was fine. I finally gave up and hoped that my complaint here would prevent others from getting ripped off. I still have the replacement drive in the original package. Do you suppose he will give me my money back for it now?
Rebecca said
I wrote the Bright Hub article on fake 128gb drives mentioned in post # 65, Is There Really a 128GB USB Flash Drive Out There? http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/33110.aspx.There are pictures in the Bright Hub article of the 128GB fake drive if anyone needs to refer to them, as well as the pictures of the repackaged fake 64GB drive.
I also sent all information on the fake 128GB drive I found to Amazon Customer Service, and they have removed the faked 128GB drive sold on Amazon Marketplace from the Amazon site.
Information from SOSFAKEFLASH.com was used as one of the sources required by Amazon to have material removed.
SOSFAKEFLASH.com was very useful for my research for the article.
Rebecca said
Thanks- You can click on any writer’s name by their article, and it will take you to a page where you can send a message to them. I’m glad the article is useful- it has gotten quite a lot of views. I think this site is great. It is where I learned the information about how to test suspect drives, and also the extent of the problem on eBay. I started doing research for an article on what is the biggest USB flash available, and found a lot about fakes. I thought it was well worth doing as an informative article before I started the other article. 🙂
KittyFireFlash said
Hi Rebecca
Gee. You have us all blushing. Actually we keep on working because people appreciate our sites. It is helping.
FlashChipTutor is very happy these days. http://flashdrivefacts.wordpress.com/ His site is preventative and a lot of traffic coming in is about size searches. Unfortunately he is overwhelmed with the day job right now but wants to do more articles on nand technology. He thinks that a lot of people are NOT buying from internet wholesalers in the Orient because of the catolgue.
More research is needed. We wish there were more ways to get the message out on the true costs of nand flash chips. Cost is a strong indicator – where fakes are concerned. The true profit margin on usb flash drives, mp players and memory cards is small. Big retail chains when they have sales – very true in North America make their profit in volume of units not per item. They also do deals to clear old stock for manufacturers. But nobody sells below cost.
Europe doesn’t have a lot of “sales” it is a strange concept. Eastern Europe is very hard hit by fake flash and other areas of the world where it these items in true capacity are still very expensive. Rural areas are another problem, few stores – the post man is the best option and cyber space the solution.
The people who suffer the most from fake flash are those who can least afford it.
It’s a dirty secret that has been around for a long time. We are exposing it at all the sites. Not popular with many.
If it is not stopped, it will have serious implications for nand technology where flash drive chips are concerned.
We just had a report on a 2GB flash drive, real capacity? 128MB! Also on a video card. How soon before we will be hearing about SSD drives? We dread that!!!!!
The long term goal is to end the reprogamming of flash chips to lie about their true capacity. Can it be achieved? We think so. But is will not happen overnight. It needs everyone contributing. Our experience so far indicates that expecting “companies” to do the right thing… will not happen. They have to be dragged kicking and screaming to address the issue.
About 14 months ago, one person got their knickers in a twist. We think the wrong person was sold fake flash, Rebecca. We can’t say why here, but the result was the drums began to beat in the internet jungle and soon there were responses. People united. The power of one, become the power of many.
Until the issue is addressed, people will lose money, data, memories.
Everyone has a voice. If you don’t like it. Fight back.
To Everyone
Every little action helps. You don’t have to do something big. Even just fighting your claim on ebay, reporting test results, leaving negative or doing a little research on the internet helps.
You the “One” become the many!
We thank everyone who shares, leaves comments or reports in! You the readers, make this site!
Ora said
I refunded her $17.95 so I would appreciate it if you would remove this negative comment about ora9634 from the Google search.
James Greenidge said
Folks, this more than just about being swindled.
Thousands of these fake drives have been purchased on eBay and Amazon as graduation and birthday and gifts and party flavors and are landing in the unwary hands of those who jobs cannot tolerate data corrupted by one missing digit. When you walk past a hospital or construction site or industrial plant, someone there is plugging a flash drive into computers for precise medical and drug formula info or to feed instructions to heavy machinery or control a chemical plant or an aspect of our communications infrastructure. Maybe even computers aboard military aircraft and ships! This is an insidious blight that deserves FAR more attention by media and government than it has.
Please write to your local TV station and political representative about this pernicious blight! The person you eventually help might be you! Would you want the doctor or med tech managing your mother in a hospital to be carrying a fake flash?
Please post this on other sites too!
James Greenidge
Queens, NY
THH said
Dear sosff:
Your site has been great help. I was victimized by fengfeng_joy2008; the following is our exchange:
Sunday, July 5, 2009 10:52 PM
You are the winning buyer for the item below. Thank you for your business!
Item title: 32GB SDHC SD Secure Digital Memory Card 32GB 32 Go New
Web address: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280357029412
Item number: 280357029412
Buyer User ID: THH
Seller User ID: fengfeng_joy2008
Your total is:
$20.00 per item
Sunday, July 5, 2009 10:56 PM
We hope you enjoy your purchase. Your payment has been received.Thank you very much. Your business is much appreciated.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 11:02 PM
I have shipped the following item to you. You should be receiving it shortly. Once your item arrives in satisfactory condition, please leave positive feedback for me,we will do the same!:)
Thank you again!
Wednesday, July 14, 2009 2:06 PM
Dear Fengfeng: I read that many ebay sellers are selling fake 32GB SD-HD cards that can be easily tested https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/
Some of your feedback claims yours are fake.
If the item you are sending me is counterfeit, please refund my paypal account.
Sincerely,
THH
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:32 AM
Dear buyer,
Thanks for your email!
Have you received the item and well tested it?If any problem,let us solve it together,thanks!
Best regards
Thursday, July 16, 2009 4:37 PM
Dear Fengfeng:
Yes, I have received the card and tested it and it did not test well – it is a 4gb slow (about class 2 speed) card that has been maliciously and purposely altered to squawk as a 32gb. This is not a defect; it is fraud.
Sincerely,
THH
Thursday, July 16, 2009 6:00 PM
Dear buyer,
We are sorry for the inconvenience to you, maybe part of the inner chipsets are out of work now, If still not work well and you do not want to keep it for other use, would you ship it back to the following add. first?
Ms.Yan Na
Room823, GuoLi Building, New Asia Mansion, HuaqiangBei, Futian District,ShenZhen, P.R.China 518000
When arranging shipping back,pls take a photo of the parcel and send to us, then we will refund for you asap,thanks!
Your patience and kindness will bring your whole family good luck!
Best regards
Thursday, July 16, 2009 11:35 PM
Dear fengfeng via paypal,
Your “32GB” card is an altered 4GB card. I warned you of this possibility before I received it and asked you to refund my account. Now you ask that I send it back for a refund; however, as it is contraband, I have notified a law enforcement agency, The USPS Postal Inspectors Office, in our country and am retaining it as evidence.
The item was tested using H2testw software, with the following result:
The media is likely to be defective.
3.9 GByte OK (8280784 sectors)
27.2 GByte DATA LOST (57220400 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
27.2 GByte corrupted (57220400 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000000fcb5a000
Expected: 0x00000000fcb5a000
Found: 0xffffffffffffffff
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 1.86 MByte/s
Reading speed: 6.15 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
Friday, July 17, 2009 1:27 AM [FROM PAYPAL]
Hello THH,
You received a full or partial refund of $20.00 USD from Feng Yao Qin.
To see all the transaction details, please log into your PayPal account. It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account.
Seller information
Name: Feng Yao Qin
Email: fengfeng_joy@126.com
Note from Seller: Dear buyer, Sorry for the trouble to you! Maybe part of chipset is out of work now! We refunded for you, you can keep the card for other use! Your good comment to this deal will bring your whole family good luck! Best regards
Friday, July 17, 2009 1:27 AM
Hello THH,
This email confirms that your dispute with Feng Yao Qin is now closed.
Either you have reached a resolution with the seller or the dispute has
been open for more than 20 days.
Thank you,
PayPal
End result is I have my refund and I still have the contraband SD_HC. I have sent notice to the USPS Postal Inspectors Office, eBay and paypal. But not heard back from them, yet.
Any suggestions for the next step?
Sincerely,
THH
KittyFireFlash said
Hi TTH,
That is going to be your name here. At the moment we are busy processing evidence from victims.
The next step(s):
1) We will put your communication – comment into it’s very own article. Your story.
2) Issue an Alert
3) Issue the Connection , our fengfeng_joy2008 is no innocent.
Once your story conversation is out you can update on your progress with USPS Postal Inspectors Office, eBay and paypal.
We will try to give this one high priorty.
Everyone, you have no idea how important your address information for sellers really is. Most of us have a bad habit of throwing out the shipping envelopes right away.
Ed said
I like to suggest, whoever orders SD cards that are fraud. File a complaint with Pay Pal, that you did NOT receive cards.
All the seller does is ship regular mail with no proof of sending out cards. When Pay Pal ask them to verify shipping, they don’t have any receipt they did. Pay Pal will refund money, I was told.
Thanks
THH said
Dear sosff;
Thank you for your efforts; I am sure they help others as they have helped me.
I have left the negative feedback with the seller – noting your site and the test results.
Paypal customer service was quick to respond, though their email does say if they are actually going to do anything other than acknowledging my complaint:
Dear THH:
Thank you for contacting PayPal with a possible violation of PayPal’s
Acceptable Use Policy.
In the future, follow the instructions below if you encounter a seller’s
website that you feel may violate our Acceptable Use Policy:
1. Log in to your PayPal account at https://www.paypal.com/.
2. Click the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of the PayPal webpage.
3. Click “Contact Customer Service.”
4. Under “Choose a Topic,” select “Protections/Privacy/Security.”
5. Under “Choose a Subtopic,” select “User Agreement.”
Please be as specific as possible in the message you enter, and include
a description of the prohibited item(s) being sold.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Please let us know
if you need further assistance.
If you have any questions, please contact the PayPal Acceptable Use
Policy Department at aup@paypal.com.
Sincerely,
Taressa
PayPal Acceptable Use Policy Department
PayPal, an eBay Company
Original Message Follows:
————————
Form Message
customer subject: Will you stop a seller of fake SD-HC cards?
customer message: The URL (web address) of the site selling the items
(optional):
‘http://cgi.ebay.com/New-##GB-SDHC-SD-Secure-Digital-Memory-Card-##GB-##
-Go_W0QQitemZ280370118295QQihZ018QQcategoryZ18871QQssPage’
The email address of the seller (optional): ‘fengfeng@###.com’
Additional Information: ‘This subject is selling counterfeit ##GB SD-HC
cards and requires paypal. Items are shipped via post. I have tested the
card using H#testw software and found it to be an altered #GB card with
false programming.
I have notified the USPS Postal Inspectors Office and filed a compliant
through your resolution system PP-###-###-###. I need no further
communication with the seller; I just need you to stop helping him steal
from others.
Sincerely,
THH
*Note: number redactions are paypals
THH said
Dear sosff:
A typo on the above message – should read “Paypal…does NOT say if….”
Sorry.
jono said
hi i bought one of the it seems common silver and leather fake flash drives, sold as 16gb but according to chip genius is only 3.7 (4?)downloaded the following programs: UdTools1_0_4_6_20081010 and MPTool-2007103-Fix-Usb-key neither of which recognize my flash… what should i do? here are the stats from chip genius:
PnP Device ID: VID = 1221 PID = 3234
Serial Number: 100000000000089A
Revision: 2.50
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: micov
Chip Part-Number: MXT8208
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: (N/A)
and from h2testw:
Warning: Only 15983 of 15984 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
3.7 GByte OK (7840586 sectors)
11.8 GByte DATA LOST (24892598 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
5.5 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 11 sectors)
11.8 GByte corrupted (24892587 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000000e8d7e2a0
Expected: 0x59d93b657ff142a0
Found: 0x59d13b657ff142a0
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 7.58 MByte/s
Reading speed: 7.38 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
InspectorTech said
Jono, see the fixfakeflash site and look in the categories for the MXT8208 controller. See the russian site for what they have. Worse case you may have to open the usb flash drive to verify the controller chip and the flash drive chip. Some of us had to wait unit a programme was made available to do the repairs.
Roger Mallory said
I am posting my latest letter to ebay regarding a fake mp3 player I bought from Fleabase (Currently no longer posting any listings). The device advertised 16GB and only has 4GB confirmed by H2test and also I opened it up and photographed the flash memory ID # and looked it up and found its specs confirming 4GB capacity. I propose that all who are willing send a similar email to ebay requesting they post a fraud warning page with appropriate links as outlined below. Who knows, maybe if enough people harrass them, they will respond.
Cheers.
To whom it may concern:
I opened a dispute b/c the item is fake and have the evidence to prove it. No one from ebay or paypal has responded to my offer to send the device or pictures to prove the fraud. Sellers of fake mp3 players are still actively selling fake devices though you have been notified by multiple victims of the fraud.
I and others have suggested you post a warning page outlining the problem with flash drives and mp3 players that have had their memory controllers altered to report to the computer a false memory capacity with links to download H2test which will quickly and accurately document the flash drives true capacity and expose the fraud.
If you did this, you would quickly expose these fraudulent sellers and get them removed and you would actually be protecting victimized buyers. The fact that known sellers of fake devices currently have multiple listings for fake devices and the fact that all correspondence with both paypal and ebay has fallen of deaf ears is appalling.
Posting a warning page regarding frequently counterfeited items and how buyers can protect themselves and quickly expose the fraud before time expires on their window to open a dispute would be easy to do and it would be effective at curtailing this epidemic problem. Why have you not done this? I read an article posted by ebay stating that only a tiny percentage of transactions on ebay are counterfeit. Well if no one reports it or ebay/paypal ignores it, the stats look good.
According to sosfakeflash.com thousands of fake drives are being sold on ebay everyday. Since most people format the device and their computer reports the advertised capacity, they don’t realize its true capacity is only a fraction of what their computer says. They don’t run into a problem until they try to put more data on the device than it will hold; then, the files that go beyond the true capacity are listed as present, but the data in those files is “corrupted.”
Since the device continues to report to the computer a false high capacity, the victim thinks that something went wrong with the process of downloading the data. They try to delete the corroupted files only to discover that they can’t be deleted. They are forced to re-format the device to get rid of the corrupted files. Since re-formatting does not change the settings in the memory controller, the device still reports a false high capacity. Then when they try to re-download the data, the same thing happens again.
At some point they conclude the device is defective; usually after the designated time frame for getting a refund. Since they don’t cost that much, most people just bag it and order a new device or give up on cheap chinese devices; but they never realize that they were lied to and the device never actually had the advertised capacity.
Fixing the memory controller on these devices can be done, but requires a great deal of computer knowledge that only a few technicians possess; so most people never figure it out. Therefore; they are not contacting you. You know about this problem and have the ability to effectively warn and educate victims of what is really going on. It is disappointing to me and others that you don’t more effectively confront this problem.
If you are sincerely ignorant of this problem, I suggest you read about it at: https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/ If you are aware of the problem, I think you have an obligation to do more to warn people. I have tried contacting buyers of these sellers to warn them and have had several confirm their devices were fake.
Ebay policy limits me to only contacting 5 members a day so, I can’t reach many of the 1000’s of buyers of these devices who are being scammed. I can understand why ebay would not want random people having unlimited access to all the buyers on ebay; so, the only realistic way for people to be adequately warned is for ebay to do it.
Please take this problem seriously and put adequate warnings on your site with links to sites that can help people figure out what really has happened so they can take appropriate action. You could actually create an environment where fraud is quickly exposed and dealt with. It isn’t a matter of capability, it is a matter of will. What do you say?
Roger Mallory
FkingCh1na said
The user chongmaomaoabc in Ebay sell fake flash memories!
http://myworld.ebay.com/chongmaomaoabc
he sell 16GB memory , in REAL only 2GB!!!
ADD HIM TO BLACKLIST, DON’T BUY FROM THIS SELLER!
Cmop said
En mi USB de 16 Gb, no la puedo formatear, ayudenme!!
Este es el resultado de ChipGenius:
Device Name: +[H:]+Dispositivo de almacenamiento masivo USB(Generic Flash Disk 2.0 USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = 5136 PID = 4678
Serial Number: 5&&3777D4E9&&0&&4
Revision: 2.40
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: micov
Chip Part-Number: MW6208
Product Vendor: (N/A)
Product Model: (N/A)
Tools on Web: http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=113588
Espero su ayuda
InspectorTech said
Hola Cmop,
Por favor, consulte http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/
La categoría http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/category/flash-chip-vendor/micov/ ficha
Esta es la familia mayores de los proveedores de chips flash usb controlador fichas. Usted debe descargar un programa de formateo de bajo nivel. Algunos de los artículos tienen vínculos directos. Si la unidad flash USB de almacenamiento de chip no se reconoce que deben tratar en virtud de la nueva familia
http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/category/flash-chip-vendor/ameco/
la mayoría de los programas especiales reflashing se encuentran en el sitio ruso de descarga.
===============
Hi Cmop,
Please see http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/
The category tab http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/category/flash-chip-vendor/micov/
This is the older family for flash chip vendor of usb controller chips. You must download a low level formatting program. Some of the articles have direct links. If the usb flash drive storage chip is not recognized you should try the newer family under
http://fixfakeflash.wordpress.com/category/flash-chip-vendor/ameco/
most of the special reflashing programmes are found at the Russian site for download.
ViL said
I recently bought a 16gb mini flash drive from seller “cx0010” on eBay. It seems like a fake drive to me since it only hold 1gb safely.
here’s the info from chipgenius:
Device Name: +[O:]+USB Mass Storage Device(USB Flash Disk USB Device)
PnP Device ID: VID = EEEE PID = 1234
Serial Number: ABCDEF0907021046403
Revision: 1.00
Device Type: Standard USB device – USB2.0 High-Speed
Chip Vendor: Solid State System
Chip Part-Number: SSS6677
Product Vendor: USB
Product Model: (??:????U????????)
Tools on Web: http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=75735
I tried different researches and download different tools to restore it back to the real capacity, but no luck. Please help
InspectorTech said
Hi Vil,
Chip Vendor: Solid State System
Chip Part-Number: SSS6677
that is a really tough one. Did you visit the Russian site to see what they might have?
We don’t have anything at the fixfakeflash site yet for this chip vendor.
To Everyone
If you know something about:
Solid State System
Please let us know.
ITGuy said
The only information on this controller that I found was on a chinese site.
The translation indicates that it has a repair tool for the sss6677 controller.
If you google sss6677 repair tools the results are
Have not done any more research than this.
The link.
http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://download.csdn.net/sort/tag/SSS6677/1&ei=MRWMSo2fJ5LasgPrm53GCQ&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DSSS6677%2Bsoftware%2Bdownload%2Bcd%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
The latest mass production SSS6677 B5 Repair Tool Chinese Version
http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=31410
Taiwan U disk program SSS 6677 B5, the latest production tools in support of Intel 8GB chips, super-fast!
http://bbs.mydigit.cn/read.php?tid=27458
Vince Vuola said
2008.longfei_lu WATCH OUT!!!! he is selling fake flashes, i am not sure how to put him on the list to the left but i need to, no one on ebay notices it because they don’t put enough stuff on the flash drive, and then just leave positive feedback. But a couple people have put negative, watch out for him!
Tom Moore said
Thanks for all that you do. h2testw is a great resource. I try to get those that left positive eBay feedback for fake drives to use it.
That would be WAY easier if the h2testw.exe file were posted. LOTS of civilians cannot deal with a .zip file.
The zip file is only saving 409-214=195kb bytes anyway.
Thanks again.
curls said
I bought red heart 4 GB drive. I’ve paid but it hasn’t arrived yet.
Can someone tell me:
1. Is there a chance this is 4 GB not 2 GB? Are any of these 4 GB originally?
2. Can I get out of the sale & not loose money by refusing delivery?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270448608491&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
I’m fairly inexperienced at ebay & it’s rules & regs. It’s only $5 but if I’m being jipped I don’t want 1 cent going to this person.
I also bought a 16GB from hjstore. Thanks to someone’s negative FB on a different seller’s listing, I spotted these schemes before paying & talked the seller into cancelling the sale.
Thanks!
curls said
I think these efforts would be more successful if the information was more visible (to state the obvious.) I didn’t figure it out even after some snooping around. I came this this site only from one FB report.
By thoughts would be, to create throwaway accounts, to buy these from each new account, but immediately include feedback linked back to this site with words “caution possible fraud”. Don’t pay for the device & the account will get non-paying reports & such down. But if used just once as each new fraud sellers account lists these, people will finally have something to focus on.
Obviously ebay should be putting out alerts on flash drive & mp3 search results. One has to wonder about ebay. Meanwhile, you’ve got all the data here, it just needs to be visible before people buy.
Another aspect is to get one of these report pages linked to so much from other people that it has high ranking in google & shows up for searches on “flash drive.” Right now, a search didn’t show any of these sites.
To make this effective, you really need a new page, just a single simple one that summarizes the problem. Then links to all these others. People need something simple if they will get it quickly. Someone sent this summary to me & it was very useful:
http://reviews.ebay.com.au/Fake-USB-Keys_W0QQugidZ10000000012118059
I even sent it to the seller & talked them into cancelling the sale (I hadn’t paid yet.)
While I thoroughly looked at the sellers account & FB, I didn’t think to look at other similar products & search their feedback. So, that’s why it’s important to have this FB added to these accounts as soon as they start posting these. Just one FB would help a lot of people.
I’m thrilled people are working on this. I hope these ideas help.
kittyfireflash said
Hi Curls,
Yes the info is useful to readers. The SEO battle is one we study with a lot of care. You would be surprised just how much it is studied. Almost a full time job for one of our members.
Oh we have tried to promote our site inside of eBay. eBay forums. eBay Guides. Afterall it is the place to promote awareness. Many people got stern and sometimes extremely nasty warnings. Veiled threats. You can be sure people were NOT amused. I was also one roasted. A lot on the SOSFakeFlash Team were roasted or tortured too. Mostly for commenting in forums. Forums are for open exchange and dialogue right? Wrong, in eBay terms it is censored dialogue.
It is best if individual people who have guides would give us a proud mention at the top of their guides.
eBay has been around a lot longer than we have. Some of the old eBay guides as well. Climbing to the top of K2 is a challenge but we are working on it.
The more people link to us the better and the higher we will rise. Long url links such as https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/ are best.
curls said
Thanks. Yep, kind of figured you’d thought about all this.
I’ll have to write a guide. I asked this guide’s writer if he had considered adding links to your sites (just now).
While, I’m not surprised you got roasted by ebay, it is hard to believe they’d be actual obstacles to info on fraud. Instead they could solve the whole thing themselves so quickly.
I wonder if they realize they lose business over this. I’ll certainly be making ebay a last possible stop. Which means I won’t even be looking.
Well, lots of success to you! And I’ll pop in with results of my remaing purchase when I get it.
curls said
Not sure where to leave this on this site. I’d contacted you recently.
I bought a heart 4GB from Yes4all. It arrived DOA so I couldn’t test it. They gave me full refund once I wrote about DOA & potential fraud & that my charge company agreed to refund if they don’t make good. They are now asking me to ship it back but that I pay first & they’ll refund afterward. I’ve repeated a few times that I won’t. Finally left neutral warning feedback. I see two others gave postive feedback. The emails weren’t clearly fraud material, but as it’s going along they are looking more like it. A real person would have broken out in commentary to me by.
I bought a 16GB from HJStore. He cancelled win after I pointed out several fraud links & said I would report. He wanted positive feedback first but I said you can’t leave feedback after cancelling. I see another seller has left a negative Fraud for him on a drive by now. I posted a neutral to warn people. His emails were transparent.
I can’t report these on SOS because they aren’t proof of anything. However, I wanted to tell you what data I have. What a rotten problem. Amazing that people in places that could easily do something, aren’t.
Tony Saprano said
I found sosfakeflash site through a buyers comment on ebay.
After reviewing the sites scam list of ebay sellers for flash memory. I realize now, I made a big mistake thinking Ebay would police it’s sellers for fraud. The seller was listed on the sosfakeflash. and yes, I made a purchase from this Ebayer
I sent a email to Ebay and asked them to forward it to the CEO of the company. I asked them about the vast amount of flash memory fraud that was happening on Ebay (mostly from oversea sellers) I ask them to explain why their were not policing the comments to determine the memory flash fraud or comments to them about the situation. I advised them that I was going to write to the US Attorney General and make them aware that Ebay is allowing flash memory scams. I only hope it will bring attention to the problem.
Jim said
A year ago I bought a fake Sandisk from an Amazon seller. I knew that Ebay items are often fake, but didn’t expect it from Amazon – albeit a ‘seller’.
I still have the details. Are you interested?
Regards, Jim