How To Use Site
The site tries to be simple and powerful – not artistic or pretty. We concentrated on functionality.
Home
Always click on this to return to our main page list. List of Most recent posts. Up to 25 articles. Most only show the begining of the post. You need to , you need to click on Read the rest of this post… to see the rest of the article. This important. We often do not display the models of fake flash devices on the first page.
Search
Just type in a word and press the enter key or search. The search is internal SOSFakeFlash. This is very important if you are looking for information on a seller.
Comments
Don’t be shy! You are welcome to comment on a post! It is a great way to exchange information. Unlike many “blogs” it actually acts like a forum. Only you get to say a lot more – we don’t limit your space. It is important to share – it helps others. You don’t have to agree with us – we are fair and welcome everyone’s opinion. Some times your comment can spark an article because what you said was so important.
Yes, you have to put in an email address . No, we aren’t spying on you. We had to select this option to prevent the site from being spammed and to be able to detect and trace attacks. If you look at the right column at the bottom – you can see just how many have been blocked! If you chose to use a fake email address, remember we have no way of contacting you.
You can help out. Once you have commented and it is released, you are free to add additional comments on the same post. If you never commented on a post, it is held for review. It has to be checked to prevent spamming engines. We try to release comments as quickly as we can. You are welcome to paste in url addresses to things, but you need to know they will be held for review. The reason? This is what spamming engines do. They try to hijack posts or put offensive subject matter in comments – you can use your imagination to think of what that could be. Please do not use a post to communicate over and over again because you were approved, use the right post, even if you have to be reapproved, otherwise you confuse readers.
You comments are vital to us. It tells us what people are interested in. This site is monitored by eBay and PayPal and others – so you have the opportunity to let them all know just how you feel! Some of our best information came from comments left. Share. Vent. Inform! Express yourself.
Calendar
Days when posts are added are in bold. Click and you will see what was written for that day. You can click back to earlier months too.
Categories
Posts are filed under categories. Some many be filed under more than one category. This is often overlooked by people. Make sure you make the most of this. It saves time.
Archives
Posts by previous months, the last month first. Click to see what was added for that month.
Sites
Fake Flash News I – News, Suspects and Interesting Articles.
Fight Flash Fraud – The Sentinal Site. Suspected sellers are first reported here. Interesting Articles.
Fix Fake Flash Devices – Information on repairing fake flash devices
Flash Drive Facts – Information on Flash Devices, Articles, Catologues of Known Counterfeit Flash Devices, Especially Brand Names.
SOSFakeFlash – The main public site. Alerts, News, Articles, Self Help Information.
We’ve grown. Each site is specialized. One, Fight Flash Fraud is the early detection system. Our site is more oriented into documented facts. The interesting things is – what shows up that that site soon becomes confirmed at ours! For news oriented articles see Fake Flash News , for known solutions to fixing fake flash devices you should go to Fix Fake Flash Devices because it could save you a lot of time. Click on one of the sites in our site list and a new window will open.
Quick Links
Links to some of the most important information at your finger tips.
Recent Posts
The most recent posts. You won’t see many titles as the titles are long. Necessary to shout for search engines.
Top Posts
Posts that are the most popular.
Left Side Menu, Right Side Menu
You see comments, comments left at other sites. You will also see some of the most recent articles published at the other sites with their titles. Click and you will be taken to that site.
Blog Stats
How many people have vistied the site. SOSFakeFlash made it’s website debut on August 29th, 2008. We haven’t yet linked in a lot of search engines. That will be coming in time.
RSS
If you are using a recent browser – you can subscribe to posts and comments. This way you will automatically know when we publish something new!
SOSFakeFlash 
alisia said
i just bought a 16gb flash from ebay. i was checking the sellers feedback, and most are positive comments, however a couple said that it was a fake card with only 2gb. i then found this site
i want to check my flash as soon as it arrives as well as the ones i already have, but i can figure out how to on the site, could someone tell me how?
kittyfireflash said
There is info for the software you need in the most popular post:
https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/h2testw-14-gold-standard-in-detecting-usb-counterfeit-drives/
It’s pretty easy to use and the post has a translation link at the bottom to english for the software. It runs in english, if you select the option.
alisia said
excellent, thankyou very much!!
🙂
joev888 said
I just brought a 16GB Kingston Datatraveler,
on Ebay From lxmei0908 when I checked it it was only 2GB.
After checking on the seller, This Guy has also done others with the same Item.
Snowflake said
PayPal do not accept test results from the program “H2testw” as being third party and independant documentation of a fake flash drive.
Does anyone else have the same expirience?
I had bought three drives, all of them fake unfortunately. One seller gave me the money back without further comments. For the two others I had to make an official dispute.
I have then been struggling with PayPal for months and even got them to reopen one of the cases twice, until they came back with the response that this site and the testprogram was not evidence enough of the drive being fake.
Any comments and feed back is welcome…
kittyfireflash said
Hi Snowflake,
Ooooooh! How often have we heard such nonsence from PayPal. If you dig through this site you will find that people have often been singled out for the run around. We have a few email addresses loaded with similar information going back 9 months. There seem to be so many different “PayPals” – they have no consistent policy.
And in the UK people dug deep and in consultation were told a “third party” would use exactly the type of software we recommend. Frankly you are being jerked around. Not the first, not the last.
See: https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/paypal-apologizes-to-ebayer-ordered-return-counterfeit-items-using-postal-services-fake-flash-ebay-sellers/
Where paypal apologized to an ebay member. The issue here is that a usb flash drive is not the Mona Lisa, or a Rembrandt . It is technology and computer programs test technology.
SnowFlake, do you have a digital camera? Are these drives easy to open? You could try to open them very carefully and see if you could identify the controllers and flash chips. In my case, guess what I found on the flash drive chip? Quality control stickers with? 2GB circled. Pretty clear they could not be 8GB if the factory QC said 2GB. I would photograph as I went along. In many cases, depending on the chips you can hunt down the true size.
Is it any wonder that we present PayPal in such a dim light?
They want you to go away Snowflake. Don’t melt and don’t give in.
BTW for PayPal – we never wrote the program. A German computer magazine had it commissioned. Now why would a computer magazine do that? And make sure to offer it FREE? Obviously the Germans realized there was a really nasty problem out there a number of years ago and knew how difficult it was to identify. That is why H2testw was created to help people identify – it is the third party. It is impartial and only looks at things from a technical point of view. When people then disassemble the drives, surprise! They find that the program reported exactly what the flash chip size really was.
matthew steele said
this is what i have done when paypal ask you to send back to the supplier & yes i got my money back from paypal
1. call paypal – say that you are not happy sending item back
2. tell paypal that this seller has put fake software on there – tell them this has been in my machine – am i sending back this stick & now they have all my deatils
3. paypal will for a letter of authenticity & ask that the stick is destroyed
4. i went into my local computer shop told them of the situation & asked them that i needed a letter for paypal – they did so free of charge even though i put down 2 quid on the table
hope this help
Rachel said
Hi guys, I’ve recently discovered your site. I was intending on selling these 500GB USB Flash drives on e-bay. So I bought one for myself first to try it out. As it turns out they are indeed fake.
Now to clarify, I did not know they were fake, I did suspect something might be wrong so I bought one for myself to try it out first. I guess this could also be the case with other people selling these on e-bay. A lot of seller’s on e-bay these days are just using drop-shipping so they don’t really know if it’s real or fake. That’s why returning them is such a hassle. You buy it from a guy in Texas but you return it to someone in China.
Anyway, I’m out to repair my drive. I’m downloading AlCorMp right now. I will also be filing a dispute on paypal I will try and update everybody how it goes. Thanks!
Randy said
Rachel, could you expand on the “drop-shipping”. I’ve heard this comment before but have not researched.
This is interesting, say if the Ebay seller in is the USA and the drop shipper is in China, I expect that technically the USA Ebay seller is classified as an Importer and subject to the applicable laws (i.e. packaging has country of orgin labelling etc). The ebay seller will we the one faceing the legal problems, while the drop shipper being in China is removed from the whole problem.
Also, the drop shippers could be a major source of fake flash.
Rachel said
Hi Randy,
Yes, I’m beginning to think that the drop shippers are the major source of the fake flash because they mostly don’t screen what they sell. Specially if they are getting it from a supplier they trust.
“Drop-shipping” is a type of agreement where you sell an item that a different seller(supplier) has and just add a mark-up value to the item, that way you make a profit.
The e-bay seller then wouldn’t really have the item, in fact the item could be on a different country and the e-bay seller wouldn’t even have to touch the item to make a sale. A good example is if I sell you a “digicam”, after you pay me I will then contact and pay the “drop-shipper” but instead of sending the items to me, the “drop-shipper” will send the item to the address I specify which in this case will be you.
So I could be in London and you could be in New York, but you will receive the item and surprise! it’s not from London but from the address of the “drop-shipper”.
A lot of e-bay sellers actually do this, mostly power sellers. It’s a good way to start an online shop without having the need to physically stock up on the items you’re selling. It’s just that you have to SCREEN what you sell if you wan’t to make an honest living. The problem is if you have a trusted supplier that suddenly sells the fake USB’s and you add them to your shop you end up selling the fake USBs for the supplier.
Micro said
I cannot apply this post to any specific seller, this comment is more of a question for buyers (and sellers) that have had cause to REPORT a listing to eBay.
Did you get a response from their automatic email sender for EVERY report you made?
Did you get any responses with a different message showing your report handled by another section of the Trust & Safety section?
Did you notice that when you reported more than 2 listings, you only got ONE response?
Is eBay running a daily “turnstile” where only the FIRST report gets accepted, the rest go ignored?
If so it this a way eBay are using to reduce the load on the T & S staff, of just a way to piss you off?
Comments please…
red said
Is there an easy way to find a comment that has rolled off the ‘Recent Comments’ list? I can’t remember the article title, so am unable to search that way.
Thanks.
InspectorTech said
@Red
Unfortunately not. If you know the seller, you could use search box. We can, but need keywords. Best to use “subscribe” to comments, entries (RSS feeds). Good way to be notified.
red said
InspectorTech, ok thanks. I was afraid that was the case.
InspectorTech said
@Red
You can type in a series of words. Usually it will find. Example.
by order of paypal
you get about 5 posts, one has comments on it. If you check, you will see comment where
by order of paypal
occurs.
The_Flash said
If you can remember any key words or phrases from the article or comment you’re looking for, you might be able to find it by leveraging Google’s “site:” tag. Go to the Google website and input the following (but with the words you recall, rather than my example text :P);
site:sosfakeflash.wordpress.com “key” “words” “and also phrases”
red said
InspectorTech & The_Flash ……. Thanks!
That worked. Found what I was looking for.